Jay (Julius) Knowles is a business development professional with more than 25 years in the biotech industry, guiding multiple early-stage companies through drug discovery and development. He was previously CEO of X-BODY Biosciences (sold to Juno), an emerging biotech focused on generating “fully human” antibodies using DNA display technology. Prior to this, he was Head, Platforms, Strategic Alliances for Novartis, where he led a team responsible for creating technology-based and drug discovery collaborations, forging several major strategic alliances with biotech companies. Jay was also President of Novalar Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company that brought a drug from the idea stage through the clinic and onto the market. Earlier in his career, he was also Vice President, Business Development, at Novacea and at Structural Genomix, and Director, Research and Development Planning at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
He represents "Mass General Brigham Ventures" on the boards of Keros (Nasdaq: KROS), Klear Bio, Modal, Proximity, and 65 Therapeutics, and as a board observer at Abcuro, Photys, ROME, and Stratus.
Jay holds a B.A. with Distinction in Chemistry from Carleton College, an M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.