After qualifying as a veterinarian at Cornell University and completing his PhD at Harvard University, Koji Yasuda conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard. He then joined Kintai Therapeutics (now Senda Biosciences) as a founding team member and contributed to its launch. Kintai was a biotech company created by Flagship Pioneering, the venture capital firm that invested in Moderna. In particular, Koji’s doctoral research at Harvard formed the basis of Kintai’s intellectual property. The company raised $50 million in Series A and $98 million in Series B. In 2022, it raised $123 million in Series C.

He subsequently joined Takeda Pharmaceutical in Boston, where he led the Phase II clinical biomarker strategy for Fazirsiran (formerly TAK-999), a first-in-class RNAi therapy for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency-associated liver disease. He also oversaw clinical biomarker development for modakafusp alfa (formerly TAK-573), a first-in-class immunocytokine for refractory multiple myeloma. During his time at Pfizer, he led the development of clinical biomarker strategies for multiple targeted therapies. For an innovative clinical protocol design combining novel drugs within those programs, he and the design team received a Breakthrough Award from Pfizer’s Worldwide Research, Development and Medical (WRDM) organization.

Koji holds a PhD in Computational Biology from Harvard University, where he conducted his doctoral research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from Cornell University.