Industry Veteran Joins Xaira to Scale AI-Driven Drug Discovery Platform
Xaira Therapeutics, an integrated biotechnology company leveraging artificial intelligence to transform drug discovery and development, has appointed Jeff Jonker as its new President and Chief Operating Officer. Reporting to CEO Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Jonker will help shape company strategy, oversee operations, and scale the organization as Xaira advances its next-generation AI-enabled therapeutic platform.
“Jeff is an accomplished biotech executive with extensive experience as an operator, director, and senior advisor,” said Marc Tessier-Lavigne, CEO of Xaira Therapeutics. “At Belharra Therapeutics, he built the company from the ground up as its first employee, shaping its vision, assembling the team, and guiding it through critical milestones. That kind of entrepreneurial leadership is exactly what Xaira needs as we scale our AI-powered discovery engine and push the boundaries of therapeutic innovation.”
Jonker’s Track Record in Biotech Leadership
Jonker brings more than 20 years of leadership experience across public and private biotech companies. He most recently served as President and CEO of Belharra Therapeutics, where he established the company’s vision and built its team from inception. Previously, he was CEO of Ambys Medicines and President of NGM Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NGM), where he expanded its therapeutic pipeline and forged a strategic partnership with Merck. His earlier career includes leadership roles at Genentech and advisory work at Wilson Sonsini. Jonker holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School and an M.Litt. from the University of St. Andrews.
“What drew me to Xaira is the scale of its ambition. This company isn’t just aiming to make better medicines—it’s reimagining how we discover them,” said Jeff Jonker. “By uniting machine learning, biological insight, and therapeutic development, Xaira has the potential to uncover treatments that were previously unimaginable and bring them to patients faster. I’m honored to join a team that is pushing the boundaries of science to change the trajectory of human health.”
Commitment to Open Science and AI Innovation
Earlier this month, Xaira introduced X-Atlas/Orion, the largest publicly available genome-wide Perturb-seq dataset profiling over 8 million single cells. This groundbreaking dataset is designed to fuel next-generation foundation models in biology, reinforcing Xaira’s commitment to open science and accelerating AI-driven therapeutic discovery.
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