Leigh Zawel

Leigh Zawel is an oncology drug-discovery scientist and biotech investor with more than two decades of experience developing targeted cancer therapies. He earned his PhD in biochemistry (working in Danny Reinberg's laboratory on the components of the RNA Polymerase II basal transcription machinery) and completed postdoctoral training in Bert Vogelstein and Ken Kinzler's laboratory at Johns Hopkins, studying the dysregulation of TGF-β signaling in cancer. He is an author on more than 35 scientific publications and an inventor on roughly 45 patents spanning chemical matter, drug combinations, biomarkers, and gene function in apoptosis, inflammation, and TGF-β signaling.

His industry career has run through several major oncology research organizations: he began as an oncology group leader at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, then served as the oncology site lead at Merck Research Laboratories in Boston, and later as East Coast Site Head of Pfizer's Center for Therapeutic Innovation. He subsequently became Chief Scientific Officer, Small Molecules, at Nasdaq-listed Cullinan Oncology (now Cullinan Therapeutics), where he oversaw development of CLN-081 (zipalertinib), a best-in-class EGFR Exon20 TKI that was partnered with Taiho Pharmaceutical and Zai Lab.

On the investing side, Zawel has worked as a Senior Investment Partner at Burrage Capital and as an Executive Partner at MPM Capital / MPM BioImpact, a long-established Boston-based healthcare and biotech venture firm, where he helped guide investment decisions and evaluate venture opportunities in therapeutics. He is currently Chief Scientific Officer at Pheon Therapeutics, an antibody-drug-conjugate company, and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Atlas Venture, a leading biotech venture-creation firm. His career sits at the intersection of hands-on drug development and early-stage biotech company building.

• Invests in and helps build early-stage oncology and therapeutics companies, leveraging deep scientific operator experience rather than a generalist angel approach.
• Focus areas mirror his scientific expertise: targeted small molecules, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and precision oncology with novel targets/payloads.
• As an MPM/MPM BioImpact Executive Partner and Atlas EIR, his role blends venture creation, scientific diligence, and operating leadership — he is the kind of investor who can step into a CSO/founding-scientist seat.
• Values strong target biology and clear translational/clinical differentiation (e.g., "first-in-class" or "best-in-class" assets such as the Exon20 TKI he advanced at Cullinan and Pheon's first-in-class ADC).