Robert Langer is arguably the most successful academic entrepreneur in the life sciences.
As MIT’s David H. Koch Institute Professor, he has written over 1,500 articles, which have been cited over 396,000 times; his h-index of 313 is the highest of any engineer in history and the 2nd highest of any individual in any field. His patents have been licensed or sub-licensed to over 400 companies; he has co-founded dozens of ventures, including Moderna, Seer, Sigilon, and Elevian, that span therapeutics, delivery systems, and advanced materials.
What makes his journey uniquely relevant to scientific founders is not just the number of companies he has helped launch, but the consistency with which he has translated foundational science into companies that endure, guided by a deep understanding of what it takes to lead, structure, and scale ventures that are built on complex innovation.
This session is centered around the leadership inflection points that define whether transformative science becomes a viable company or stalls just after leaving the lab.
The decisions are rarely technical, but whether to stay in the CEO seat, who to bring in and when, and what capabilities a founder must develop beyond the science itself.
Speaker: Professor Robert Langer
Robert Langer is one of nine Institute Professors at MIT; being an Institute Professor is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. He has written over 1,500 articles, which have been cited over 396,000 times; his h-index of 313 is the highest of any engineer in history and the 2nd highest of any individual in any field. His patents have licensed or sublicensed to over 400 companies; he is a cofounder of a number of companies including Moderna.
Dr Langer served as Chairman of the FDA’s Science Board (its highest advisory board) from 1999-2002. His over 220 awards include both the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (he is one of 3 living individuals to have received both these honors), the Charles Stark Draper Prize (often called the Engineering Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize for Chemistry, Millennium Technology Prize, Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), Gairdner Prize, Hoover Medal, Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine, and the Balzan Prize. He holds 41 honorary doctorates, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Northwestern, and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.
Langer is a co-founder of a number of companies and serves (or has served) as a member of the Board of Directors of many entities, including Moderna, Living Proof, Alkermes, PureTech, Momenta, and Seer.
His lab has trained hundreds of researchers, many of whom have gone on to become scientific founders and CEOs. He has helped launch and guide dozens of companies, many of which have reached clinical, commercial, or public-market milestones. What distinguishes Robert Langer is his ability to navigate, repeatedly and successfully, the transition from scientific invention to venture formation. He brings a uniquely experienced perspective on the leadership choices that matter most in the earliest, highest-risk stages of company building.
Why this is relevant for you
As a founder leading a science-based venture, you are operating in conditions of extreme uncertainty not only around technical risk, but also around how to build the right organization for your science. The early decisions you make about leadership, hiring, governance, and your own role will reverberate more than any dataset or fundraising round.
Bain & Company’s research on biotech scaling shows that scientific success is often insufficient: the differentiator is organizational readiness. Founders who successfully navigate the transition from discovery to venture are those who learn to lead differently or who recognize when to empower someone else to do so.
Robert Langer has seen this play out across more than 40 company trajectories. This session will focus on:
The leadership skills scientific founders must develop and when
Avoidable missteps that compromise early-stage biotech companies
How to structure leadership around the mission
What he’s learned about the founder-to-CEO transition