Barbara S. Fox, PhD, is a biotechnology executive with extensive leadership expertise starting up and building clinical-stage biotech companies. Her primary focus has been on advancing both biologics and small molecules from discovery into the clinic. She has a strong scientific background in immunology and a comprehensive understanding of all key aspects of running a successful biotech company. She has been successful in raising capital from wide range of sources.

Most recently, Barbara was CEO of Rheos Medicines, a biopharmaceutical company founded by Third Rock Ventures developing small molecule therapeutics for immune-mediated disease. While at Rheos, she led the efforts to use the science of immunometabolism to bring precision medicine to the field of autoimmunity and to discover novel targets in the space. The team successfully advanced their lead program through pre-clinical development.

Barbara was previously the founding CEO of Tilos Therapeutics, a company developing antibodies specific for LAP-TGFβ. The antibodies provided a powerful and novel approach to inhibit TGFβ activation in the tumor microenvironment and the company was acquired by Merck in 2019. With less than $10M invested in the company and a total deal value of $776M at exit, Tilos generated a significant return for the founders, the team and the investors.

Prior to Tilos, Barbara worked in both venture capital, small biotech and academia. She as the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Partners Innovation Fund, a position that led to the launch of Tilos Therapeutics. She was the founder and CEO of Avaxia Biologics, an angel-funded company that successfully advanced an orally-delivered anti-TNF antibody through initial clinical trials in ulcerative colitis. She was founder and CSO of Recovery Pharmaceuticals, VP Discovery and Immunology at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp., and Associate Professor of Rheumatology at the U. Maryland School of Medicine.

Barbara currently serves on the boards of Diagonal Therapeutics and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. She is a coach and advisor to the Mass Life Sciences Center NextGen Program supporting women entrepreneurs. She is an active mentor to many early-stage entrepreneurs and a strong advocate for women and under-represented communities in the life science industry.

She received her AB in chemistry from Bryn Mawr College, her PhD in chemistry from MIT and trained as a post-doc in cellular immunology at the NIH. She is an author of 49 peer-reviewed publication and an inventor of 16 issued US patents and numerous patent applications.