Paul Burke PhD

Paul Burke is Principal of Burke Bioventures LLC, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology consultancy focused on translating research breakthroughs—particularly those based on nanotechnology, targeting, and RNA—into products. He provides strategic advice and scientific direction for biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and drug delivery companies and interim R&D management of venture-backed start-ups. Dr. Burke was formerly the founding head of Pfizer’s global Center of Excellence for targeted drug delivery and imaging, and Chief Technology Officer of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Unit. Previously he was Executive Director, RNA Therapeutics at Merck & Co. where he led delivery R&D, charged with developing enabling technologies for maximizing value from the company’s $1.1B acquisition of Sirna Therapeutics. The effort encompassed five discovery and preclinical departments and multiple external partnerships. Dr. Burke joined Merck following a decade-long tenure at Amgen, where he held positions of increasing responsibility including his most recent as Executive Director, Pharmaceutics. He received his B.S. in Chemistry with Distinction and Departmental Honors from Harvey Mudd College and his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from MIT. He is an Affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington and, for the winter 2017 term, was the Distinguished Visiting Professor at City of Hope’s Beckman Research Institute.