Michael Lark, PhD

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Mike has over 35 years of experience at leading and managing drug discovery and development teams at both large pharmaceutical and small biotech companies. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at BioAdvance where he sits on the investment committee and does outreach to local research institutions to help bring interesting investable science to BioAdvance’s attention. Mike was Head of Research at a drug discovery accelerator called BioMotiv and Executive in Residence at Koutif Therapeutics. Mike is CSO at Mirata Pharmaceuticals where he leads drug discovery and non-clinical development, President of Lark Pharmaceutical Consulting where he advises biotech companies on drug discovery and development strategy and sits on the board of a drug delivery company call Ophidion. Prior to joining BioAdvance, Mike was CSO and Sr. Vice President of Research at Trevena Inc., where he was a member of the executive team and was responsible for the drug discovery and non-clinical development functions within the company. Prior to Trevena, Mike was Vice President of Biology at Centocor R&D where he was responsible for the therapeutic discovery strategy and execution in immunology, oncology, tissue remodeling and biomarkers, and Director of Musculoskeletal Diseases at GlaxoSmithKline, where he managed a portfolio of drug discovery projects targeting osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Mike started his industry career as a Senior Investigator at Merck Research laboratories, where he was a drug discovery leader. He has published over 130 peer reviewed papers, reviews and book chapters and is a co-inventor on 11 patents. Mike received his B.S. in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from the Case Western Reserve University Medical School. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pathology at The University of Washington.