Helena Lucente

Helena Lucente joined Flagship Pioneering in 2026 and serves as Director of Business Development. In this role, Helena leads strategic transactions and partnering efforts across Pioneering Medicines. She collaborates closely with cross-functional teams spanning R&D, program and alliance management, finance, legal, and operations to shape and execute business development strategies, advance external engagement with biopharma partners, and negotiate complex partnership agreements that support the translation of breakthrough science into transformative medicines.

Before joining Flagship, Helena was at Vor Bio, a clinical-stage cell therapy company focused on developing curative therapies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), where she specialized in business development and strategic partnerships supporting the advancement of the company’s pipeline and platform. Earlier in her career, Helena worked at Ximbio, a technology transfer and licensing business unit within the nonprofit Cancer Research UK (CRUK), where she commercialized life sciences reagents and technologies. She also contributed to search and evaluation efforts at PureTech Health, generating early market insights and helping identify high-potential opportunities across emerging therapeutic areas.

Helena earned her Ph.D. in Oncological Sciences from the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. As part of her training, she participated in the HHMI Med into Grad program, receiving interdisciplinary training that bridges basic science and clinical medicine. Her doctoral research focused on understanding the biological mechanisms driving leukemia progression to inform future therapeutic strategies in hematologic malignancies.