Building Baltimore Biotech

Eddie Cherok, PhD, is the Chief Business Officer at Blackbird Laboratories, where he oversees business operations, investment strategy, and company formation.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Dr. Cherok was a founding team member and Head of Corporate Development at Shoreline Biosciences, a biotech company developing allogeneic cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. At Shoreline, Dr. Cherok helped raise over $180 million in venture financing and established research and development partnerships with Kite and BeiGene. Previously, Dr. Cherok was an Associate Director of Corporate Development at Scripps Research and Calibr, and a Venture Fellow and consultant at Flagship Pioneering. Dr. Cherok earned his PhD in Molecular Medicine from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Maisha Rahman, PhD, is Chief of Staff at Blackbird Laboratories, where she partners closely with leadership to drive strategy, align cross-functional initiatives, and build partnerships that support the development of early-stage life science companies.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Dr. Rahman was a Biologics Scientist at the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute, where she led the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies for oncologic and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Rahman earned her BA in Neuroscience from Columbia University and her PhD in Genetics from Albert Einstein College of Medicine studying the role of glycosylation in dendrite development.

Anthony Accorsi, PhD, is a Venture Partner at Blackbird Laboratories, where he is responsible for opportunity identification, scientific development, and strategic execution of Blackbird projects towards NewCo formation.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Dr. Accorsi worked as the Head of Muscle Biology at ReNAgade Therapeutics as well as Fulcrum Therapeutics where he held roles of increasing responsibility up to Director of preclinical discovery and translational biology in neuromuscular diseases. Dr. Accorsi also consulted for Third Rock Ventures where he worked on scientific validation and NewCo build strategy across multiple therapeutic areas and modalities. Dr. Accorsi earned his PhD in Human Physiology from Boston University.

Virginia Burger, PhD, is a Venture Partner at Blackbird Laboratories, where she builds innovative biotechnology companies that accelerate solutions to patients.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Dr. Burger founded New Equilibrium Biosciences, a company focused on discovering drugs targeting intrinsically disordered proteins through its computational-experimental platform. As CEO of New Equilibrium, she recruited and led a world-class team, raised venture capital and grant funding, drove strategy, and built the company’s initial AI-based algorithms for modeling protein dynamics. Previously, Dr. Burger held roles in both business and algorithm development at XtalPi. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Computational Biophysics at MIT after earning her PhD in Computational Biology from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

Matt Lawler is a Venture Partner at Blackbird Laboratories, where his mission is to create new ventures that turn exciting science into successful therapies.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Lawler co-founded TriBiotica LLC, a company developing oncology therapies utilizing in situ activatable chemistry to target previously un-druggable tumor markers. Lawler co-invented TriBiotica’s core technology and designed discovery and preclinical stage experimental programs. As President, he led the company’s financing strategy, developed business operations, and structured the regulatory development path of lead assets. Previously, Lawler was a preclinical development manager at CytoCure and Director of Molecular Biology Projects at ACGT, Inc. Lawler earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Hemaka Rajapakse, PhD, is a Venture Partner at Blackbird Laboratories, where he is responsible for project management, NewCo leadership, company creation, and scientific diligence.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Dr. Rajapakse was at Foresite Capital focusing on investment diligence, new company creation, and project/program leadership. Before Foresite, Dr. Rajapakse held project management and leadership roles at Ophthotech (now Iveric Bio) and the Critical Path Institute. His drug development experience spans the preclinical through post-marketing stages of drug development. Dr. Rajapakse started his career as a medicinal chemist at Merck where his focus was on the discovery of small molecules for the treatment of various indications including HIV and Alzheimer’s disease. He received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Harvard University.

Jonathan Robbins, MD, PhD, is a Venture Partner at Blackbird Laboratories, where he is responsible for new company creation, scientific diligence, and translational projects.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Dr. Robbins was at Foresite Capital focusing on new company creation and investments spanning public and private markets. Dr. Robbins was previously an Executive Director at Merck Research Laboratories in Translational Medicine. At Merck he was responsible for leading the strategy and clinical execution of individual drug development programs spanning multiple therapeutic areas, and served as the Therapeutic Area Head for Immunology in Translational Medicine.

Dr. Robbins received his MD from Cornell University and his PhD in Genetics from the Rockefeller University. He completed training in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the combined Brigham and Women’s/Massachusetts General Hospital program, and was on faculty at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital before transitioning to industry.

