Our Team

Andrew Levin joined RA Capital Management in 2015 and is a Managing Director on the Investment Team and spearheads a drug discovery effort that has led to the formation of several new companies. Prior to joining RA Capital, Andrew was Vice President at H.I.G. BioVentures and before that served as the Director of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Andrew holds a BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University, a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MD from Harvard Medical School.

Houman Ashrafian Houman joined SV in 2016 as a Venture Partner, was promoted to Partner in 2017 and became a Managing Partner in 2018. He has founded five SV companies; Sitryx, Ervaxx, Zarodex, TrexBio and Alchemab. Houman serves on the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) Investment Committee and as a Director of Karus Therapeutics. Previously, Houman co-founded the services company Cardiac Report in 2003, as well as Heart Metabolics in 2008. Heart Metabolics successfully repositioned perhexiline, as a treatment for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and heart failure. Perhexiline is now in advanced clinical trials and has orphan drug designation. He went on to become Vice President and head of the Clinical Science Group at UCB Pharma. Outside of SV, following completion of his cardiology training, Houman was appointed as an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist in 2011 at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. He is Visiting Professor and head of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Oxford. Additionally, Houman is co-founder and Chairman of Weatherden, a boutique clinical development company. Academic credentials Undergraduate degree, University of Cambridge; BM BCh, DPhil, University of Oxford.

Dr. James Januzzi is the Hutter Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, staff cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Senior Cardiometabolic Faculty at Baim Institute for Clinical Research. His research spans all aspects of drug development, including contributions towards a deeper understanding of cardiac biomarker testing and effects of drug therapies for the treatment of patients suffering from heart failure, diabetes, and acute coronary syndromes.

Dr. Januzzi is one of the most highly cited researchers in cardiology, having published hundreds of manuscripts and has participated in numerous guideline documents and consensus statements. He is an Associate Editor at JACC and JACC Heart Failure and currently serves as a Trustee of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Januzzi is an M.D. from New York Medical College. He then performed a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, followed by fellowship in cardiology and cardiac ultrasound at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he joined the full-time staff in 2000.

John Young currently serves as Group President and Senior Advisor to the Pfizer CEO prior to his retirement from Pfizer in mid-2022. A scientist by training, John has almost 35 years of experience with Pfizer and has held several leadership positions across the organization. Most recently, John was Group President and Chief Business Officer at Pfizer, and a member of the Company’s Executive Leadership Team.

As Chief Business Officer, John led a division that integrated all Strategy, Consulting, Business Development, Business Assessment, Portfolio & Decision Analysis, and the Patient & Health Impact reimbursement and access teams. He also played an integral role in the collaborations that led to the successful development and delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Prior to this role, John was the Group President of Pfizer Innovative Health, which included six business units: Internal Medicine, Inflammation & Immunology, Oncology, Rare Disease, Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare. Each business unit focused on developing innovative breakthrough medicines or vaccines, and on increasing access for patients impacted by diseases with significant unmet need.

Anne Prener, M.D., Ph.D., has more than 25 years of leadership experience within life science companies. Anne joined Imbria Pharmaceuticals as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in July 2020. Anne also serves as Venture Partner at SV Health Investors. Anne has led companies and teams across several therapeutic areas, including a focus on rare diseases. As CEO of Freeline, a liver-directed gene therapy company, she scaled the company from preclinical stage to a fully integrated biotechnology organization, which included a broad, internally developed pipeline, two programs in clinical development and a commercial-scale, high-quality CMC and manufacturing platform.

Prior to joining Freeline, she served as CEO of Gyroscope Therapeutics Ltd., a gene therapy company focused on eye diseases. Before that, Dr. Prener was Global Therapeutic Area Head of Hematology and Vice President, Clinical Research Hematology at Baxalta. During her time there, three new major product approvals in the U.S. and EU were secured along with a significant advancement in Baxalta’s hematology portfolio. Earlier in her career, Dr. Prener held several positions of increasing responsibility at Novo Nordisk, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Hemophilia R&D Portfolio, where she was instrumental in building a portfolio of late stage and commercial hemophilia products. Dr. Prener serves on the Board of Directors of Galecto. She holds a Ph.D. in epidemiology and an M.D., both from the University of Copenhagen.