Jeff Kovacs

Jeff Kovacs is an Executive Director and the Head of Oncology Research at Aktis Oncology. Prior to his time at Aktis, Jeff spent more than eight years with the MD Anderson Cancer Center, working in the TRACTION platform leading translational biology efforts for internal therapeutic development programs as well as corporate partnerships while rising through the ranks from Research Scientist to Group Leader of Cancer Biology. Prior to his time at MD Anderson, Jeff held the position of Senior Research Scientist at b3 bio, Inc. Jeff brings broad experience working across drug discovery and development paths for both small molecules and biologics from target discovery through clinical translation. His passions lie in developing targeted therapies for biomarker-selected patient populations with unmet medical needs and defining mechanism-based, clinically actionable combination therapy regimens for those patients. He has led or participated in the pre-clinical development of multiple programs resulting in IND filings and subsequent first-in-human studies across multiple tumor indications. Jeff holds a Ph.D. from Duke University and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Duke University Medical Center. In his free time, he enjoys golfing, skiing, family road trips, and spending time with his wife and children.