Vanessa King, Ph.D.

Venture Partner at Abingworth

Vanessa has spent the last two decades on the operating, deals and R&D side of pharma and biotech.  Vanessa comes to Virion from Luc Therapeutics, where, as President and CEO, she led the company’s transformation from single asset neuropsychiatry play to a precision medicine neuroscience company with a clinical pipeline.  Prior to that, she led business development in the founding leadership team for the restart of deCODE genetics, which was acquired by Amgen in 2012 for $415 million.  Vanessa has served as Chairman of Tiaki Therapeutics, been an Entrepreneur in Residence at Atlas Venture, and held senior business development and operating positions at Amgen and Novartis.  She earned her PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Cambridge.