About Us
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors to help people with cancer not only live longer, but live better. We aim to address existing and emerging unmet needs with a precision oncology approach that improves survival and enhances overall well-being.
Our discovery process combines deep insights in clinically validated biological targets and differentiated chemistry with the goal of designing therapies for unmet needs. By combining clinically validated targets and specific target product profiles with disciplined clinical trial design and regulatory strategy, we aim to develop drugs with an increased probability of clinical success.
Learn more about our approach.
Our Team
We have assembled a team with significant expertise in drug discovery, development and commercialization with particular strengths in the discovery of small molecule kinase inhibitors. Our team includes:
- World-renowned chemists who have been the primary or co-inventor of over 20 product candidates that have been advanced to clinical trials, including four FDA-approved cancer therapies: Koselugo (selumetinib), Mektovi (binimetinib), Tukysa (tucatinib), and Retevmo (selpercatinib).
- Precision oncology and kinase inhibitor experts who have led or been involved with the discovery, development, or commercialization of over 60 small molecule kinase inhibitor programs, including Imbruvica (ibrutinib), Vitrakvi (larotrectinib), Zydelig (idelalisib), ipatasertib (AKT inhibitor), and PF-07284890/ARRY-461 (CNS-penetrant BRAF inhibitor).
- Leaders with a track record of success who have built or led research, development and commercial operations at companies including AbbVie, Array BioPharma, Genentech, Biogen, Pharmacyclics, Five Prime Therapeutics-Amgen, Gilead Sciences, and Blueprint Medicines.
Sam Kintz, MBA
Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Member of the Board of Directors
Sam is a co-founder of Enliven Therapeutics and serves as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to co-founding Enliven, Sam was an Executive Director of Research at AbbVie and the Head of Research at AbbVie Stemcentrx. Sam started at Stemcentrx as Senior Director, Strategy and Business Development.
Sam has also served as Vice President, Business Development and Applications, at Biodesy, a South San Francisco-based biotech startup developing and commercializing novel protein conformation technology for small-molecule drug discovery.
Additionally, Sam has worked at Roche Venture Fund, where he triaged and sourced investment opportunities in the life sciences industry. He has also worked as a medicinal chemist at Genentech, where he designed and synthesized small-molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Sam earned both an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Chemistry, with Honors, from Stanford University.
Joe Lyssikatos, PhD
Co-founder, Chief Scientific Officer
Joe is a co-founder of Enliven Therapeutics and serves as the Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to co-founding Enliven, Joe served as Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry and DMPK at Biogen, a biotechnology company focused on therapies for neurological diseases. He also worked as an Executive Director at AbbVie, Staff Scientist at Genentech, and Senior Director at Array Biopharma. He began his pharmaceutical career as a medicinal chemist at Pfizer Groton.
Joe has experience in multiple therapeutic areas, including antibiotics, immunology, cancer, and neuroscience. He has led or been a key scientific contributor to over 30 programs, which has resulted in the discovery of more than 15 clinical candidates, most notably: Koselugo™ (selumetinib), Mektovi® (binimetinib), Tukysa® (tucatinib), crenolanib, BIIB091, varlitinib tosilate, filanesib, and motolimod. He is a co-inventor or co-author on over 230 issued patents and peer-reviewed publications.
Joe earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary.
Anish Patel, PharmD
Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer
Anish is a co-founder of Enliven Therapeutics and serves as the Chief Operating Officer. Prior to co-founding Enliven, Anish was the Head of Medical Affairs at AbbVie Stemcentrx, where he was responsible for building external collaborations and driving early oncology programs towards clinical proof-of-concept.
Previously, Anish contributed to the buildout of commercial and medical affairs capabilities, at Pharmacyclics for Imbruvica® (ibrutinib), culminating in the company’s acquisition by AbbVie for $21B. Anish has also held leadership roles at MedImmune/AstraZeneca and Berlex/Bayer.
Anish earned a Pharm.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a B.S. in Microbiology and Chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Helen Collins, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Helen is the Chief Medical Officer at Enliven Therapeutics. Prior to joining Enliven, Helen served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President at Five Prime Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on oncology that was acquired by Amgen, Inc. She serves as a member of the board of directors of Kura Oncology.
Previously, Helen held positions of increasing responsibility at Gilead Sciences, Inc., most recently as Program and Clinical Lead for Gilead’s BTK and BET inhibitor programs. Helen also held positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen, most recently as Global Lead, Oncology Biosimilars. Prior to joining Amgen, Helen practiced as a medical oncologist and hematologist for 12 years at Redwood Regional Medical Group and served as President for three years.
Helen earned an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an A.B. in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital and completed her fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she concentrated in gastrointestinal cancer. Helen is board certified in oncology.
Ben Hohl
Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Development
Ben is the Chief Financial Officer, and Head of Corporate Development at Enliven Therapeutics. Prior to joining Enliven, Ben was a Healthcare Investment Banker at Goldman Sachs, where he worked for nearly a decade. While at Goldman Sachs, he established himself as a senior leader in the healthcare group, advising biopharmaceutical and life sciences management teams and boards and executing a broad range of strategic and financing transactions. Ben successfully executed over 50 deals, including over $75 billion in M&A, equity and debt financings.
