Biography

Fred Cohen is a founder and senior managing director at Vida Ventures. Prior to Vida, he founded and was a partner at TPG Biotechnology, where he served 16 years. Fred also was previously chief of endocrinology and metabolism and professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology, medicine, biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). At UCSF, he had clinical responsibilities as an internist for hospitalized patients, a consulting endocrinologist and the chief of the division of endocrinology and metabolism.

His research interests include structure-based drug design, prion diseases, computational biology and heteropolymer chemistry. Fred has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, is a co-inventor on more than 10 patents and has been an editor or editorial board member of several international scientific journals.

He currently serves in many scientific and advisory roles in the biotechnology field, including on the board of directors of Genomic Health Inc., CareDx Inc., Veracyte Inc., Tandem Diabetes Care Inc. and UroGen Pharmaceuticals LTD, as well as various private companies. He also is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves on USCF’s board of overseers.

Fred received his bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University, his D.Phil. in molecular biophysics from University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, his doctor of medicine from Stanford University and his postdoctoral training and postgraduate medical training in internal medicine and endocrinology at UCSF.