Jeffrey Leiden, MD, PhD is a Managing Director of Clarus Ventures, LLC, a life sciences venture capital firm headquartered in Cambridge, MA. Prior to joining Clarus in 2006, Dr. Leiden was President and COO of Abbott Laboratories, Pharmaceuticals Products Group, and a member of the Abbott Board of Directors and the TAP Board of Directors from 2000-2006. From 1987-2000 Dr. Leiden held several academic appointments, including Chief of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of Chicago, the Elkan R. Blout Professor of Biological Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assoc. Professor of Medicine and Associate Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Michigan. During his academic career, Dr. Leiden studied the transcriptional regulation of cardiovascular and immune cell development.
Dr. Leiden is currently a director of Biolex Therapeutics and Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, and is Chairman of the Board of Lycera Corp, Variation Biotechnologies and TyRx, Inc. He is also the Lead Independent Director of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX), and a non-executive director and Vice Chairman of the Board of Shire plc (LSE: SHP). He is a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ravinia Music Festival.
Dr. Leiden received both his medical degree and PhD from the University of Chicago and an honorary MA from Harvard University. He is an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
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