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Jake Becraft is the CEO and Co-founder of Strand Therapeutics, a company building one of the most advanced programmable genetic medicine platforms in biotechnology. Under his leadership, Strand is redefining what RNA medicines can do by enabling cell-selective targeting and therapeutic payload delivery inside the body, unlocking a new class of precision genetic therapies. He has guided the company from its founding vision through platform development and into clinical translation, positioning Strand at the forefront of next generation RNA therapeutics.

Beyond his role at Strand, Dr. Becraft is an influential voice in the national biotechnology landscape. He engages and advises policymakers, defense leaders, and industry stakeholders on biosecurity, innovation strategy, and strengthening American competitiveness in advanced biotechnology. Trained as a synthetic biologist at MIT, he operates at the intersection of science, entrepreneurship, and policy, focused on building both the companies and the institutional frameworks required to secure the future of programmable medicine.

He received his Ph.D. in Biological Engineering and Synthetic Biology from MIT. He serves on the board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio). In his free time, he enjoys back country snowboarding, training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and spending any and all free time with his wife and young son.

Tasuku Kitada is President and Head of R&D of Strand Therapeutics. He co-founded Strand and serves on its Board of Directors. Prior to Strand, Tasuku was Senior Biotechnology Analyst at Candriam Investors Group, where he conducted due diligence for the company’s multi-billion-dollar biopharma public equity investment strategy. At Candriam, he focused on cell and gene therapy companies, and also covered numerous oncology companies. Currently, Tasuku continues to serve Candriam Investors Group as an advisor. Prior to Candriam, Tasuku was a researcher at the Synthetic Biology Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he became the first scientist to create synthetic gene circuits using synthetic mRNA.

This was the first demonstration of post-transcriptional circuits that can be “wired” to create a variety of networks of increasing complexity, which enabled cell type specific expression as well as small-molecule based control of gene expression from synthetic mRNA. This important research led to publications in Science, Nature Biotechnology, and Nature Chemical Biology. The mRNA synthetic biology platform developed from this research has been exclusively licensed to Strand. Tasuku holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University of California, Los Angeles and a B.S. in Biophysics and Biochemistry from University of Tokyo.

Jason Luke is a physician-scientist-executive and Chief Medical Officer of Strand Therapeutics where he leads clinical development and medical affairs. Prior to joining, he was an academic and administrative leader as faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and Associate Director for Clinical Research of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. There he oversaw enterprise scale research, providing physician leadership of ~800 clinical trials and associated infrastructure budget. On a scientific level, Jason was Principal Investigator of >100 clinical trials from Phase I-IV, including global PI for registrational studies in melanoma.

As an early phase investigator, he led first-in-human clinical trials of nearly all categories of novel cancer therapeutics including but not limited to immune-checkpoint inhibitors, bispecific antibodies, innate immunity, oncolytic virus, gene and adoptive cell transfer as well as RNA therapeutics, kinase inhibitors, antibody drug conjugates, molecular glues and more. His immuno-genomics focused translational research laboratory was funded by the NIH, DOD and other sources. He has been a retained scientific advisory board member to >25 biotechnology and served as scientific consultant to >60 pharma or biotech companies. He received his MD from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science/Chicago Medical School and thereafter completed internal medicine residency at Boston University Medical Center as well as medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He additionally held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as well as the University of Chicago.

Samta Kundu is the Chief Operating Officer of Strand Therapeutics. She has nearly three decades of business strategy and operations experience spanning pharma and biotech. She spent over a decade at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), and was a member of the leadership team of Molecular Discovery Technologies, a department within BMS’ Discovery organization. During her tenure at BMS, she also led initiatives to increase the company’s visibility in the Cambridge/Boston life science community to support the opening of BMS’ Cambridge R&D site. A key initiative she launched and executed was the company’s “Golden Ticket” contest to award lab space to innovative local startups, of which Strand was a 2018 winner.

Previously, Samta was in business development at Adnexus Therapeutics, acquired by BMS in 2007, where she supported deal execution, management of the IP portfolio, and diligence operations. Post BMS acquisition, Samta led business operations for the newly acquired Adnexus-BMS site and executed a number of research transactions on behalf of the site. Earlier in her career, Samta held business development roles at Dyax and Consensus Pharmaceuticals, and was a project manager at Genzyme Tissue Repair. Samta began her career at LEK Consulting, providing strategic analysis to a number of healthcare and biotech clients. She received her MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Princeton University.‍

Jay Stella is the Chief Business Officer of Strand Therapeutics. He has almost three decades of experience across various disciplines, often at the intersection of strategy, finance, and operations. Prior to joining Strand, Jay was responsible for Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Akouos, Inc., a Boston-based precision genetic medicines company and played an instrumental role in the sale of the company to Eli Lilly for about $500M. Jay spent 15 years at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, including time at Millennium prior to the acquisition by Takeda. At both Millennium and Takeda, Jay held positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of Strategy & Operations for Preclinical Development and CMC, leading strategic initiatives for scalability and sustainability, global cross-functional operating models, and modality diversification.

