Strategic Investment Committee
The Scripps Research Strategic Investment Committee is a distinguished group of advisors dedicated to fostering a vibrant biotech ecosystem that empowers the next generation of scientific talent. Through their strategic guidance and support, they advance Scripps Research’s mission to transform human health and strengthen its long-term sustainability.
Marshall Olin, Esq
General Counsel, Scripps Research
In his current role, Marshall leverages his extensive legal expertise to support the institute’s groundbreaking scientific endeavors and its commercialization and company formation efforts. Prior to joining Scripps Research, Marshall spent time at both Latham and Watkins and Cooley LLP supporting life sciences partnering and technology transfers. His practice focuses on complex licensing, collaboration agreements and corporate finance, for a diverse range of clients, including biotech, university, non-profit, venture and large pharma.
Travis Young, PhD
Executive Vice President, Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines at Scripps Research
Travis was a member of the founding group of principal investigators at Calibr-Skaggs and serves as the lead investigator on multiple clinical programs and antibody and cellular therapy-based programs. Young leads a research group focused on the development of novel therapeutics at the interface between protein engineering and cellular synthetic biology. This research spans multiple disease indications including cancer, autoimmune, metabolic disorders, and infectious disease. He also leads the cell therapy efforts at Scripps Research and has built an experienced team capable of translating unique cell therapies from concept to first-in-human clinical.
Matt Tremblay, PhD
Chief Executive Officer, Blackbird Laboratories
Matt Tremblay, PhD, is the Chief Executive Officer of Blackbird Laboratories, a nonprofit technology development platform, and Managing Director of Blackbird BioVentures, an early stage biotech investment fund. Blackbird and Blackbird BioVentures aim to catalyze the creation of new medicines and enabling technologies in Baltimore.
Prior to joining Blackbird, Tremblay was Chief Operating Officer of Scripps Research and its drug discovery division, Calibr. He earned his PhD in Chemistry at Columbia University. Following postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Peter Schultz, PhD, at Scripps Research, he led a group at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation until helping to launch and run Calibr for 10 years.
Shawn Fu, MD
Vice President, CorpDev and Head of Strategy, SonoThera
Shawn brings with him a wide array of experience ranging from his training as an Anesthesiologist to time spent in consulting, equity research and Venture Capital. Prior to joining SonoThera, he was a Vice President at Vertex Ventures HC focusing on platform technologies and genetic medicines where he led investments and held board positions across both biotech & medtech opportunities. Shawn also served as Vice President on JP Morgan’s Equity Research desk.
Leighanne Oh, MS
Vice President, Ascenta Capital
Leighanne is focused on discovering and evaluating new investment opportunities, leveraging her private and public investing experience and operating background. Before joining Ascenta, Leighanne spent the last 5 years investing in biotech and life sciences companies at Novo Holdings and Sofinnova Investments. Leighanne started her investing career at SoBE Bioequities (Sofinnova’s L/S hedge fund), focusing on public investments in global biotech and pharmaceutical companies. She later served on Sofinnova’s investment committee as a private investor focused on clinical stage investments from 2019 – 2022 and at Novo Holdings from 2022-2024. Before that, Leighanne began her career as an Analyst on the Healthcare Investment Banking team at Jefferies. In that role, she focused on M&A, public and private capital raising, licensing deals, and a wide scope of advisory work for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Trained as a protein and biomedical engineer, Leighanne also brings her operating background as a manufacturing engineer from GE Healthcare.
Emily Park, MD
Principal, DCVC Bio
Emily works to unlock later-stage value in early-stage therapeutics platform and computational biology companies, with a focus on strategic pipeline and drug development. She also provides strategic and operational guidance and fundraising support to DCVC Bio’s portfolio companies, empowering them to reach key milestones and realize their complete growth potential. Prior to joining DCVC Bio, Emily worked in the public markets, as a biotech equities analyst at Point72 Asset Management and on the Global Investment Research team at Goldman Sachs, where she conducted deep-dive analyses on early-stage therapeutics and clinical trial catalysts across multiple disease areas for SMID-Cap biotech and pharma stocks. She has also consulted for hedge funds and TechBio companies, where she has worked with executive teams on business development and capital fundraising.
