Cynthia Bamdad

Dr. Bamdad is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Minerva Biotechnologies. She was a pioneer in the field of biochips and is now recognized as a leader in the field of cancer stem cells and cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Bamdad holds a B.S. in Physics from Northeastern University and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University, where she was a Howard Hughes Doctoral Fellow. While a Ph.D. student at Harvard, Dr. Bamdad invented the first electronic DNA chip and the first universal protein chip. Intellectual property surrounding these inventions and extensions thereof, also developed by Dr. Bamdad, formed the cornerstone of a California startup company, which was sold within two years to Motorola for $300 million and is now GenMark. Dr. Bamdad’s invention is now an FDA-approved medical device that electronically reads patient DNA in real-time.

Dr. Bamdad was invited to join the Board of Directors for Pharmacyclics (PCYC), when a major shareholder took over the company in 2008. Dr. Bamdad’s role on the Board from 2008 - 2011 was to assess the strength of each program and advise as to whether to progress, partner or drop. Dr. Bamdad advised to drop 5 of the 7 programs, partner 1 and push, as lead program the BTK inhibitor, now known as Imbruvica. When Dr. Bamdad joined PCYC BOD in 2008, the Company was valued at $15M. Under the new strategy, PCYC sold 50% to J&J for just under $1B in 2011 and a little more than 3 years later sold the other 50% to Abbvie for $21B. Imbruvica is the most successful drug to date for hematological cancers.

Dr. Bamdad has been the Principal Investigator on grants and contracts from the National Cancer Institute, National Institute for Mental Health, National Science Foundation, The Huntington Foundation, National Institute of General Medicine, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Advanced Technology Program (ATP). Dr. Bamdad has served on special committees to advise research arms of the military on the technical challenges of detecting biological warfare agents (BWA). Dr. Bamdad has also given numerous invited talks to U.S. and foreign institutions on the topics of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and biological warfare threat and detection. Dr. Bamdad has also served on the Board of Directors Northeastern University’s School of Social Science, Urban Affairs & Public Policy.

Dr. Bamdad is the sole or co-inventor inventor of over 160 patent applications in the United States and foreign jurisdictions for novel technologies, therapeutics and diagnostics.