About Us

Blacksmiths of Modern Medicine

For thousands of years, blacksmiths have made critical contributions to society through hard-work and invention by producing items necessary for everyday life such as cooking utensils, nails, weapons and horseshoes. They craft these items from raw metal by heating it in a forge until it can be shaped by their tools. At Blacksmith Medicines, we seek to honor that age-old tradition of hard-work and invention through the discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors of metal-dependent enzymes using our modern toolset.

Seth Cohen, Ph.D.
Scientific Co-Founder
David Puerta, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, COO & VP Discovery
Zachary Zimmerman, Ph.D.
Co-Founder & CEO

Board of Directors

Brian Dorsey, M.S.
Partner of Magna
Sci Ventures
Mario Polywka, D.Phil.
Former COO
of Evotec AG
Steve Worland, Ph.D.
President and CEO of
eFFECTOR Therapeutics
Zachary Zimmerman, Ph.D.
CEO of
Blacksmith Medicines

Oncology Advisors

Neil Gibson, PhD
Experienced cancer drug developer. Former head of Pfizer Oncology and developer of four FDA-approved cancer drugs
Jeff Hager, PhD
Synthetic lethal & DNA Damage Response expert. Executive-in-Residence at Boxer Capital, co-founder of IDEAYA Biosciences, and advisor to numerous oncology focused companies
Chris Lord, DPhil
Prominent cancer genetics researcher and expert in synthetic lethality. Professor of Cancer Genomics, Institute of Cancer Research, UK, Head, CRUK Gene Function Laboratory and part of the team that identified the BRCA/PARP synthetic lethal relationship
Mark Whittaker, DPhil
Metalloenzyme drug discovery expert. Former Evotec Head of Oncology and Director of Chemistry at British Biotech

Infectious Disease Advisors

Michael Barbachyn, Ph.D.
Co-inventor of the antibiotics linezolid (marketed as Zyvox) and sutezolid, and former director-level contributor to antibacterial discovery at Pharmacia, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
Karen Joy Shaw, Ph.D.
Former CSO of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals and former SVP Biology at Trius Therapeutics leading the microbiology strategy for Tedizolid development; former Antibacterial Team Leader Johnson & Johnson and Schering Plough.
Lynn Silver, Ph.D.
Involved in the discovery of the first inhibitors of LpxC, and the development of the antibiotic Invanz at Merck where she held the title of senior investigator.
Peter Warn, Ph.D.
Former SVP Anti-Infective Discovery at Evotec and Chief Science Officer at Euprotec.

Investors

Partners