Ryan Bethencourt

Ryan Bethencourt is a scientist, entrepreneur, and biohacker^[1] best known for his work as program director and venture partner at Indie.Bio, a biology accelerator and early stage seed fund.^[2] Bethencourt was head of life sciences at the XPRIZE foundation,^[3] a co-founder and CEO of Berkeley Biolabs, a biotech accelerator,^[4] and Halpin Neurosciences, an ALS therapeutics-focused biotech company.^[5] Bethencourt co-founded Counter Culture Labs, a citizen science nonprofit,^[6] and Sudo Room, a hacker space based in downtown Oakland, California.^[7] Ryan has worked over the last decade in the biopharmaceutical industry to partner on and develop novel drugs from first IND submission to FDA approval with many major biopharmas including Pfizer, AZ, J&J, Sanofi, Takeda, Amgen, Genentech, and other companies in the U.S., E.U., and Japan. He’s also served as COO at Genescient Pharmaceuticals, a longevity focused biotech startup and CEO of Halpin Neurosciences, an ALS focused startup. Ryan’s work has been featured in Wired, TechCrunch, Forbes, the San Francisco Business Times, and other publications. He regularly speaks on biotech innovation and writes for Biocoder, an O’Reilly Media publication.^[8]

He was previously the Life Sciences head at the XPRIZE Foundation, the co-founder and CEO of Berkeley Biolabs and the co-founder of Sudo Room and Counter Culture Labs

Education

Yale University | Summer Undergraduate Research Student, Organelle assembly | 1997 – 1997

Stanford University School of Medicine | Summer Undergraduate Research Student, Brain Tumor Angiogenesis | 1998 – 1998

Warwick University | BSc, Biological Sciences (Molecular Genetics) | 1997 – 2000

Cambridge University | Masters in Bioscience Enterprise (MBE), Business/Biotech | 2002 – 2003 This masters course was the first of its kind in the UK (launched in 2002) and it was a fusion of the MBA/Biotech courses and launched in partnership with Harvard and MIT.

The course covered the latest advances in biological and medical science, together with business management and the ethical, legal and regulatory issues associated with bringing scientific advances to market. Activities and Societies: Cambridge-MIT analyst club

The University of Edinburgh | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Candidate, Center for Regenerative Medicine | 2003 – 2003 Worked on DNA binding proteins, non-specific homeodomain transcription factors and the mechanism by which they can induce highly specific responses which guide early embryo and embryonic stem cell differentiation into mesendoderm.

Mesendoderm is an embryonic tissue that both patterns the anterior-posterior neural axis and gives rise to organs such as the liver and pancreas.

University of California, Berkeley | Certificate, Project Management for Biopharmaceuticals | 2011 – 2011

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References