Mitchell H. Finer PhD

Dr. Mitchell Finer has worked in the Regenerative Medicine, Cancer Immunotherapy and Cell and Gene Therapy fields for the past 30 years, moving innovative therapeutic technologies from concept through to phase III clinical programs across the globe. Most recently, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of bluebird bio for the past five years, moving bluebird bio's LentiGlobin product from preclinical research through demonstration of long term therapeutic benefit and safety in thalassemia patients. Prior to that, Dr. Finer served as Senior VP of Development and Operations for Novocell Inc, (now Viacyte Inc) a stem cell engineering company developing treatments for diabetes. Dr. Finer has served as CEO of Intracel Holdings LLC and Genteric Inc., and as Vice President of Research and Development for the Gencell division of Aventis Pharma (now Sanofi) and VP of Research for Cell Genesys Inc. He successfully founded retinal disease gene therapy company Avalanche Biotechnologies, and is currently a member of the board of directors for both Semma Therapeutics (regenerative medicine, diabetes cell therapy) and Advantagene Inc (immuno-oncology). Mitchell received a B.S. in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT.