Emmett Cunningham, MD, PhD

Dr. Cunningham has served as a member of our Board of Directors since September 2018. Dr. Cunningham is an Executive Advisor at Blackstone Life Sciences, a life sciences investment firm, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus Ventures in December 2018. He joined Clarus in 2006 as a Principal and was Managing Director at Clarus at the time of the Blackstone acquisition. Dr. Cunningham served as a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone from November 2018 through March 2023 and as an Operating Partner at Blackstone from January 2022 through March 2023, prior to assuming his current role as Executive Advisor. From February 2004 to December 2005, he was Senior Vice President, Medical Strategy at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company. From April 2002 to February 2004, Dr. Cunningham was Vice President of Clinical Research Development and Licensing. Dr. Cunningham is also Adjunct Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine and the co-founder and Chair of the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit. Dr. Cunningham previously served on the boards of directors of Annexon Biosciences from December 2014 until February 2021, Graybug Vision from May 2016 to September 2020, Lumos Pharma from January 2019 until February 2021, and Restoration Robotics from October 2017 to June 2018 and on the boards of directors of two private companies, SFJ Pharmaceuticals Group and Silktech Biopharmaceuticals, from June 2014 to March 2023 and from November 2017 to March 2023, respectively. Dr. Cunningham received a B.S. from Drexel University, a B.A., M.D. and M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California at San Diego.