Zandy Forbes, PhD

Bio:

Alexandria Forbes, Ph.D. is the President and CEO of MeiraGTx (NASDAQ: MGTX). MeiraGTx is a vertically integrated genetic medicines company with core capabilities in viral vector design and optimization and GMP manufacturing, as well as a transformative gene to precisely control gene expression for in vivo production of any therapeutic biologic ..  The company is developing innovative DNA based products to cost effectively treat a range of serious medical disorders, with clinical programs currently in the eye, salivary gland and CNS.

Prior to founding MeiraGTx, Dr. Forbes served as Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Kadmon Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from September 2013 to April 2015.Before joining the biotech industry, she spent 10 years as a healthcare investor at Sivik Global Partners (Argus Partners) and Meadowvale Partners.  At Sivik, Dr. Forbes was responsible for investments in biotechnology, specialty pharmaceuticals and diagnostics public equities and was portfolio manager of the Sivik Global Life Science Fund, a long-biased public markets fund investing in biotechnology companies globally.  

Before entering the hedge fund industry, Dr. Forbes was an academic scientist studying the regulation of stem cell identity and different aspects of embryogeneis.  She was a Human Frontiers/Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellow at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, where her research focused on cytoplasmic determinants and cell signaling pathways involved in the migration, establishment and maintenance of germ line stem cells in Drosophila melanogaster.  Prior to this, Dr. Forbes was a research fellow at Duke University and at the Carnegie Institute at Johns Hopkins University where she studied the role of the hedgehog gene and its signaling pathway in the Drosophila embryo and adult.  Dr. Forbes received her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Oxford University, UK and attained a double first degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, UK. 

Dr. Forbes serves on the Board of Directors of MeiraGTx, and as a Trustee and Director of the Selfridges Group Foundation, the European arm of the Weston Brain Institute, a charity supporting research into neurodegenerative diseases with the aim of speeding the time to the development of disease modifying treatments for these currently intractable diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s. She also serves as a member of the Penn Medicine Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy External Advisory Board.