As Chief of Staff for Takeda’s Center for External Innovation, Jay worked alongside industry leaders in R&D Business Development, Corporate Venture, Strategic Academic Alliances, and a Rare Disease Incubator, while overseeing External Outreach and Due Diligence. Jay also led divestitures of certain assets and operations in Japan to support Takeda’s R&D Transformation. In addition to his time at Millennium and Takeda, Jay worked at Sai Life Sciences, Biogen, Genetics Institute, and as an independent consultant. He currently serves as a Trustee of Tower School of Marblehead and on the Board of Directors of Reforest the Tropics. Jay received a Baccalaureate degree from the University of Vermont and an MBA from Boston University.

Colleen Wilson is Chief People Officer for Strand Therapeutics. Colleen Wilson was most recently SVP, Human Resources at Rheos Medicines and has also consulted for multiple public and private biotechnology companies at various stages of development. Prior to founding her own consulting firm, she was VP and Head of Human Resources at Chiasma, Inc. and also led the Human Resources function at Omni-Guide Surgical and Rib-X Pharmaceuticals (now Melinta Therapeutics). She has also held HR roles at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Genzyme Corporation, Targanta Therapeutics (acquired by Medicines Company) and Therion Biologics. She has an MBA from Babson College and a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire.

Prashant Nambiar is Senior Vice President of R&D at Strand Therapeutics where he is leading Discovery, Nonclinical, Translational, and Data Science. Prior to Strand, Prashant was Vice President at 2seventybio and bluebird bio leading the preclinical and translational group developing cell and gene therapies for oncology and rare disease indications. Prashant started his career in academia at MIT followed by 18+ years in biotech and pharma including Genzyme, Pfizer, bluebird bio and 2seventybio. He has worked on various modalities such as small molecules, biologics, AAV, cell and gene editing therapies at various stages of development including discovery, target selection, preclinical development, and beyond.

His expertise is in Translational Biology, Pathology, and Toxicology with a focus on bringing transformative therapies from bench to the clinic and beyond. He is passionate about leveraging data in drug R&D and had built a data operations team at Pfizer to execute on that strategy. Prashant’s PhD is in cancer biology, specifically understanding the molecular pathogenesis of precancerous lesions in the colon. He has board certifications in Toxicology and Veterinary Pathology. He also has an MBA from Sloan School of Business, MIT.

Ethan Cash is Senior Vice President and Head of Portfolio Management & Program Development at Strand Therapeutics, where he leads portfolio strategy and program execution across the company’s development pipeline. He is responsible for setting program strategy, driving cross-functional alignment, and ensuring disciplined execution from early development through key clinical and regulatory milestones. Ethan brings more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, with over 15 years in senior program and portfolio leadership roles. His background spans small molecules and biologics, with deep expertise across oncology, psychiatry, and immunology, and hands-on leadership across all stages of development from preclinical research through Phase III and lifecycle management.

Prior to joining Strand, Ethan served as Vice President and Head of Program Leadership at Mural Oncology and spent more than a decade at Alkermes, where he held roles of increasing responsibility and led multiple complex development programs. His experience includes successful IND-to-NDA execution, oversight of multiple regulatory approvals, global alliance management, and stewardship of large, multi-disciplinary teams and budgets. Ethan is known for his strategic mindset, operational rigor, and collaborative leadership style. He holds a B.A. from Connecticut College and a Certificate in Applied Project Management from Boston University.

Joseph Barberio is a biochemist and molecular biologist with a proven track record of solving complex problems with innovative solutions. He is the Vice President of Technical Operations at Strand Therapeutics and oversees Strand’s manufacturing strategy to support clinical development. With over fifteen years of industry experience, Joe specializes in process and analytical development and has extensive expertise in manufacturing of both viral and RNA based gene therapy medicinal products. The majority of Joseph’s career has been focused on building platforms for small biotech organizations. Most recently at bluebird bio, he constructed and led the mRNA process development team, a group designed to enable gene editing programs. Earlier in his career, Joe held process development roles at Moderna, Percivia, and Acceleron Pharma.

In addition to his work at Strand, Joseph also serves on the Board of Directors of Sophie’s Hope Foundation, a non-profit charity supporting research for Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD). He received his B.A. in Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology at Connecticut College, graduating Cum Laude with distinction.

As VP, Controller & Finance, Mike Bertram oversees accounting, financial reporting, internal controls, treasury, and tax. He previously served as Controller of Viela Bio, Inc., a public clinical stage biotechnology company, from 2019 until the company was acquired in 2021. Before that, he served as Corporate Controller of Senseonics Holdings, Inc., a public commercial stage medical technology company, from 2017 to 2019. Prior to joining the life sciences industry, he spent 10 years in public accounting in external audit, most recently with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Jennifer Hagan is the Vice President of Quality at Strand Therapeutics, bringing more than 25 years of experience in Quality Assurance across the biopharmaceutical industry. She has successfully led Quality organizations from early clinical development through commercial launch, with a proven track record at both emerging biotech and global pharmaceutical companies. At Strand, Jennifer oversees the Quality Systems (QS), Quality Assurance (QA), and Quality Control (QC) functions.

She is responsible for driving global GxP strategy, implementing phase-appropriate quality systems, managing vendor oversight, and ensuring inspection readiness. Prior to joining Strand, Jenn held Quality leadership roles at Omega Therapeutics, Sage Therapeutics, Shire, and Sanofi. She is widely recognized for her pragmatic, risk-based approach to quality, as well as her deep technical expertise, strategic leadership, and strong commitment to continuous improvement.  Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts.