Investment and Collaboration Strategies in Cell and Gene Therapy

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Elaine Cheung brings over 20 years of business experience in the life sciences, focused on corporate & business development, strategy, and operations to Lyell. Ms Cheung spent most of her career to date advancing products and strategies in clinical genomics, beginning at Genomic Health (now Exact Sciences), where she focused on growing the company’s OncoType Dx™ product portfolio in multiple disease indications, and international commercial expansion. She was the business development lead for Illumina’s Oncology Business Unit and executed the company’s OncoPanel transactions with AstraZeneca, Janssen, Merck KGaA and Sanofi Aventis. While at Illumina, she also led the spin-out efforts of GRAIL from Illumina in 2016. As a founding employee and Head of Business Development at GRAIL, she implemented the partnerships that enabled large scale clinical trials, and the strategic pharma collaborations and investments that comprised a major portion of GRAIL’s record-breaking $900M+ Series B financing. Immediately prior to joining Lyell, she was a VP at Mindstrong Health, a digital healthcare company focused on improving clinical outcomes in severe mental illness utilizing touchscreen-based digital biomarkers. Ms Cheung earned a BS in Biological Sciences and an MS in Management Science & Engineering, both from Stanford University, where she was also a Mayfield Fund Fellow.

Arjun Goyal, MD, MPhil, MBA, is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at Vida Ventures.From 2014 through 2017, Arjun was an investment professional at 5AM Ventures, a life science focused venture firm. Dr Goyal was a Board Observer at Aprea AB, Spyryx, Pear Therapeutics, Portal Instruments, Entrada, and Homology Medicines (NASDAQ: FIXX). At 5AM Ventures, Dr Goyal was part of the founding team of Homology Medicines, a genetic medicines company and he also served as Acting VP of Business Development at Pear Therapeutics. Prior to joining 5AM Ventures, Dr Goyal was Co-Founder and CEO, Foresight Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company developing hormonal treatments for infectious diseases.Dr Goyal received his BS in Medical Science, Diploma in French and his MD degree from the Universities of Melbourne and Oxford.  He completed his postgraduate medical training in Internal Medicine at the University of Sydney.  He received his MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from Cambridge on a Commonwealth Scholarship and his MBA from Harvard Business School.  Dr Goyal has received several awards for his work including the American Australian Association Education Fellowship, Robert Kaplan Life Science Fellowship, Oxford Clarendon Scholarship, Gates Cambridge Scholarship and Reg Waite Award for Young Australians. He is a co-inventor on one patent and has served on the editorial board of an international scientific journal.Dr Goyal is a Board Observer at Pionyr Immunotherapeutics and serves on the Committee for the American Australian Association Education Fellowship and LifeTech Advisory Board of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce, and was on the 2016 NCI Review Committee for SBIR grants.

Michael Polansky is the CEO of the Parker Group, the San Francisco-based organization that manages the business, investment, political and charitable interests of Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist Sean Parker. As CEO, Mr Polansky’s role is to build the business, organizational or investment models to support Mr Parker’s vision to find creative and novel solutions to challenges spanning a wide variety of areas across technology, life sciences, economic development, civic engagement and public policy.Since 2008, Mr Polanksy has worked closely with Mr Parker to build a large portfolio of private technology companies. In 2015, he helped launch the Parker Foundation, a $600 million private philanthropy vehicle dedicated to the aggressive pursuit of large-scale systemic change in Life Sciences, Global Public Health, and Civic Engagement. In 2016, he co-founded the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, an unprecedented collaboration between the country’s leading immunologists and cancer centers. In 2019 Mr Polansky co-founded ArsenalBio, a cell therapy company in San Francisco led by Ken Drazen. Mr Polansky is also a co-founder of the Economic Innovation Group.Prior to joining the Parker Group, Mr Polansky was a Senior Investment Associate at Bridgewater and a Principal at Founders Fund where he focused on consumer internet and emerging technology. A widely- recognized speaker, Mr Polanksy has appeared at Bloomberg Tech, Fortune Brainstorm Health, and Variety Magazine’s Venture Capital and New Media Summit. Mr Polansky serves on the board of several technology companies including the Economic Innovation Group and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. He is a graduate from Harvard University with a degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, and previously worked as an investor at Founders Fund and Bridgewater Associates.