Deborah Palestrant, Ph.D., M.B.A. joined 5AM Ventures in 2018 and is a Partner and Executive Chair of 4:59 Initiative. She has over 20 years of life sciences industry experience including drug discovery, company creation, operations, business development, and strategy. In addition to Latigo Biotherapeutics, Dr. Palestrant serves on the Board of Directors of Nido Biosciences. She also serves on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer of the New England Venture Capital Association, and is a member of the Boston Board of Managers at Life Science Cares. Previously, Dr. Palestrant was Vice President of Corporate Development & Strategy at Relay Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RLAY) and Sr. Director of Business Development & Strategy at Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT). Following her postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Palestrant was a lab head at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where she advanced multiple structure-based drug discovery programs. In 2010, she joined Third Rock Ventures as a Senior Associate and helped to build and launch Blueprint Medicines and Editas Medicine. Dr. Palestrant holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University, an M.B.A from Northeastern University, and was Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute. She is based in the Boston, MA office.