David H. Kirn

David H. Kirn is an American entrepreneur-innovator, physician-scientist, CEO and professor. He is co-founder and CEO of 4D Molecular Therapeutics (4DMT), a biotechnology company designing and developing adeno-associated virus gene therapy vectors.[1][2]

Kirn is the co-founder and board member of the Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center at UC Berkeley[3] and was the inaugural course co-director, and is currently a lecturer for the Robinson Life Sciences Business and Entrepreneurship Program at UC Berkeley. Kirn is also a professor teaching biotechnology entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley.

Prior to 4DMT, he was co-founder, CEO and Executive Chairman of Ignite Immunotherapy Inc, an oncolytic virus cancer vaccine company that he sold to Pfizer.[4]

Kirn was also founder and CEO of Jennerex (2003–2013) and was the first development employee and vice president of clinical research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals (1994–2000).[5][6][7] where he led the ONYX-015 oncolytic virus program and the first sorafenib (Nexavar) clinical development plan (1994-2000). Kirn was also SVP of Clinical Research and Development at Celgene.

He has held other academic positions at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School; the University of Oxford; and was chief medical resident at Harvard Medical School. His published work on oncolytic adenoviruses includes Onyx-015 and has appeared in Nature' and Nature Medicine.[8]

  1. ^ Yan, Wudan (2015-09-01). "Starting up and spinning out: The changing nature of partnerships between pharma and academia". Nature Medicine. 21 (9): 968–971. doi:10.1038/nm0915-968. ISSN 1078-8956. PMID 26340114. S2CID 43236613.
  2. ^ Mai, Don. "About the Schaffer Lab". Schaffer Research Group. University of California Berkeley. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  3. ^ "UC Berkeley Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center". UC Berkeley. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  4. ^ "Pfizer backs and nabs an option to buy newly launched Bay Area startup Ignite Immunotherapy". Biospace.
  5. ^ "David H. Kirn M.D.: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  6. ^ "David Kirn, MD". CALBIO 2015.
  7. ^ Holtz, Andrew (1 May 2007). "To Build a Killing Machine". The Scientist. LabX Media Group.
  8. ^ Kirn, David; Martuza, Robert L.; Zwiebel, James (2001). "Replication-selective virotherapy for cancer: Biological principles, risk management and future directions". Nature Medicine. 7 (7): 781–787. doi:10.1038/89901. PMID 11433341. S2CID 197041.