Dominique Verhelle, PhD is Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Scientific Officer of NextRNA. Dominique has over 20 years of industry experience, spanning key scientific leadership roles in biopharma and venture capital. Prior to joining NextRNA, Dominique served as Head of Academic Innovation at Takeda’s Center for External Innovation, where she led efforts to build partnerships for Takeda with leading academic investigators in the United States and globally. During that time, she also served as a Director on the Board of Bridge Medicines, a Takeda Ventures-backed company. Prior to joining Takeda, Dominique was a Principal at Third Rock Ventures, where she cofounded Fulcrum Therapeutics and Cedilla Therapeutics. Before that, Dominique launched and led epigenetic drug discovery efforts in oncology at Celgene and Pfizer for over a decade.
Dominique completed her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Christopher Glass, MD, PhD at the University of California, San Diego, focusing on transcription regulation and chromatin remodeling. She holds a PhD in Life Sciences from Université Côte d’Azur, France, and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego.