Makoto (Mark) Ohori, PhD

Dr. Ohori joined UTokyo IPC in October 2020. Prior to UTokyo IPC, he was Executive Director, Head of Early-stage Partnering at Astellas Innovation Management LLC (Cambridge, MA), where he established and managed dozens of strategic partnerships with life science companies and academic institutions in the US, Europe, and Japan. Before that, Dr. Ohori worked for Astellas Venture Management LLC (Menlo Park, CA) as Investment Director and made investments in around fifteen biotech ventures. More than half of them already achieved Exits (IPO or M&A). Dr. Ohori also led the efforts of partnering and collaboration management with portfolio companies including build-to-buy NewCos. He was working in-residence at Potenza Therapeutics, where he served as Co-chair of the Joint Steering Committee. The company was successfully achieved Exit (M&A) with three clinical programs, which were discovered under the collaboration. Dr. Ohori also has fifteen-years of experience of drug discovery research with leading cross-functional teams in Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals and Astellas Pharma. Dr. Ohori advanced his training as a molecular biologist in the Faculty and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Tokyo, where he received his BS, MS, and PhD.