Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ben Wolf brings with him nearly 20 years of experience in transforming scientific breakthroughs into tangible benefits for patients. We sat down with him to discuss his background, what attracted him to Isomorphic Labs, and his ambitions for his new role.
Ben, welcome to Isomorphic Labs! To start, could you share a bit about your professional journey and what has driven your career to date?
Thanks, it's great to be joining the team!
I'm a physician-scientist by training, and over the years, what I've really tried to focus on is transforming scientific breakthroughs into meaningful benefit for patients. Throughout my career I’ve taken medicines from the laboratory and worked to get them through the process of human testing, proof of concept and ultimately registration.
Most recently I was Chief Medical Officer at Relay Therapeutics where I led the company's clinical trials. Before this I was at KSQ Therapeutics, advancing a CRISPR-based cancer therapeutic pipeline, and also held senior clinical development roles at Blueprint Medicines, where I led multiple precision medicine programs for kinase inhibitors to successful registration. Much earlier in my career I was in clinical and translation positions at Genentech, Amgen, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, and ImmunoGen.
In all of these roles I’ve particularly focused on trying to generate that initial breakthrough which shows that the science is working in humans as rapidly as possible.
What was it about Isomorphic Labs that particularly interested you and made you feel it was the right next step?
Well, there were two main factors. The first was that Iso has world-class science with limitless potential, and the impact of the technology Iso has built is so great, that it was an opportunity I just had to explore.
The second factor was the people. Technology is great, but the best way to get medicines to patients is by coupling remarkable people with remarkable technology. The world-class team at Iso is also remarkably humble and easy to get along with, which is critical for developing medicines.
With all of that in mind, what are you most excited about in your new role?
I've always sought to bring breakthrough science to patients, and Iso offers the biggest opportunity to do this – with AlphaFold heritage and now the unified drug design engine can reach any target, any indication, any modality and open up new avenues for treating diseases. I’m excited to ultimately turn the insights and breakthroughs delivered through the generalisable platform into impact for patients.
That sounds great! What kind of team are you hoping to build to help you do this?
Ultimately I want to create a vibrant culture that essentially helps to bring breakthrough science to patients, but in this case, using an AI and ML-based approach. I’d like to build a team that's looking to employ this great technology to get medicines to patients as fast as possible.
My role in this team is to provide the vision and strategy and then support talented people to deliver and act on it. Of course, hiring people with a range of experiences and expertise to help advance the field in all aspects of clinical development is important. But I’m also really looking forward to hiring people who are passionate about the mission and the potential of what we can achieve together.
And finally, you’ll be setting up our US presence. What are you looking forward to when it comes to growing Iso’s presence there?
First and foremost, I’m looking forward to tapping into the talent that the Boston and Cambridge area offers across all aspects of drug development – from discovery, through translational, through clinical, through commercial. It's a fantastic environment for biomedical talent.
As well as talent, the world-class academic institutions and hospitals nearby are also fantastic. While I’ve lived and worked in Boston, I’ve been involved in trials with participation from some of the leading hospitals in the area like Mass General, Brigham and Women’s and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. It’s a great place to be!
We're incredibly excited to have Ben on board and look forward to the impact he'll have in advancing our mission to one day solve all disease with the help of AI.
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