Ben earned a B.A. in Business Economics and Accounting from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Galya Blachman, PhD, Esq
Chief Legal Officer and Head of Business Development
Galya is Chief Legal Officer and Head of Business Development at Enliven Therapeutics. Prior to joining Enliven Galya served as General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer of 5AM Ventures, a life science venture capital firm. She also served as Chief Operating Officer of the 4:59 Initiative, 5AM's company incubation engine, where she helped develop and manage the infrastructure to provide operational support for 5AM's seed companies.
Previously, Galya held the position of Director, Legal at Stemcentrx. After Stemcentrx was acquired by AbbVie she joined AbbVie’s Legal R&D transactions team. Prior to Stemcentrx Galya worked at UCSF's licensing and technology transfer office. Galya began her legal career in London at law firms, Slaughter and May, and Simmons & Simmons, in the intellectual property group.
Galya earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Cambridge University where her research focused on the structure-function relationships of multidrug transporters. She earned an M.Sc. in Pharmacology and a B.Sc. (with honors) in Biochemistry and Hebrew from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She received her law degree from BPP University Law School and completed a postgraduate diploma in intellectual property law at Oxford University.
Galya currently serves on the Board, and is the General Counsel, of Biotech Connection-Bay Area, a non-profit that connects academic trainees with industry professionals.
Board of Directors
Rich A. Heyman, PhD
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Rich serves as the Chairman and co-founder of several biotech companies as well as serving as a Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners. Rich also co-founded ORIC Pharmaceuticals serving currently as Chairman and previously as President and Chief Executive Officer. In addition, Rich serves as Chairman of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, Vividion Therapeutics, Metacrine Inc. and PMV Pharma.
Previously, Rich was the co-founder and CEO of Aragon and Seragon Pharmaceuticals, which were purchased by Johnson & Johnson and Genentech, respectively. He has been involved in the discovery and development of multiple therapeutic agents approved by the FDA, including the recently approved prostate cancer drug, Erleada® (apalutamide). Rich is the author or inventor for more than 125 publications and patents.
Rich also serves on the Board of Directors of Gritstone Oncology and Yumanity Therapeutics. In addition to his corporate experience, he is Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Salk Institute and serves on the Board Foundation for the American Association for Cancer Research, the Board of Visitors at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center and Board of Managers for Life Science Cares, San Diego.
Rich has won numerous awards, including Ernst and Young San Diego Regional Entrepreneur of the Year and the Endocrine Society Outstanding Innovation Award. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow and Staff Scientist at the Salk Institute.
Rich received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut.
Sam Kintz, MBA
Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Member of the Board of Directors
Sam is a co-founder of Enliven Therapeutics and serves as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to co-founding Enliven, Sam was an Executive Director of Research at AbbVie and the Head of Research at AbbVie Stemcentrx. Sam started at Stemcentrx as Senior Director, Strategy and Business Development.
Sam has also served as Vice President, Business Development and Applications, at Biodesy, a South San Francisco-based biotech startup developing and commercializing novel protein conformation technology for small-molecule drug discovery.
Additionally, Sam has worked at Roche Venture Fund, where he triaged and sourced investment opportunities in the life sciences industry. He has also worked as a medicinal chemist at Genentech, where he designed and synthesized small-molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Sam earned both an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Chemistry, with Honors, from Stanford University.
Rishi Gupta, JD
Member of the Board of Directors
Rishi is a Partner at OrbiMed Advisors. In addition to Enliven, he serves or has served on the boards of Charm Therapeutics, DELFI Diagnostics, Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, Verona Pharma, Turnstone Biologics, Modis Therapeutics, NeuroPace, Avitide, Dimension Therapeutics, Symbiomix Therapeutics, ChemoCentryx, and Sientra. Rishi has also been actively involved with OrbiMed’s investments in Acceleron Pharma, CoGenesys, Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Adimab, Receptos, Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Seragon Pharmaceuticals, Alector, Arsanis, Biotie, Invitae, and ORIC Pharmaceuticals. Prior to OrbiMed, Rishi worked as a healthcare investment banker at Raymond James & Associates, a Manager of Corporate Development at Veritas Medicine, and was a summer associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Rishi received a J.D. from Yale Law School and an A.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College.
Andy Phillips, PhD
Member of the Board of Directors
Andy is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Nexo Therapeutics and Aleksia Therapeutics. Prior to these roles, Andy was a Managing Director at Cormorant Asset Management, the Chief Financial Officer at Helix Acquisition Corporation and the Chief Executive Officer at Blossom Bioscience. Previously, Andy also served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chief Scientific Officer at C4 Therapeutics, Senior Director for the Center for Development of Therapeutics at the Broad Institute, Professor of Chemistry at Yale University, and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado. In addition to Enliven, he serves on the boards of MoonLake Immunotherapeutics, Kestrel Therapeutics, OnKure, and Expansion Therapeutics.
