R. Alan Ezekowitz, M.D., Ph.D

Dr. Ezekowitz is currently an entrepreneur-in-residence for Cardinal Partners and president and CEO of Abide Therapeutics, which he co-founded with Drs. Dale Boger and Ben Cravatt from The Scripps Research Institute. He is a pioneer in the field of innate immunity, and, along with Drs. Charles Janeway, Fotis Kafatos and Nobel laureate Jules Hoffman, helped define the role of pattern recognition molecules in first line host defense. He was previously senior vice president and franchise head of bone, respiratory, immunology, and endocrine at Merck Research Laboratories, where he led the overall scientific direction of the drug discovery and development process for these key therapeutic areas. Previous to Merck, Dr. Ezekowitz served as chief of Pediatric Services and chaired the Executive Committee on Research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He also served as chief of Pediatric Services for Partners HealthCare in Boston and the Charles Wilder Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Prior to joining MGH, he served on the staff of Children’s Hospital in Boston for 11 years. In 2008, Dr. Ezekowitz was honored with the establishment of the R. Alan Ezekowitz Professorship in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He has served on the board of directors of Partners HealthCare, Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, Anika Therapeutics and NatImmune, a biotech company that he founded. Dr. Ezekowitz completed two postdoctoral fellowships at Children’s Hospital Boston in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and Oxford University. He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University and received his medical training at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.