Founder/CEO – Board Member – Cell & Gene Therapy
Dr. Thon is a Serial Biotech Entrepreneur, accomplished CEO, and experienced Board Member with technical expertise in cell & gene therapy, hematology, and cell culture/manufacturing who specializes in founding and leading startups through company formation, discovery, and pre/clinical development.
Jonathan has a successful track record of raising Seed and Series A funding in aggregate of $162M from venture capital, strategic and private investors, and non-dilutive sources incl. the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, ARPA-H and BARDA. He has demonstrated strategic and operational leadership ability in defining, communicating, and scaling ambitious technical visions for innovative, high-growth startups. Jonathan is a seasoned inspirational executive who excels at securing new financing, IP creation, and building high performance management teams and collaborative research environments.
Jonathan is the Founder and founding CEO of STRM.BIO, the first gene delivery platform capable of completely bypassing the liver to target long-term hematopoietic stem cells in vivo.
Before STRM.BIO, Jonathan was the Founder and founding CEO & CSO of Platelet BioGenesis (now Stellular Bio), responsible for the first functional human platelets from iPSC culture to treat hematological and oncological diseases. Jonathan was also a professor and lecturer at Harvard Medical School, where he guided dozens of students toward rewarding careers in medicine and biopharma.
Jonathan earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of British Columbia and completed his postdoctoral research fellowship in hematology at Harvard Medical School.
