Jayson Punwani

Jayson joined Abingworth’s Menlo Park office in November 2021, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience in venture investing, start-up leadership, technology transfer, and academic research within the life sciences industry.

Previously, Jayson was a Senior Partner at Takeda Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where he focused on early-stage biotech investments. He led investments in and was on the board of, VelosBio (acquired by Merck), Xilio (NASDAQ: XLO), StrideBio, and Coho Therapeutics. He also served as a member of the board of directors for Armagen (acquired by JCR) and Palleon Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Takeda, Jayson was a Senior Principal at Pappas Ventures where he played a key role in investments in CoLucid (acquired by Eli Lilly), Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ: AURA), Lumena Pharmaceutics (acquired by the Shire), and Glycomine (also an Abingworth portfolio company). He started his career as a research scientist in the cardiovascular drug discovery group at Bristol Myers Squibb.