Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., co-founded Sirtris Pharmaceuticals

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, MA that is developing therapies for type 2 diabetes, cancer, and other diseases. Founded in 2004 by a Harvard University biologist, Drs. David Sinclair, and venture capitalist Christoph Westphal, the company went public in...

 in 2004 with David Sinclair

David Sinclair (biologist)

David A. Sinclair PhD is a biologist best known for his research on the biology of lifespan extension and driving research towards treating diseases of ageing.-Current position:...

 and served as Chief Executive Officer until April 2010. Dr. Westphal also founded the Longwood Founders Fund and is currently the President of SR One, the corporate venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...

 (GSK).

Current Position

Westphal is the President of SR One, which is a GSK venture capital firm that invests globally in emerging life science companies. Dr. Westphal is a Founder and General Partner of the Longwood Founders Fund, a venture capital fund based in Boston. In addition, he serves as the Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Sirtris.

Dr. Westphal also serves as the Scientific Advisory Board Chair for the Healthy Lifespan Institute, a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 dedicated to educating people about the aging process and advancing research that can help us live longer and healthier lives.

Westphal currently serves on the Board of Directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 for Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School and the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...

. Westphal has been the lead or senior author on several patent applications and scientific papers in journals, including Cell, Nature and Nature Genetics.

Background

Westphal is a serial entrepreneur in the biotech space, who has a host of biotech companies to his name. Westphal has been recognized for his rare ability to combine cutting-edge science with business acumen.

In 2004, Westphal co-founded Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which is developing new drug candidates that target the sirtuins, a recently discovered family of enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

s that appear to control aging to treat diseases of aging including Type 2 diabetes, inflammatory disorders and cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

. In 2007, Westphal led the company through its initial public offering

Initial public offering

An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...

, resulting in recognition by the Boston Globe as one of the Globe 100 top companies that year. In June 2008, GSK acquired Sirtris for $720 million.

Dr. Westphal also founded the Healthy Lifespan Institute.

Westphal has been featured on 60 Minutes

60 Minutes

60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....

 with Morley Safer

Morley Safer

Morley Safer is a Canadian reporter and correspondent for CBS News. He is best known for his long tenure on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which began in December 1970.-Life and career:...

, CNN’s Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, an ABC News Special hosted by Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters

Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...

, and as the subject of a Fortune cover article. In April 2010, Fortune named Westphal one of either Fortune Visionaries, along with Academy Award winning director James Cameron

James Cameron

James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...

 and Pepsi

Pepsi

Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...

 CEO Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is an Indian-born American business executive. She is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, the second largest food & beverage business in the world ....

.

Prior to his role at SR One, Westphal served as the Senior Vice President of GSK’s Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (ceedd).

Westphal was previously co-founder and CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, (NASDAQ: ALNY), Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MNTA) and Acceleron Pharma. He was also co-founder of Concert and Alnara. Prior to establishing Sirtris, Westphal was a general partner at a venture fund and a consultant with McKinsey & Company.

Westphal earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

; and he graduated with a B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

.

In 2002, he was named to the MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 Technology Review

Technology Review

Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...

 TR100

TR35

The TR35 is an annual list published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35.Some of the most famous winners of the award include Larry Page and Sergey Brin , Linus Torvalds , Jerry Yang , Jonathan Ive , Mark Zuckerberg...

 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.

Personal life

Westphal has visited over 130 countries and plays the cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

. He is also fluent in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

.

Honors

• Stevie Award for Executive of the Year from The 2009 American Business Awards
• 2009 E-3 Public Company Science & Technology Company Executive Award at the annual Emerald Investment Forum
• 2008 Outstanding Individual of the Year Award at the annual Laguna Biotech CEO Meeting
• 2008 Corporate Leader Award of Distinction from the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR)
• Recognition in the Pharmaceutical Executive “45 Under 45,” 2008
• Recognition in the PharmaVOICE 100, a list of the 100 most inspiring people in the life-sciences industry, 2008
• Mass High Tech All Star Award in 2007
• Ernst & Young’s New England Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Biopharmaceutical category in 2006
• Named one of Fortune's Fortune Visionaries in 2010