Kurt Von Emster
Managing Partner at Abingworth
Menlo Park, California
Overview
Work Experience
Managing Partner, Head of Life Sciences
2015 - Current
Abingworth invests in private and public life sciences companies. We are currently investing $1.1b in funds.
Board Member
2023
Iambic Therapeutics combines physics and AI to create a differentiated drug discovery platform to quickly and efficiently create potentially best-in-class molecules.
Iambic Therapeutics is disrupting the therapeutics landscape with its unique AI-driven drug-discovery platform.
Raised $203,000,000.00 from Illumina Ventures, Qatar Investment Authority, Alumni Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Mubadala Capital, Coatue, Nexus Venture Partners, Abingworth, Exor Ventures and Catalio Capital Management.
Board Member
2020
Tizona develops next-generation immunotherapies
Raised $370,000,000.00 from Gilead Sciences.
Board Member
2020
Orbus is a phase 3 oncology company. Eflornithine is a novel cytostatic agent that inhibits tumor growth by preventing cell division and proliferation which Orbus Therapeutics is developing for the treatment of patients with anaplastic astrocytoma (AA), or Grade 3 glioma, a rare and deadly form of brain cancer. Eflornithine irreversibly blocks ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), a key enzyme associated with various types of cancer.
Board Member
2020
SFJ Pharmaceuticals® is a global specialty pharmaceutical company with an innovative pharmaceutical co-development model that provides an advantageous alternative to traditional pharma partnerships. SFJ Pharmaceuticals®’s unique partnering approach provides experienced clinical and medical professionals, clinical development resources and operational oversight and execution to accelerate late-phase drug development candidates across multiple indications and therapeutic areas. The result is pipeline acceleration for our partners.
SFJ is a global Pharmaceutical company with an innovative business model that provides a financially advantageous and creative approach.
Raised $144,500,000.00 from Clarus Ventures and Clarus Ventures.
Board Member
2019
Jasper is a biotechnology company focused on enabling safer conditioning agents to allow for expanded use of curative therapy with stem cell transplants and gene therapies. Jasper’s lead compound, JSP191, is in clinical development as a conditioning antibody that clears hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow in patients undergoing a stem cell transplant.
Jasper Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that develops novel antibody therapies for stem cell transplants.
Raised $289,100,000.00 from Boxer Capital, Qiming Venture Partners USA, Samsara BioCapital, Avidity Partners, Woodbine Capital Advisors, Soleus Capital, Velan Capital, Abingworth, Rock Springs Capital and Great Point Partners.
Board of Directors
2009 - 2024
CymaBay Therapeutics is focused on the development and commercialization of proprietary new medicines for critical human diseases.
Raised $854,205,694.00 from Abingworth.
Chairman
2015 - 2022
Vaxcyte is developing best-in-class vaccines for human health.
Vaxcyte focuses on developing vaccines designed to prevent or treat some of the most common and deadly infectious diseases worldwide.
Raised $3,847,040,000.00 from CARB-X and CARB-X.
Chairman
2020 - 2022
Our mission is to improve medical treatment for patients with immunologic and inflammatory diseases. Our lead program is atacicept for IgAN currently in Phase 2 clinical development.
Board Member
2020 - 2022
Trishula Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that focus on developing cancer medicines.
Education
Bachelor of Science (BS)
1985 - 1989