Dr. Sekar Kathiresan is co-founder & CEO of Verve Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new approach to the care of cardiovascular disease, transforming treatment from chronic management to single-course gene editing medicines. Dr. Kathiresan is a cardiologist & scientist with a career focused on understanding the inherited basis for heart attack & leveraging those insights to improve the care of cardiovascular disease. Based on his groundbreaking discoveries in human genetic mutations that confer resistance to cardiovascular disease, Dr. Kathiresan co-founded Verve Therapeutics with a vision to create a pipeline of single-course, gene editing therapies focused on addressing root causes of this highly prevalent & life-threatening disease. Today, Verve is advancing 2 initial programs targeting PCSK9 & ANGPTL3, respectively – genes that have been extensively validated by Dr. Kathiresan & others as targets for lowering blood lipids, such as low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which is a major driver of cardiovascular disease. Before joining Verve, Dr. Kathiresan’s roles included director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Genomic Medicine, director of the Cardiovascular Disease Initiative at the Broad Institute & professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. There, his research laboratory focused on understanding the inherited basis for blood lipids and myocardial infarction. For his research contributions, he's been recognized by the American Heart Association with its highest scientific honor - a Distinguished Scientist Award & by the American Society of Human Genetics with the 2018 Curt Stern Award. Dr. Kathiresan graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania & received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine & cardiology at MGH & his postdoctoral research training in human genetics at the Framingham Heart Study and the Broad Institute.