Dr. Gopi Shanker, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer at Beam Therapeutics

Speaker

Dr. Gopi Shanker is the Chief Scientific Officer of Beam Therapeutics. Dr. Shanker has more than two decades of broad drug discovery experience at Novartis, Amgen and Regeneron ranging from developing target concepts to advancing molecules through clinical development. He has contributed to the development of several clinical candidates and to the migraine drug, Aimovig®. He has a strong background across multiple drug modalities including small molecules, biologics and gene therapies and a proven ability in successfully building, coaching, and developing cross-functional drug discovery teams as well as creating purpose-driven, highly productive research organizations. He is passionate about mentoring individuals and teams towards having high impact.

Dr. Shanker joined Beam after leading Tevard Biosciences, and prior to that, he was with Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research. During his tenure at Novartis, he held multiple key leadership roles including Head of Neuroscience Disease Area, Head of Psychiatry and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and Head, Ion Channels and Receptors.

Dr. Shanker holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, a M.Sc in Biotechnology from Madurai Kamaraj University, India, and a B.Sc in Microbiology from Osmania University, India.