Jens Eckstein
Jens earned his doctorate, summa cum laude, in biological chemistry in the laboratories of Prof. Ghisla at the University of Konstanz and Prof. Hastings at Harvard University. As a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Santi at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Jens combined structural studies and mechanistic enzymology for thymidylate synthase drug design.
He is the author of multiple scientific publications and holds several issued and pending patents.
As a Kauffman Fellow and angel investor Jens enjoys mentoring young entrepreneurs. He was the Creator, Judge and Mentor of OneStart, the largest life sciences accelerator, run by SR One and Oxford Biotech Roundtable.
Jens has more than 20 years of venture capital experience in biopharma and 10 years of operational and scientific experience in drug discovery and development as well as company creation.
Before joining Hevolution as an Investment Partner Jens was at Apollo Health Ventures as Managing Partner for 4 years. Jens served as President of SR One - the corporate venture arm of Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) - for eight years. He was also co-founder and Managing Director of Action Potential Venture Capital (APVC), a pioneering fund for bioelectronic medicines.
He joined SR One from TVM Capital where he was a general partner in TVM's Boston life sciences practice focusing on earlier-stage investments.
Prior to joining TVM Capital, he led drug discovery programs at Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Mitotix, Inc.
While at Apollo Health Ventures Jens was Chairman and President of Samsara Therapeutics, Chairman at Booster Therapeutics and Refoxy Pharma, Board Director at Aeovian Pharmaceuticals, Haya Therapeutics, Cleara Biotech and Board Observer at Ochre Bio.
Jens is a non-executive Director at Imugene (ASX:IMU).
Previously, he was Chairman of Thrasos Therapeutics and a Board Director and co-founder at Palleon Pharma and Decibel Therapeutics, Board Director at ZappRx, Gladius Pharmaceuticals, Alios Biosciences, CoNCERT Pharmaceuticals, Enanta Pharmaceuticals, SelectX Pharmaceuticals, Rapid Micro Biosystems, Anchor Therapeutics, and BioHealth Innovation (BHI). He was previously a member of the board of directors at, and an advisor to Sirtris Pharmaceuticals.
Jens was also a member of the Expert Council of the European Commission supported EIT Health/Gold Track program focusing on supporting promising emerging biotech companies in Europe.
Jens is a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 10 and served his fellowship under mentor Gert Caspritz at TVM Capital in Boston, MA. He was also a mentor to Vikas Goyal (Class 17).
Jens lives with his family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is always pining for summers and sails on North Haven Island in Maine where he is currently President at the North Haven Casino Yacht Club.