Dr. Tim Harris began his scientific career in 1974, working on animal viruses and cloning picornavirus RNAs. Fifty years later, he has lived nearly the entire history of the industry he set out to chronicle.

A career across the industry

In 1981 he became one of the first molecular biologists to join the UK biotech company Celltech, now part of UCB Pharma. From 1989 to 1993 he served as Director of Biotechnology at Glaxo Group Research, now GSK. In 1993 he moved to the United States as Executive Vice President of R&D at Sequana Therapeutics, a San Diego genomics company that was acquired by Arris Pharmaceutical to form Axys Pharmaceuticals in 1998.

 

In 1999 he founded SGX Pharmaceuticals, formerly Structural Genomix, and led it as CEO for six years — building the company to more than 130 employees, raising $85 million in capital, and generating more than $20 million a year in revenue before SGX was sold to Eli Lilly. He then served briefly as President and CEO of Novasite Pharmaceuticals before becoming, in 2006, Chief Technology Officer and Director of the Advanced Technology Program at SAIC-Frederick, now Leidos.

 

In 2011 he joined Biogen as Senior Vice President of Translational Medicine, and in March 2017 he became EVP of R&D at the hematology spinout Bioverativ, which Sanofi acquired in June 2018. From April 2020 to April 2022 he was Executive Vice President and Chief Science Adviser at Repertoire Immune Medicines, a Flagship Pioneering company working on T cell engineering and antigen decoding.

Today

Dr. Harris consults for several biotechnology companies on research and development and R&D management, and is an Operating Partner at SV Health Investors. In that role he founded Caraway Therapeutics, an autophagy company, in 2016 — later acquired by Merck — and Catamaran Bio, an NK cell therapeutics company, in 2018, chairing the scientific advisory boards of both. He serves on the Board of Directors of PhenoTX, an Edinburgh company focused on remyelination, and on the board of Divergence Labs, an AI-driven drug discovery company. He advises several biotech companies, including TopoTherapeutics, Actio Bio, and Manifold Bio.

Writing

Dr. Harris has published more than 110 peer-reviewed research papers and reviews. He is a contributor at the annual Gold Lab Symposium and has written commentaries for BioCentury and other industry publications. He is currently writing a second book, on the history of plant biotechnology.