David Berry (inventor)

David Berry (born February 10, 1978) is an American innovator, entrepreneur, inventor, CEO, and venture capitalist. Berry has co-founded and helped build over 25 companies in life sciences, technology, and sustainability including category-defining companies such as Seres Therapeutics, Indigo Agriculture, and Axcella Health. He was selected as a 2014 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.[1] He was named as the Innovator of the Year by the MIT Technology Review TR35 list of one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35 for his creation of LS9.[2] Berry was a founding member of the Leadership Council of the United Nations Sustainable Development Network, which authored the Sustainable Development Goals.[3] He speaks globally on topics such as innovation and entrepreneurship.

David Berry
David Berry on October 11, 2015
Born (1978-02-10) February 10, 1978
New York City, New York
EducationMIT, Harvard Medical School
OccupationCeo, innovator, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, inventor,

Early life and education

Berry was born in New York City in 1978. He graduated Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY in 1996. Berry graduated with a S.B. Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. He earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Robert Langer and Ram Sasisekharan, completing his dual degree through the Harvard-MIT Program of Health Sciences and technology in just over 5 years as one of the fastest combined degrees in the history of the program.[4] Berry was recognized in 2005 with the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for invention and innovation.[5] He also started multiple companies during his graduate education.

Berry has been an author of 14 scientific papers and over 200 patents and applications.

Career

Berry joined Flagship Pioneering in 2005, a Cambridge, Massachusetts based venture capital firm that creates and funds early-stage start-ups addressing unmet needs in healthcare and sustainability. The firm has more than $2.4 billion under management. [6] Since inception, Flagship has conceived and launched over 40 first-in-class companies through VentureLabs and supported another nearly 50 best-in-class. Berry has been described "a rising star of the Boston-area venture capital scene," [7] and "one of the most brilliant thinkers." [8] Berry has founded over 20 companies at Flagship including Seres Therapeutics (NADAQ: MCRB), Evelo Biosciences, Joule Unlimited, Axcella Health, Eleven Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: EBIO), Indigo Agriculture, and LS9 (acquired by Renewable Energy Group).[9] Berry additionally launched category-defining companies including T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ: TTOO), Seventh Sense Biosystems, and KSQ Therapeutics.[10]

Berry speaks on topics including entrepreneurship, innovation, life sciences, sustainability and beyond. Berry frequently talks about the biology century and has been cited as referring to biotech as being at the first big inflection point since the foundation of Genentech.[11]

Honors and awards
  • Selected as a 2014 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.[1]
  • Recognized in 2013 in the PharmaVOICE 100, a list of the 100 most inspiring people in the life-sciences industry[12]
  • Honored by the Boston Business Journal as one of the 2012 Class of 40 under 40.[13]
  • Recognized in 2008 by the US State Department as one of 12 Innovators Helping Reshape Reality along with J. Craig Venter and Tim Berners-Lee.[14]
  • Named as the Innovator of the Year from the MIT Technology Review TR35 list of one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35 in 2007.[2]
  • 2005 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for invention and innovation.[5]

Other affiliations

Berry is a founding member of the Leadership Council of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which authored the Sustainable Development Goals.[15] The Sustainable Development Goals contains 17 goals and 169 targets agreed to by 193 countries at the United Nations[16] to foster sustainable development with a 2030 target.[17]

Berry is a Trustee at the Hackley School,[18] and was previously a member of the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, its board, from 2006-2011.[19]. David has also served as a board member of the Juventas New Music Ensemble.[20] and of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

Company creation

Seres Therapeutics

In 2012, Berry founded Seres Therapeutics, a company that develops a new class of therapeutics based on insights into the biology of the human microbiome.[21] Seres is pioneering a new approach to treating microbiome diseases by catalyzing a shift from a disease state to one of health building upon a functional assessment associated with disease and health to construct a consortium of organisms to enable the shift.[22] The company raised over $130M as a private company, including a $65M investment from Nestle Health Sciences.[23] Seres publicly listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol MCRB in June 2015, raising $134M.[24] The company's stock had the second best first day performance of any stock after its IPO since 2000, reaching a valuation of $2B.[25] Seres signed a partnership valued at $2B with Nestle Health Sciences in early 2016.[26]

Seres lead, SER-109 was advanced into the clinic for recurrent C. difficile [27] where it clinically cured 29 out of 30 patients.[28] The FDA has granted SER-109 Orphan Drug, as well as Breakthrough Therapy, designations.[29] SER-109 is currently in a Phase 3 trial for recurrent C. difficile.[30]

