About us

Unravel’s dedicated team brings effective drugs to patients based on technology developed at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Their deep experience cuts across disciplines, including computational drug discovery, innovative animal models, automated drug screens, and entrepreneurship, and forms the keystone to building a new paradigm for accelerating drug development at lower cost and with lower risk.

  • Richard Novak, PhD

    CEO & Co-FOUNDER

    Richard Novak, Ph.D. is a bioengineer and entrepreneur dedicated to solving unanswerable questions through technology innovation. Prior to Unravel Bio, he was a Lead Engineer at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University where he managed fast-paced programs in drug discovery, advanced disease models, human Organ Chips, and integrated automation and sensor systems. He has over 15 years of experience in microfluidic system development and applications in the therapeutic space. He is a founder and president of the nonprofit Future Scientist and a founder and director of the sample collection automation company Rhinostics Inc.

  • Frederic Vigneault, PhD

    CSO & Co-FOUNDER

    Frederic Vigenault, Ph.D. is a molecular biologist with a drive to tackle unmet patient needs. Prior to Unravel Bio, his role as Senior Scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University enabled him to work across teams on multidisciplinary projects, including the initial development of CRISPR gene editing, low-cost diagnostics using synthetic biology, and DNA synthesis and sequencing that led to multiple startup companies. As a scientist at SRI International, he enabled development of systems-level signaling models. He has a background in plant molecular biology.

  • Neal Muni, MD

    CMO

    Neal Muni, M.D., MSPH is a practicing clincian at Brigham Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, a biopharma entrepreneur, investor, and executive. He is the founder and Managing Director of RTK Group. Prior to RTK, Dr. Muni served for over 20 years in senior roles across the entire life sciences value chain, most recently serving as the CEO of Azurity Pharmaceuticals (formerly CutisPharma). Prior to CutisPharma, Dr. Muni served as the Head of New Product Planning and Corporate Strategy at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, an engagement manager at the healthcare investment bank Leerink Swann (now SVB Leerink), and a Medical Officer in the Division of Cardiovascular Devices at the FDA, serving as the lead medical reviewer for drug-eluting intracoronary stents.

  • Sevgi Umur

    Sr. Computational Scientist

    Sevgi Umur is a computational sciensist and entrepreneur with a background spanning molecular biology and computational analysis. Sevgi leads our informatics and computational drug prediction program. Prior to Unravel, Sevgi was a scientist at Honeycomb Biotechnologies and ReadCoor, Pfizer, and a founder of Genonymous Sciences.

  • Erica Gardner

    Scientist

    Erica Gardner is a biologist who leads Unravel's tadpole screening program to discover treatments for complex diseases. Prior to Unravel, Erica was at the Wyss Institute developing novel drugs screens in Xenopus, part of a Harvard Medical School research core enabling protein and biomolecule production and purification for pathogen research.

  • Rahul Nihalani, PhD

    Sr. Computational Scientist

    Rahul Nihalani, Ph.D. is a computational scientist who leads development of Unravel's computational architecture. Rahul has a background in computer science, including developing novel algorithms for sequence alignment. Prior to Unravel, Rahul was a senior computer engineer at Dell/EMC, where he developed garbage collection algorithms and frameworks for backup servers.

Advisory Board

  • Don Ingber, MD PhD

    Co-Founder & Advisor

    Donald E. Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. is the Founding Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hospital, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. ​He is an expert in mechanobiology and developed Organ Chip technology for accelerating drug development, with over 500 publications and over 160 patents issued or pending. Dedicated to maximizing impact through commercialization of academic technology, he is the founder of 5 companies.

  • Michael Levin, PhD

    Co-Founder & Advisor

    Michael Levin, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor in the Biology department at Tufts University, holds the Vannevar Bush endowed Chair, serves as director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology, and is an Associate Faculty at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. His research focuses on understanding biophysical mechanisms underpinning decision-making, growth, and development as well as using bioelectric cues to control disease and regeneration.

  • George Church

    George Church, PhD

    Advisor

    George Church is the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a founding member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. He is a renowned geneticist and entrepreneur, noted for his integration of new technology with novel scientific questions focused on improving health. Dr. Church pioneered genomic technology innovation, founding around 50 companies including Colossal, Editas, and Veritas Genomics.

    Image credit: Heyytessa, CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Julie Clauss, MEng, MS, MBA

    Advisor

    Julie Clauss, MEng, MS, MBA is CEO and Cofounder of Aptabridge Therapeutics and has held prior executive roles including VP at Ultragenyx, VP of R&D Operations at Ipsen, and global R&D lead at Sanofi. Julie Clauss is a highly accomplished business leader with a remarkable history of driving revenue growth strategies and guiding organizations to realize their vision of improving patient care.

  • Andrew Nierenberg, MD

    Advisor

    Andrew Nierenberg, M.D., is the Director of the Dauten Family Center for Bipolar Treatment Innovation and Associate Director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Nierenberg’s primary interests are treatment-resistant depression, bipolar depression, and innovative treatments for mood disorders. He lectures extensively, both nationally and internationally, teaches, supervises, maintains an active clinical practice, conducts clinical trials, consults to industry, and peer reviews for over 35 psychiatric journals.

  • Bridget Queenan, PhD

    Advisor

    ridget Queenan, PhD is a transdisciplinary neuroscientist and the Executive Director of Research for Quantitative & Synthetic Biology at Harvard. She previously was the Research Director for Biological Engineering, Science & Technology at the University of California Santa Barbara. Bridget Queenan brings a strong focus on effective communication of complex science, starting as an Editor at Tieme Medical Publishers where she developed the best-selling anatomy atlas in the world.