42. Pharma BD to TechBio VC w/ Becky Pferdehirt - Partner @ Andreessen Horowitz (a16z Bio + Health Fund) & Seth Lieblich - Principal @ 8VC (Bio Team)

Becky Pferdehirt is a Partner on the a16z bio investing team. She focuses on early stage companies building technology platforms for therapeutic discovery and development. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Becky worked at Amgen where she most recently led business development efforts for therapeutic platform partnerships. Before moving to BD Becky was a research scientist in Amgen R&D, focused on cell and gene therapy technology innovation. Becky completed her postdoctoral education at Genentech studying cancer cell biology and proteomics. She holds a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UC Berkeley and a BS in Biology from MIT.

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Seth Lieblich is a Principal on the 8VC Bio Team. Seth came from Amgen where he was in Amgen Business Development’s technology group where he was responsible for search & evaluation and transactions for platform technologies across a number of therapeutic and functional areas. Seth was also responsible for strategic academic partnerships across all therapeutic and geographic areas. Prior to Amgen, Seth was at ZS Associates where he led teams engaging in market research, sales force design, and strategy. Prior to ZS Associates, Seth was co-founder and COO of Protomer Technologies, a Pasadena-based biologics startup. Seth received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the California Institute of Technology and holds a B.S and M.S. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University.

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BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license)