The company is also developing therapeutics for ulcerative colitis, metabolic diseases, and other infectious disease.[31] A Phase 1b clinical trial was launched testing SER-287 in ulcerative colitis in 2015[32][33] which showed positive objective responses in its topline readout.[34]

Seres has developed the first therapeutic product composed of a defined consortium of microorganisms, and has launched a clinical trial with SER-262 in primary C. difficile infection which will read out in the first half of 2018.[35]

Indigo

In 2013, Berry founded Indigo to pioneer microbial solutions that naturally promote plant health and improve agricultural production by harnessing the beneficial microbes residing within plants.[36] Plants live in harmony with their microbiome. The plant microbiome has been an unappreciated means to change agriculture for the better.[37] The company raised over $200M in 2017 with a valuation of over $1.4B, [38] having raised one of Boston's biggest financing rounds in 2017 and making it a unicorn, [39] after having raised the largest private agtech financing round in history in 2016 at 100M.[40] The company has raised over $350M since inception. Indigo's products have been shown to improve yields by 10+% including in a 50,000 acre field trial in Texas.[41]

Axcella Health
Axcella Health
Traded asNASDAQ: AXLA
Russell 2000 Index component

In 2009, Berry founded Axcella Health, which is pioneering defined amino acid combinations (DAACs) as a new therapeutic product class that leverages the preferred and essential roles than amino acids have in health and disease.[42] The company's unique platform has allowed it to rapidly generate multiple clinical candidates across liver diseases, neurological conditions, muscle diseases, and beyond, having completed over 18 clinical trials. Former CEO of Sanofi, Chris Viehbacher, joined the company's Board of Directors,[43] along with Greg Behar, CEO of Nestle Health Sciences.[44] The company has raised over $130M, and was named by Forbes as the hottest healthcare startup in 2015.[45][46]

KSQ Therapeutics

Berry launched KSQ Therapeutics in 2015 along with academic founders David M. Sabatini, Jonathan Weissman, and Bill Hahn. The company, helmed by David Meeker, the former CEO of Sanofi-Genzyme, has raised $76M in financing, and is pioneering CRISPRomics as a unique tool to define the precise function that each human gene plays across a multitude of diseases.[47] KSQ's approach has allowed it to advance a pipeline of cancer and immune disease drug programs against novel therapeutic nodes to pioneer a new set of disease-tailored medicines.

Evelo Therapeutics

In 2014, Berry founded Evelo Therapeutics,[48] to pioneer monoclonal microbial--single bacteria that can drive the immune system specifically, reproducible, in a dose-dependent manner. Monoclonal microbials leverage the privileged interface between bacteria and the immune system in order to achieve unprecedented immune control. The company is developing therapeutics to treat cancer as well as autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.[49][50] Evelo has raised over $80M led by Flagship Pioneering, and also including Google Ventures and Celgene including a $50M Series B in 2017.[51]

Joule Unlimited

In 2007, Berry founded Joule Unlimited, which is developing Solar Fuels—drop-in fuels produced directly from the sun. Joule is pioneering solar fuels through a new technology that converts sunlight, carbon dioxide, and salt water into drop-in fuels for prices as low as $20.[52] The company recruited former Total CEO and Alcatel CEO Serge Tchuruk as its CEO.[53] In March 2010 [54] and again in March 2011, Joule was named by Technology Review as one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies. Joule was named as one of the 10 most important emerging technologies in 2011.[55] Joule's unique and innovative approach to fuels led to its being named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2012[56] and to its receiving the Silver Medal in the 2011 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards.[57] Joule's technology has now been successfully scaled to a demonstration facility,[58] and the company has announced a commercial partnership with Audi.[59] Berry has been recognized multiple times as one of the top people in bioenergy by Biofuels Digest.[60]

LS9

In 2005, Berry founded LS9, with Chris Somerville, Jay Keasling, and George M. Church, which uses synthetic biology to engineer microorganisms to covert sustainable, plant-based materials into low-carbon fuels and chemicals. LS9 has successfully built on technologies he invented with other co-founders to produce a scalable platform for renewable fuels and chemicals.[61] This technology was successfully scaled to a fully operational 135,000L facility in Okeechobee, Florida.[62] The impact and importance of LS9's technology led to its being named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2008[63] and its being awarded the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s highest environmental honor.[64] LS9 was acquired by Renewable Energy Group in 2014.[65]

See also

References
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