Bioengineered Therapies

Dr. Niklason is the founder, President and CEO of Humacyte. Dr. Niklason founded Humacyte in 2005, while still a professor at Duke University. Humacyte is a regenerative medicine company currently performing Phase III trials of engineered blood vessels for dialysis access and for treatment of vascular trauma. Dr. Niklason’s scientific career has focused primarily on regenerative strategies for cardiovascular and lung tissues. She was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2014, into the National Academy of Medicine in 2015, and inducted to the National Academy of Engineering in 2020. She was also named (along with Bill Gates and Joe Biden) as one of 34 leaders who are changing healthcare by Fortune Magazine in 2017. Dr. Niklason received PhD from the University of Chicago in Biophysics in 1988 and received her MD from the University of Michigan in 1991. Dr. Niklason completed her medical training in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1996. She was a professor at Duke University from 1998 – 2005, before moving to Yale University in 2005.

Mike has been a member of the Frazier Life Sciences team since 2006 and brings over 35 years of experience as a scientist and executive to the team. He has co-founded multiple Frazier portfolio companies, including Mavupharma (acquired by AbbVie), Inipharm, Calistoga Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Gilead Sciences), and Stromedix (acquired by Biogen Idec). Mike served as President of Calistoga, which was the first company to demonstrate the clinical benefit of an isoform selective PI3K (idelalisib) inhibitor in hematologic malignancies. That drug, under the brand name Zydelig, received approvals from both the FDA and EMA in 2014 to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia and follicular lymphoma. He currently serves on the board of directors of Inipharm, and on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Inipharm, Lassen Therapeutics, and Lengo Therapeutics.

Previously, Mike was one of the founding scientists at ICOS Corporation, where he served as VP and Scientific Director. Mike’s responsibilities at ICOS included discovery, preclinical research, medicinal chemistry, and process chemistry groups including those that helped generate and support the worldwide registration and launch of Cialis. Earlier, Mike developed expertise in the fields of immunology/inflammation and oncology while on the faculty at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Mike has also been a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Keystone Symposia, Caprion, and the University of Texas Department of Chemistry.

Mike is currently a member of the Therapeutic Advisory Board for Frazier company AnaptysBio and the Board of Directors of EpiThany, Inc. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Frazier company Lassen Therapeutics as well as OncoResponse. In addition, Mike serves on the Board of Directors for Life Science Washington. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Benaroya Research Institute.

Mike received his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta Department of Immunology. His doctoral research focused on genetic resistance to virally induced neoplastic disease and invasive mechanisms, including the first description of antigen gain associated with organ-specific tumor metastasis. While a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell and American Cancer Society fellow at Stanford University in the lab of Irving Weissman, Mike discovered the first cell adhesion molecule implicated in site selective leukocyte traffic.