Gopi Shanker, Ph.D.

Dr. Gopi Shanker is the Chief Scientific Officer of Beam Therapeutics. Dr. Shanker has more than two decades of broad drug discovery experience at Novartis, Amgen and Regeneron ranging from developing target concepts to advancing molecules through clinical development. He has contributed to the development of several clinical candidates and to the migraine drug, Aimovig^®. With a strong background across multiple drug modalities including small molecules, biologics and gene therapies, he brings great experience and leadership to our R&D teams. Dr. Shanker has a proven ability in successfully building, coaching, and developing cross-functional drug discovery teams as well as creating purpose-driven, highly productive research organizations. He is passionate about mentoring individuals and teams towards having high impact.

Dr. Shanker joins us after leading Tevard Biosciences, and prior to that, he was with Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research and during his tenure at Novartis, he held multiple key leadership roles including Head of Neuroscience Disease Area, Head of Psychiatry and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and Head, Ion Channels and Receptors.

Dr. Shanker holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, a M.Sc in Biotechnology from Madurai Kamaraj University, India, and a B.Sc in Microbiology from Osmania University, India.