Grace Colón

CEO & Co-Founder at Inaya Therapeutics, BIO Executive Committee Member

Speaker

Dr. Grace E. Colón has had a nearly 30-year career spanning biopharma, genomics, diagnostics, health care, digital health, synthetic biology, industrial biotechnology, venture capital, management consulting and entrepreneurship. Most recently, she co-founded Inaya Therapeutics, and previously served as CEO of InCarda Therapeutics, where she raised $120M and brought the lead program from pre-clinical stage to Phase 3. Prior to that she held leadership roles at Gilead Sciences, Intrexon, New Science Ventures, Affymetrix, and McKinsey, among others. She currently serves on the board of Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VYGR), as chair of the boards of Bloom Science and Emm, on the Board of the MIT Corporation, and as Vice Chair of the Emerging Companies Section of the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). Previously she served on the boards of CareDx (NASDAQ:CDNA), ProterixBio (Executive Chair), Paradigm Dx (acquired by Exact Sciences), Cocoon Biotech and PerceptiMed.

She is a frequently invited speaker, lecturer, moderator and panelist, and is passionate about advising and mentoring entrepreneurs as well as aspiring board directors, particularly women and underrepresented minorities. She is also an active advocate for women’s health, having experienced first-hand the long-term impact of severe endometriosis.

She is a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and a member of the Latino Corporate Director’s Association. She received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S.E. from the University of Pennsylvania, both in chemical engineering. In 2023 she was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).