Louisa Helms

Louisa Helms joined Flagship as an Associate in 2022 where she works to conceive, originate, and build first-in-class bio platform companies. In this role, Louisa is involved in all aspects of company creation including scientific vision, team building, corporate strategy, and intellectual property.

Prior to joining Flagship, Louisa was a Competitive Analyst at TwinStrand Biosciences, where she led competitive intelligence efforts in the next-generation sequencing ecosystem. During her time in graduate school, she was a Senior Venture Analyst for the Washington Research Foundation, performing scientific and financial due diligence for life science investments, and a Business Development consultant for Modulus Therapeutics, building strategic partnerships in the cell therapy sector.

Louisa earned her Ph.D. in Beno Freedman’s lab studying stem cell-derived kidney organoids and their applications in drug development for polycystic kidney disease (PKD), gene therapy for cystinosis, and recapitulating viral responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. She received several awards including a NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral NRSA Fellowship and a Washington Entrepreneurial Research Evaluation & Commercialization Hub Award Investment Award for her work developing drugs in PKD organoids. Prior to her graduate studies, Louisa worked in Michael Emerman’s lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center studying virus-host interactions in the context of HIV-1.

Louisa received her Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine and Mechanisms of Disease (M3D), from the University of Washington and her B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Carnegie Mellon.