Geoffrey M. Lynn, MD, PhD, is a biotech innovator and executive with experience spanning multiple therapeutic modalities and disease areas. He founded and served as CEO of Avidea Technologies, leading the company from its inception at Johns Hopkins FastForward through its acquisition by Vaccitech (now Barinthus Biotherapeutics), where he became Chief Scientific Officer and helped guide scientific and corporate strategy. After supporting Barinthus’ merger with Clywedog Therapeutics, he joined Blackbird Labs as an Entrepreneur in Residence and now serves as the founding CEO of Aletira Therapeutics, which is leveraging advances in alternative splicing biology to build a pipeline of gene therapies.

Dr. Lynn trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Robert Seder at the NIH, earned his MD from Johns Hopkins, and completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford as an NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholar and NSF Graduate Research Fellow. He received his BS in Chemistry from Elon University where he was a Goldwater Scholar.

Avinash (Avi) Khanna, PhD, is the Senior Director of Molecular Discovery at Blackbird Laboratories, where he oversees the development and execution of research programs and collaborative initiatives.

Before joining Blackbird, Dr. Khanna was a Principal Scientist at Hansoh Bio in Rockville, where he led multiple preclinical programs to deliver development candidates in the immunology and oncology therapeutic areas. Previously, he worked as a medicinal chemist at Constellation Pharmaceuticals, where he played a key role in the discovery of Tulmimetostat, a second-generation EZH2 inhibitor. Dr. Khanna earned his PhD in Chemistry from UC Irvine and conducted postdoctoral research as a Damon Runyon Fellow at Harvard University.

Yixuan Qiu, PhD, is the Director of Research Programs and Operations at Blackbird Laboratories, where she supports early drug discovery research programs and external partnership relationships.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Dr. Qiu was a Research Scientist at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of NIH (NCATS), where she managed collaborations between private companies, academic labs, and government institutes to develop novel non-addictive pain therapies. Previously, Dr. Qiu held a similar role as a Senior Research Scientist at Reaction Biology Corporation where she supported SBIR-funded preclinical drug discovery projects. Dr. Qiu earned her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Rutgers University studying lipid metabolism.

Esther Park, PhD, is an Associate Director of Ventures at Blackbird Laboratories, where she supports early drug discovery research programs and external partnership relationships.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Dr. Park earned her PhD in Molecular Biophysics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Working in the laboratory of Dr. Rachel Green, PhD, her thesis research focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of ribosome quality control and mRNA decay in bacteria.

Emily Wilkinson, MBA, is the Head of Finance and Operations at Blackbird Laboratories, where she oversees the finance and accounting functions and champions operational effectiveness.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Wilkinson built and led the finance function of an education technology startup where she navigated the non-profit organization through significant growth. Previously, she directed the financial operation and strategy of the O’Neill Institute, a public health policy and research organization housed at Georgetown Law. Wilkinson holds a certificate in Global Research Management, and earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology and her MBA from Virginia Tech.

Bridget Duvall serves as the Director of Lab Operations at Blackbird Laboratories, where she manages the operational planning and execution strategy for the opening of Blackbird BioHub.

With more than 15 years of experience in drug development across pharmaceutical companies and academic research institutions, Duvall brings deep expertise in translational science and operational leadership. She is proud to be a co-inventor of Cedazuridine, a small-molecule therapeutic developed for the treatment of certain cancers.

Before joining Blackbird, Duvall led laboratory operations at Barinthus Biopharmaceutics, overseeing all North American activities and supporting the company’s growth and innovation in the biopharma space.

Ashlei Chang is the Office Manager at Blackbird Laboratories, where she supports the organization’s operational and administrative functions.

Prior to joining Blackbird, Chang worked in operations roles focused on process improvement, organizational support, and project coordination. Her background combines operational expertise with a technical foundation in technology and systems thinking. Chang earned her undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Bowie State University.

Chris Jewell, PhD, brings more than 20 years of experience spanning company formation, public-company executive leadership, strategy consulting, academic innovation, and life sciences advisory work. He has founded or helped build 9 startups, served as a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, advised dozens of emerging biotechs and large pharmaceutical companies, and held the role of Institute Professor of Translational Engineering at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Jewell is a recognized expert in strategy, immunology, drug delivery, engineered materials, nucleic acids, cell therapy, and biologics. His work has been supported by more than $41 million in non-dilutive funding and has resulted in over 150 patents and publications in leading journals, including Nature, Nature Medicine, and Nature Materials. He regularly serves in national advisory roles for organizations such as PhRMA, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the NIH. Most recently, Dr. Jewell served as Chief Scientific Officer at Cartesian Therapeutics, where he helped lead the company from early stage through its transition to a public company executing late-stage clinical trials.

Dr. Jewell completed postdoctoral training as a Ragon Fellow with Darrell Irvine at MIT and as a Visiting Scientist with Dan Barouch at Harvard.