Andy received a Ph.D. in Chemistry and a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Mika Kakefuda Derynck, MD
Member of the Board of Directors
Mika is the Chief Medical Officer at Amunix Pharmaceuticals and has over 25 years of experience in drug development and expertise in oncology, covering multiple therapeutic modalities, tumor types and development phases. Amunix Pharmaceuticals has been acquired by Sanofi SA and she remains the Chief Medical Officer for Amunix within Sanofi R&D. Previously, Mika worked at Genentech, most recently as Global Head for Cancer Immunotherapy, GI/GU Cancers, Angiogenesis Franchises and China Oncology Development. Previous to that she was Global Head of the Breast Cancer Franchise for Development. While at Genentech, she oversaw the approval or global development of more than a dozen drugs. She was previously a Senior Group Medical Director of Exploratory Clinical Development at Genentech, leading the development of several early-stage programs.
Prior to joining Genentech, Mika was an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Oncology and Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Mika received an M.D. from Boston University School of Medicine and a B.A. in Biology from Boston University. She completed an Internal Medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Jake Bauer, MBA
Member of the Board of Directors
Jake Bauer is a Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners and SR One Capital Management. Prior to MyoKardia Inc.’s acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb in November 2020, Jake served as the Chief Business Officer of MyoKardia. Prior to this, he served as Senior Vice President, Finance and Corporate Development and Principal Financial Officer of MyoKardia having joined the company in 2014.
In earlier roles, Jake served as Vice President, Business Operations and head of corporate development at Ablexis, LLC and as a principal at Third Rock Ventures. While at Third Rock Ventures, he was actively involved in a variety of leading biopharmaceutical companies including Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., CytomX Therapeutics Inc., and Global Blood Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, Jake served in roles in the investment group at Royalty Pharma , the business development group at Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. and as a management consultant at Putnam Associates.
In addition to Enliven, he currently serves on the board of Attralus, Phoenix Tissue Repair, Inc., and Arya Sciences Acquisition Corp V.
Jake holds a B.S. in biology and a B.A. in economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Rahul Ballal, PhD
Member of the Board of Directors
Rahul is the Chief Executive Officer at Mediar Therapeutics and is a biopharmaceutical executive with more than 15 years of experience in business development, strategic transactions, and company financing. Rahul previously served as Imara’s (IMRA) president and chief executive officer. Prior to this role, he served as chief business officer of Northern Biologics and as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Versant Ventures. Previously, Dr. Ballal was vice president of business development at Flexion Therapeutics (FLXN). Additionally, Rahul currently serves on the Board of Directors of Agios (AGIO), and Vaderis Therapeutics AG.
Rahul holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Georgetown University, an M.S. in bioinformatics from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in biology from Brown University.
Lori Kunkel, MD
Member of the Board of Directors
Lori currently serves on the Board of Directors of Curis, Inc., Nurix Therapeutics, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, and K36 Therapeutics. Previously, she was the acting Chief Medical Officer at Loxo Oncology (acquired by Eli Lilly and Company) and subsequently served on their board. She also served as the Chief Medical Officer at Pharmacyclics (acquired by AbbVie) and Proteolix (acquired by Onyx Pharmaceuticals), where she contributed to the global approvals of Imbruvica (ibrutinib) and Kyprolis (carfilzomib), respectively. In addition to Enliven, Lori participates as a scientific advisor to multiple clients including Atreca, Elevation Oncology, Jasper Therapeutics, Oncopeptides, Oryzon and Rain Therapeutics.
Lori spent ten years in academic medicine and served as a faculty member at the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Lori received an M.D. at the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego. She is board certified in internal medicine and held board certifications in hematology and oncology.
Scientific Advisors
Brian Druker, MD
Scientific Advisor
Brian is the Director of the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Knight Cancer Institute and the co-founder of Blueprint Medicines. He revolutionized the treatment of cancer by advocating for and participating in the development of Gleevec (imatinib), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that turned the once-fatal chronic myeloid leukemia into a manageable condition.
Brian currently serves on the board of directors at Amgen and Vincerx Pharma. He also has serves on the scientific advisory boards of Aptose Biosciences and Grail. He previously founded MolecularMD, which was acquired by ICON. Additionally, Brian is Associate Dean of Oncology at the OHSU School of Medicine and has been on the OHSU faculty since 1993.
He has received numerous awards, including the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Research Award, the Japan Prize in Healthcare and Medical Technology, the Albany Medical Center Prize, and the Sjöberg Prize. He was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.
Brian received an M.D. and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and oncology training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Kevin Koch, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Kevin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Edgewise Therapeutics. He is also a Venture Partner with OrbiMed. Previously, he was served as the Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery, Chemical and Molecular Therapeutics at Biogen where he managed global drug discovery and biomarker development.
Kevin was also a co-founder of Array BioPharma, serving as President, Chief Scientific Officer and board member. While there, he built a fully integrated research and development team that oversaw the invention of over 20 clinical development candidates across multiple therapeutic areas, several of which are now marketed medicines. Prior to Array, Dr. Koch held senior positions at Amgen and Pfizer Central Research.
Kevin received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Rochester and a B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from State University of New York at Stony Brook.