Christine Brennan, Ph.D.
Managing Director Vertex Ventures HC
Christine Brennan has over 20 years in the life-science industry including business development, corporate strategy, and venture investing. She is currently Managing Director at Vertex Ventures HC (VVHC), an independent venture fund investing in preclinical to clinical stage biotechnology companies and late clinical or early commercialization stage medtech companies. She is board director for Boundless Bio [NASDAQ:BOLD] and Redona Therapeutics as well as board observer for EyeBio, Epirium Bio, Matchpoint Therapeutics and Septerna.
Christine serves or has served as an advisor in various capacities to Life Sciences Cares, the National Hemophilia Foundations’ fund Pathways to Cures, the Myeloma Investment Fund, the Forsyth Institute, Incubate Coalition and MassBioDrive (life science accelerator). She is also an advocate for increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in the healthcare industry and participated in Mass Next Generation Initiative focused on expanding DEI in biotech in MA as well as co-founding Series 2X, an organized community of General Partner/Partner level women in VC.
Prior to VVHC, she was a Partner at MRL Ventures Fund from 2017-2021 where she was on the boards of Alector, Inc. [NASDAQ:ALEC], Entrada Therapeutics [NASDAQ:TRDA], Tallac Therapeutics and Therini Bio. She was also an observer on the boards of Invivyd Therapeutics [NASDAQ:IVVD, fka Adagio], LifeMine Therapeutics, PAQ Therapeutics and Translate Bio [NASDAQ:TBIO]. Prior to MRL Ventures Fund, she was Principal at the Novartis Venture Fund from 2013-2017 where she was on the board of Altimmune [NASDAQ:ALT] and an observer on the boards of several companies including lnnocrin Pharmaceuticals, ROX Medical and Viamet Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Novartis Venture Fund, she was Chief Business Officer at Vitae Pharmaceuticals from 2010-2013. She also held positions in business development and marketing at small biopharmaceutical and large pharmaceutical companies. Christine received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Dartmouth Medical School and was a post-doctoral fellow in developmental neurobiology at the National Institutes of Health.