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Michael Rosenblatt

Senior Advisor

Michael Rosenblatt, M.D., is a Senior Advisor at Flagship Pioneering and serves as an independent director on a number of Flagship company boards and provides guidance to Flagship and Flagship companies.

Michael joined Flagship six years ago as Flagship’s first Chief Medical Officer, leading global clinical development and global medical affairs. He has played a key role on Flagship’s internal venture creation team during the conception and launch of next-generation, pioneering biotechnology companies and has served as an ongoing strategic resource for Flagship ecosystem companies by supporting their clinical development strategies. Michael has also been a resource to many of Flagship companies through his board memberships including at Rubius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RUBY), Inzen Therapeutics (now Sonata Therapeutics), Cobalt [now Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA)], and Axcella Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AXLA), and he has advised several other Flagship companies as a scientific and clinical advisor.

Michael joined Flagship from Merck, where he was executive vice president and chief medical officer from 2009 to 2016. During his career, he has held appointments as Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine; Robert H. Ebert Professor of Molecular Medicine and George R. Minot Professor of Medicine, both at Harvard Medical School; president, Harvard faculty dean and senior vice president for academic programs of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; and director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Michael is the holder of 19 patents and is author or co-author of over 180 peer-reviewed papers and commentaries.

After receiving his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Columbia University, Michael earned his M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard. His internship, residency and endocrinology training were all at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1981 he was named chief of the Endocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Michael was named senior vice president for research at Merck, Sharpe & Dohme Research Laboratories in 1984, and spent nearly a decade at Merck, co-leading the worldwide development of alendronate (FOSAMAX), Merck’s bisphosphonate for osteoporosis and bone disorders. In leading most of Merck’s international research efforts, he established two major basic research institutes. He also headed Merck Research’s worldwide University and Industry Relations Department.

Over the course of his career Michael has served as a founding scientist, scientific advisory board member, or director of more than a dozen biopharmaceutical companies, including ProScript, Millennium, Human Genome Sciences, and Radius Pharmaceuticals.

Michael is the recipient of the Fuller Albright Award for his work on parathyroid hormone, the Vincent du Vigneaud Award in peptide chemistry and biology, and the Chairman’s Award from Merck. He is a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows, and the research advisory committees of the Massachusetts General Hospital, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Children’s Hospital of Boston.