Board of Directors

Laura Tadvalkar is a Principal on the venture team at RA Capital Management. Laura works on new company creation and early-stage investments and serves on the board of directors of Expansion Therapeutics, Hemab, and Aliada Therapeutics. Laura has a B.S. in Chemistry from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Harvard University. Prior to RA, Laura was a Principal at MP Healthcare Venture Management. Prior to MP, she was a Consultant at Clarion Healthcare.

Jason Rhodes is a partner at Atlas Venture and focuses on creating and building novel therapeutics companies. He is the chairman and was the founding CEO of Generation Bio (NASDAQ: GBIO) and Dyne Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DYN). He is also on the boards of Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL), Gemini Therapeutics and Accent Therapeutics. He was the chairman and founding CEO of Disarm Therapeutics which was acquired by Eli Lilly in 2020.

Melissa McCracken, Ph.D., joined Nextech Invest Ltd. in 2019. Melissa is a scientist by training with a passion for emerging technologies in cancer therapies. Melissa is a board member of TYRA Biosciences (NASDAQ: TYRA), Alpha-9 Oncology, Alterome Therapeutics, Ambagon Therapeutics, A2 Biotherapeutics, K36 Therapeutics and a previous board member of ImaginAb and board observer of ProfoundBio, Silverback Therapeutics (now ARS Pharma NASDAQ:SPRY) and IconOVir Bio. Melissa was a Kauffman Fellow in Class 25.

Prior to Nextech, Melissa was a senior associate at Third Rock Ventures focusing on scientific due diligence, partnership development and new company formation in oncology and immunology. Melissa helped build and launch Celsius Therapeutics (Now AbbVie), a company focused on discovering precision therapeutics for oncology and autoimmune. Melissa has also worked within larger biotech organizations completing multiple internships in research and development at Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN).

Melissa holds a B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology from University of California, Davis, a Ph.D. in molecular and medical pharmacology from University of California, Los Angeles with her research focused on engineered immunity for cancer. Melissa also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University where her research focused on immuno-oncology.

Outside of Nextech, Melissa enjoys spending time with her young children.