Rajendra Pandey, PhD

Raj joined Foresite Labs as an entrepreneur in residence (EIR) with a passion for building innovative companies to improve patient outcomes using Oligo based therapeutics.

Raj was previously vice president of chemistry at Lerna Biopharma (Cargene) where he led discovery as well as CMC efforts targeting CVD, NASH and Eye programs. Prior to that, he was a senior director at Aligos Therapeutics where he led a team focused on discovery and development across a broad range of therapeutic oligonucleotide modalities including RNase H, RNAi, and splice modulation. His work resulted in three INDs, two of which are currently in Phase I clinical trials. Raj served as scientific director at Janssen Pharmaceuticals and was instrumental in the discovery of TLR9 and antisense compounds. Raj was an early member of the Drug Discovery team at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where he worked on early siRNA discovery, delivery and conjugation technology, including RSV01, VSP, and ONPATTRO.

Raj obtained a Ph.D. in Nucleic Acids Chemistry from the University of Allahabad, India and performed his post-doctoral work at University of Ulm, Germany. He is a regularly invited conference speaker, moderator, and expert panel member in oligonucleotide therapeutics.