Ryan Bethencourt

Ryan Bethencourt is a scientist, entrepreneur, and biohacker best known for his work as program director and venture partner at Indie.Bio, a biology accelerator and early stage seed fund. Bethencourt was head of life sciences at the XPRIZE foundation, a co-founder and CEO of Berkeley Biolabs, a biotech accelerator, and Halpin Neurosciences, an ALS therapeutics-focused biotech company. Bethencourt co-founded Counter Culture Labs, a citizen science nonprofit, and Sudo Room, a hacker space based in downtown Oakland, California.
Ryan has worked over the last decade in the biopharmaceutical industry to partner on and develop novel drugs from first IND submission to FDA approval with many major biopharmas including Pfizer, AZ, J&J, Sanofi, Takeda, Amgen, Genentech, and other companies in the U.S., E.U., and Japan. He’s also served as COO at Genescient Pharmaceuticals, a longevity focused biotech startup and CEO of Halpin Neurosciences, an ALS focused startup. Ryan’s work has been featured in Wired, TechCrunch, Forbes, the San Francisco Business Times, and other publications. He regularly speaks on biotech innovation and writes for Biocoder, an O’Reilly Media publication. He's also an author of Forbes, Techonomy and Huffington Post.
Since Ryan Bethencourt co-founded Indie Bio in 2014, he and his team have funded 42 biotech startups, including companies building the post-animal bioeconomy: Clara Foods, Memphis Meats, Gelzen, New Wave, and Pembient. He's also an advisor of The Good Food Institute.
He was previously the Life Sciences head at the XPRIZE Foundation, the co-founder and CEO of Berkeley Biolabs and the co-founder of Sudo Room and Counter Culture Labs.

Education

Ryan has been a Summer Undergraduate Research Student, Organelle Assembly at Yale University in 1997. He then again went to Stanford University School of Medicine as a Summer Undergraduate Research Student, Brain Tumor Angiogenesis in 1998. In 1997 – 2000, He took up BSc, Biological Sciences (Molecular Genetics) at Warwick University in the United Kingdom. After 2 years, he enrolled again in Cambridge University for Masters in Bioscience Enterprise (MBE), Business/Biotech in 2002 – 2003. This masters course was the first of its kind in the UK (launched in 2002) and it was a fusion of the MBA/Biotech courses and launched in partnership with Harvard and MIT. The course covered the latest advances in biological and medical science, together with business management and the ethical, legal and regulatory issues associated with bringing scientific advances to market. He's also been a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Candidate, Center for Regenerative Medicine in 2003. Worked on DNA binding proteins, non-specific homeodomain transcription factors and the mechanism by which they can induce highly specific responses which guide early embryo and embryonic stem cell differentiation into mesendoderm. Mesendoderm is an embryonic tissue that both patterns the anterior-posterior neural axis and gives rise to organs such as the liver and pancreas. And lastly, he got a Certificate in Project Management for Biopharmaceuticals in 2011 – 2011 at the University of California, Berkeley

Global Forum 2015

Ryan joins the Global Forum 2015 as one of the speakers. The Global Forum on Research and Innovation for Health 2015 aims to identify solutions to the world’s unmet health needs through research and innovation. The said forum was held on August 24–27, 2015 at Philippines International Convention Center(PICC), Metro Manila, Philippines. Ryan speaks about the topic of "Increasing public expenditure on research and innovation in emerging economies" and "Increasing investments for innovative andpractical solutions to priority healthcare".

Pioneers Asia 2016

Ryan is a part of Pioneers Asia 2016 on Mar 23, 2016 at Tokyo, Japan . Pioneers facilitates profound business relationships between tech innovators. The event is for tech entrepreneurs, investors, top executives, thought-leaders, and international media from Europe to Asia, Middle East, and beyond. Ryan speaks about BIOTECH FOR THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE. He also moderated the life sciences and agriculture topic on the said event.