The New York Genome Center (NYGC) is pleased to announce the election of Eli Casdin and Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, MACP, to its Board of Directors.
Eli Casdin is the Chief Investment Officer of Casdin Capital, LLC, a New York City-based investment firm focused on the life sciences and healthcare industry. A recognized industry leader with strong experience in disruptive technologies and successful business models in the life sciences and healthcare sectors, he founded Casdin Capital in 2011. Previously, Mr. Casdin was a Vice President and Analyst at Alliance Bernstein and a member of its life sciences and healthcare investment group. He has also held positions at Bear Stearns and at Cooper Hill Partners, one of the earliest biotechnology-focused investment firms.
Mr. Casdin earned his BS from Columbia University and his MBA from Columbia Business School, and now serves on the Board of Directors of Columbia University’s School of General Studies. The author of The Dawn of Molecular Medicine, he serves on the Board of Directors for Exact Sciences, Prominex Dx, Genomatica, and Tenaya Therapeutics. Mr. Casdin also lends his expertise and guidance to several early state therapeutics companies as a board observer.
Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, MACP, is Dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine and Senior Vice President of Health Sciences at Stony Brook University, an internationally recognized research institution and one of America’s most dynamic public universities, as well as one of the NYGC’s Institutional Founding Members. Dr. Kaushansky is a renowned teacher, clinician, and biomedical researcher. He is a champion of the need to train more physician-scientists who can bridge the gap between the laboratory and the clinical arena, and translate research discoveries into improved treatments and technologies for the prevention, diagnosis and management of disease. Dr. Kaushansky and his lab have cloned several of the genes important in the growth and differentiation of blood cells, including thrombopoietin, a key regulator of stem cell and platelet production.
Dr. Kaushansky earned his BS and MD degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed his internship in Internal Medicine, residency, and fellowship in Hematology at the University of Washington. Before joining Stony Brook University, Dr. Kaushansky was the Helen M. Ranney Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego, and before that, he served as Chief of Hematology at the University of Washington Medical Center. Dr. Kaushansky has been recognized for his scientific and clinical contributions by election to several honor societies, including the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He currently serves as Lead Editor for Williams Hematology, and serves as a major reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and for many major scientific periodicals.
