BigHat Biosciences Appoints Rob Chess, Serial Entrepreneur, to its Board of Directors

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05/11/2022 - 08:01 AM

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BigHat Biosciences, a biotechnology company designing safer, more effective next-generation antibody therapies for patients using machine learning and synthetic biology, today announced that Rob Chess has been elected to BigHat’s board of directors. Rob brings valuable experience in corporate biotech leadership and business strategy, from having led innovative and diverse teams from inception to successful exits to serving on the boards of multiple private and public life sciences companies.

"We look forward to leveraging Rob's deep expertise in drug discovery and development to accelerate our work creating better antibody therapies for patients," said Mark DePristo, PhD., BigHat’s CEO and co-founder.

Rob Chess is the former CEO and current Chairman of Nektar Therapeutics, (NASDAQ:NKTR), a health care biotechnology company; serves as lead director of Twist Biosciences (NASDAQ:TWST), a leading company in the field of synthetic biology; and lectures at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Previously, Rob co-founded Biota Technologies, a pioneer of DNA sequencing for energy and industrial applications, Penederm, a dermatology company acquired by Mylan Laboratories; was the first CEO of OPX Biotechnologies, a renewable chemicals company sold to Cargill.

“BigHat’s trajectory has been exceptional and I’m pleased to be joining the company at such an important time,” said Rob Chess. “BigHat has built a uniquely integrated AI/ML wet lab platform and is now positioned to efficiently advance its pipeline of protein therapeutics to patients. I’m looking forward to working with the company to apply this platform to the highest value opportunities and catalyzing the impact we will have for patients.”

About BigHat Biosciences, Inc.

Founded in 2019, BigHat Biosciences is an early-stage biotechnology company in the San Francisco Bay Area. BigHat is led by a team of experts spanning machine learning, molecular biology, drug development, and medicine. BigHat is supported by a cadre of world leaders, including a Nobel Laureate and the physician-scientist that brought Herceptin to market. To date, BigHat has raised $25M from top investors led by a16z and 8VC and is quickly succeeding in partnerships with large biopharma partners. In addition to these collaborations, BigHat has active therapeutic programs spanning multiple domains of human health, including inflammation, oncology, hematology, and infectious diseases in preclinical studies.