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Benjamine Liu
CEO at Formation Bio
Benjamine Liu is the co-founder and CEO of Formation Bio, a biotechnology company focused on using AI and technology to improve drug development and clinical trials.12 Some key points about Liu:
Education and Early Career
- Graduated from Yale University, where he received the college's highest honor at graduation (the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize)12
- Earned an MPhil with distinction in Computational Biology from the University of Cambridge as a Paul Mellon Fellow1
- Received his DPhil (PhD) at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, focusing on using machine learning and AI for developing diagnostics and therapeutics for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease12
Formation Bio
- Co-founded and currently serves as CEO of Formation Bio12
- The company aims to create a "pharma company of the future" driven by tech and AI to bring new treatments to patients faster and more efficiently1
- Liu was motivated to start Formation Bio after observing how clinical trials bottlenecked the development of new treatments during his graduate work1
Advisory Role
- Serves as an Advisor to Harvard Business School's MS/MBA Program in Biotechnology1
Achievements and Recognition
- Awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for excellence in science and mathematics2
- Received the Josephine DeKarman Fellowship, recognizing excellence in research and scholarship2
- Participated in the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of New Champions in Science and Technology2
Liu's background combines expertise in computational biology, AI, and drug development, which he leverages in his role at Formation Bio and as an advisor to Harvard's MS/MBA Biotechnology program.
Highlights
We are excited to announce our $372MM Series D financing led by Andreessen Horowitz with major participation from Sanofi. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Lachy Groom, and Emerson Collective also joined the round, along with new investors SV Angel and FPV Ventures.
At Formation Bio, we believe that building a culture and team that continuously innovates across the intersection of AI, tech, and pharma is one of our biggest competitive advantages. We are grateful to be working with two organizations at the forefront of AI, tech, and pharma: Andreessen Horowitz and Sanofi.
We are excited to welcome Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at a16z and Alfred Lin, Partner at Sequoia to our Board of Directors, alongside existing board director Michael Moritz, Sr. Advisor to Sequoia Heritage and board observer Kareem Zaki, Partner at Thrive Capital.
I’m grateful to our team members, advisors, and partners for all of their efforts to get us to where we are today but even more excited to share the journey ahead to create this generation’s tech and AI-native Pharma company.
https://lnkd.in/euhi37n7
Today is an exciting day for me and my co-founder Linhao Zhang, as we announce that TrialSpark has rebranded to Formation Bio. From the very beginning, we have envisioned building the pharma company of the future, one that marries the worlds of technology and pharma and built around velocity and first-principles thinking to ultimately transform how we bring new treatments to patients. We are progressing toward that goal, and have been operating as a clinical stage pharmaceutical company for some time with our own pipeline of drugs. Now, our brand reflects that identity.
I am so proud of our teams, whose creativity, collaboration, and focus steer every innovation and milestone here at Formation Bio.
While we know that fundamentally transforming how we bring new treatments to patients faster is no easy task and that we have a lot of work ahead of us, we know the impact this will make for our world will be profound. We are so grateful to all our partners, team members, mentors, advisors, and investors for their continued support and look forward to sharing the journey ahead to create this generation's tech-driven pharma company.
Sequoia Capital, Michael Moritz, Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, S32, Rehan Verjee, Alex Gorsky, Paul Hudson, Casdin Capital, LLC Yosemite, Lachy Groom, Sanofi, Merck Group, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Joe Jimenez, Aditum Bio, Felicis, Mantis Venture Capital, Don DeGolyer, Emerson Collective, Wesley Chan, FPV Ventures, Pegah Ebrahimi, William R., Joshua Kushner, John Doerr, Kareem Zaki, Sound Ventures, Lee Cooper, Julie Grant, Doug Schantz, Dr. Matthias Müllenbeck, MBA, Ling Wong, ArrowMark Partners, Stefano Quintini, Mark Fishman, Jay Parikh, Michael Esquivel, and Sam Altman
