Harvard Business School Announces Its 2025-2026 Blavatnik Fellows
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BOSTON—Harvard Business School (HBS) has named its 2025-26 Blavatnik Fellows and the program’s twelfth cohort. Launched in 2013, the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship is part of a gift to Harvard University from the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The Blavatnik Fellowship offers HBS alumni and Harvard-affiliated postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to advance new ventures around promising life science technologies and develop their leadership talents during a 12-month fellowship year. This unique opportunity allows fellows to work closely with leading biotech industry and biomedical authorities, receive programmatic guidance and mentorship, and join a community of entrepreneurs shaping the future of science. To date, Blavatnik Fellows have created 49 companies in biomedical industries including a novel enzymatic RNA synthesis platform, an immune system-driven dendritic cell therapy to combat cancer, new molecular technologies for the delivery of transdermal formulations, a lipid-targeting drug to treat cancer and neurodegenerative disorders, and AI-driven medical companions to help patients conquer sleep-related disorders and manage the symptoms during oncology treatment. They have collectively raised more than $537 million in funding and an additional $244 million from an IPO in June 2020. The Blavatnik Fellowship is supported by a key advisory board of 13 seasoned business and biotechnology leaders who serve as one-on-one mentors and provide strategic direction during the fellows' program year. “It is a pleasure to welcome this accomplished new cohort of Blavatnik Fellows, who bring an impressive range of academic and professional experiences into the program,” said Robert Huckman, the Howard Cox Faculty Chair of the HBS Health Care Initiative. “Their passion and expertise position them well as the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs who will impact the life sciences and health care. I look forward to supporting their journeys as they create new ventures and helping them thrive as they join Boston’s dynamic biotech ecosystem.” The 2025-2026 Blavatnik Fellows are: 
Erik Aznauryan (PhD 2021) is the co-founder and CEO of HarborSite, a genetic engineering platform company pioneering novel gene insertion tools to treat inherited and age-related diseases. A spinout from George Church’s lab, HarborSite leverages large-scale computational genome mining and high-throughput experimental screening to discover and engineer potent, safe enzymes capable of integrating full-length therapeutic genes into desired genomic locations. As a scientist-entrepreneur, Erik combines extensive domain expertise in the genome editing space with a profound interest in life science company creation. He earned his PhD in bioengineering from ETH Zurich, served as a venture fellow at Flagship Pioneering, and later joined the Wyss Institute at Harvard as a technology development fellow, where he secured multiple internal and external grants to advance HarborSite’s early progress and IP. As a 2025 Blavatnik Fellow, Erik will be validating HarborSite’s platform through in vivo proof-of-concept studies and building the foundation for strategic partnerships. 
Joseph Sedlak (MD/PhD 2025) is the co-founder and CEO of Adeno, a biotechnology company developing a first-in-class therapeutic targeting the underlying driver of 95 percent of colorectal cancers (CRC) and colonic adenomas. Supported by compelling preclinical data, Adeno aims to outperform standard chemotherapy while rejuvenating healthy colon tissue. Adeno builds on groundbreaking discoveries from Professor Omer Yilmaz’s Lab at MIT, where Joe completed his PhD. As a Blavatnik Fellow, Joe will lead Adeno toward clinical proof of concept in both familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and metastatic CRC. Previously, Joe co-founded Mercy BioAnalytics, serving as the founding CEO. There, Joe raised initial funding, recruited the founding team, and advanced a platform for early cancer detection, culminating in FDA “Breakthrough Device” designation for its ovarian cancer screening test and over $68 million in venture financing. Joe earned his BS in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan (summa cum laude), a PhD in biophysics from Harvard University, and an MD from Harvard Medical School. 
Cody Tranbarger (MS/MBA 2025) is the co-founder of Revision Bio, which is pioneering novel gene writing technologies, and founder, acting CEO of Mithril Medicine, which is developing antibody therapeutics for genetic diseases. As a fellow, he will continue to leverage the Harvard ecosystem—including Harvard’s Pagliuca Life Lab, where Revision has been incubating since its founding in 2023—to advance both companies’ efforts toward patients. Cody is also an entrepreneur-in-residence at Atlas Venture, a board member at Cure Rare Disease, and an advisor at Accelerating Breakthroughs in EB. Previously, Cody held leadership roles at Prime Medicine and Casdin Capital, and earned a BA in biology and economics from Amherst College. 
Christina Vosbikian (MBA 2025) is the founder and CEO of Coord Health, a healthcare startup focused on leveraging technology to support patients and providers across women’s health settings by delivering virtual lifestyle medicine interventions. Christina’s drive to improve women’s health care delivery stems from experience delivering humanitarian aid in Eastern Europe. She built upon this passion through digital women’s health operating roles in the United States, focusing on virtual patient-centered care and streamlining clinical workflows. At HBS, Christina co-led the Women’s Health Student Interest Group and spearheaded Harvard’s first-ever Women’s Health Summit, which brought over 100 top industry leaders to campus. She is dedicated to transforming how women access and engage with healthcare, alleviating OB/GYN burden and improving patient outcomes. As a fellow, Christina will be scaling Coord Health’s technology in clinical settings. She previously worked in private equity investing at Berkshire Partners and in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Christina holds a degree in public policy from Princeton University, with a minor in Eastern European studies. Christina is also a recipient of the Robert F. Jasse Award for entrepreneurship at Harvard. 
Oliver Weisser (MBA 2019) is the co-founder and CBO of Boston Interactome, a biotech company pioneering a new class of precision therapeutics by targeting the human protein interactome—an exponentially larger druggable space than the traditional druggable genome. Boston Interactome is powered by a proprietary platform developed by Dr. Soon Gang Choi at HMS that can modulate the interactions of multisubunit protein complexes, unlocking many first-in-class targets with the potential for significantly enhanced safety and efficacy. The company is initially targeting neuropsychiatric diseases characterized by aberrant PPIs of epigenetic protein complexes. Oliver's background includes six years at Ginkgo Bioworks, where he led pharma alliance management, overseeing more than $200 million in R&D spend across 45 biopharma partners. He also led marketing for Ginkgo Datapoints, successfully launching the Datapoints brand from $0 to $8.5 million bookings in six months. He held roles at Deloitte Consulting and Solazyme and an MS in biotechnology from Northwestern University. |
Mark Cautela
mcautela+hbs.edu
617-495-5143
Established in 2013, the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship offers Harvard Business School alumni and Harvard-affiliated postdocs the opportunity to create new ventures around promising life science technologies while developing their leadership talents. This innovative one-year program provides promising scientists and entrepreneurs the opportunity to work with Harvard inventors and Harvard-affiliated hospitals to promote the commercialization of life science technologies with significant market potential. Fellows are given unique advantages, including mentorship, leadership opportunities, professional development, financial support, and working space at Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab.
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