Our leadership

Vivian Berlin, PhD, is Executive Director, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD), having been part of OTD’s business development team since 2008. During her tenure at OTD, Dr. Berlin has established numerous major research alliances between the university and industry partners, which have provided more than $170M in research funding to Harvard. She has spearheaded the commercialization of groundbreaking life-science technologies developed at Harvard, notably through licenses to startups focused on developing next-generation therapeutics (e.g. Semma, Magenta, Editas, Beam, Sana, Fog) that have collectively raised $1.6B in venture financing and greater than $1B from IPOs and M&A. Prior to joining Harvard, Dr. Berlin held positions in research management and business development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Mitotix, and GPC Biotech. She led multiple R&D programs, advanced programs from discovery to late pre-clinical development, and helped to establish proprietary positions in several therapeutic areas. She has also been a strategic consultant to several life-science companies and investor groups. Vivian holds an M.S. from the Harvard School of Public Health and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

Curtis Keith, PhD has served as Chief Scientific Officer of Harvard University’s Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator (previously, Harvard Biomedical Accelerator Fund) since 2008. By providing financial and other support, the Accelerator helps bridge the gap between early-stage research emanating from Harvard labs and validated de-risked technologies that are ready for industry partnership. To date the Accelerator has provided $24 million in direct funding to 134 projects from across Harvard University. Nearly half of completed Accelerator projects have been partnered with industry – either through startup formation, or collaborations and licensing agreements with existing biotech and pharmaceutical companies. More than 20 new startups have been launched to commercialize Accelerator-funded innovations and these have collectively raised over $2 billion in equity financing. In all, the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator's partnered technologies and collaborative research projects have generated more than $100 million in licensing revenue and research funding, supporting continued discovery and innovation at Harvard. Prior to joining Harvard University, Dr. Keith was Senior Vice President of Research at CombinatoRx, a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company he cofounded in 2000. Under his leadership, CombinatoRx created an integrated technology platform for the discovery of multi-target therapeutics, yielding a broad pipeline of preclinical and clinical drug candidates in areas including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Keith earned his BSc in biochemistry from McGill University and received his AM and PhD in chemistry and chemical biology from Harvard University.

Matthew Shair, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, an associate of the Broad Institute and an affiliate of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. The Shair lab develops novel small molecule therapeutics and using chemical probes discovered in the lab, they study human disease biology. Recently, his lab discovered that small molecule inhibition of CDK8 and CDK19 is a new therapeutic approach to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and that these kinases regulate expression of key cell fate determining genes in AML cells. He has been the recipient of several awards for his work, most notably the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences-Chemistry and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award. In addition, he has been a founder of several biotech companies including Infinity Pharmaceuticals and an advisor to Ariad, Enanta, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Novartis.

William Slattery is a Partner on the Therapeutics team at Deerfield Management and joined the Firm in 2000. Prior to Deerfield, Mr. Slattery was a senior healthcare analyst for 10 years at Amerindo Investment Advisors, where he oversaw biotechnology investments. He has held various positions in research including those at National Medical Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson, and HMSS. Mr. Slattery is the Chairman of Gilda’s Club New York City, a non-profit organization supporting cancer patients and their families. He holds an undergraduate degree in Biology and Chemistry from State University of New York at Albany and completed coursework in Immunology at the Graduate School-New Brunswick, Rutgers University.

Nadim Shohdy, PhD, is Chief Operating Officer, Deerfield Discovery and Development and joined Deerfield Management in 2024. Prior to Deerfield, Dr. Shohdy was Vice President, Corporate Development at Hyku Biosciences. Before Hyku Biosciences, Dr. Shohdy served as Entrepreneur in Residence at RA Ventures, a division of RA Capital Management, during which time he also served as Vice President, Corporate Development at Clear Creek Bio. Prior to these roles, Dr. Shohdy spent 10 years at NYU Langone Health in roles of increasing seniority, including most recently as Associate Dean, Therapeutics Alliances. Dr. Shohdy started his career as a Research Associate at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory before serving as a Research Analyst, Innovation Fund at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Dr. Shohdy holds a B.S. in Biology from Stony Brook University and a M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D. in Microbiology from Columbia University.

Frank Nestle, MD, FMedSci, is a Partner at Deerfield Management and member of the therapeutics team.  Frank leads Deerfield’s drug discovery and development efforts and applies his expertise to all aspects of our investment process.  Prior to joining Deerfield in 2024, Dr. Nestle was Global Head of Research and Chief Scientific Officer at Sanofi, where he oversaw all research therapeutic areas and platforms.  Before this, Dr. Nestle was Professor and Chair of Cutaneous Medicine and Immunotherapy at King’s College London and practiced medicine at Guy’s and St. Thomas Hospital in London and the University Hospital in Zürich.  Dr. Nestle has also held leadership roles in several academic and professional organizations and served on the board of several private companies. Dr. Nestle holds an M.D. from The Julius Maximilian’s University of Würzburg and is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.