Kouki Harasaki, PhD is currently Managing Director at Ikigai BioVentures – a San Francisco based firm that works with venture capital firms and major biopharmaceutical corporations across the US and EU to translate breakthrough biomedical innovations into first-in-class, best-in-class, or curative therapies to treat life-threatening diseases. Prior to Ikigai BioVentures, Dr. Harasaki was the Founding / Managing General Partner at Bioluminescence Ventures – a large-cap US biotechnology venture capital firm that led or co-led financing rounds into GEMMABio, Cerevance, ReCode Therapeutics, Ensoma, Nido Biosciences, and Surge Therapeutics (among others). Prior to founding Bioluminescence Ventures, Dr. Harasaki was Managing Director at M12 / Microsoft Ventures, where he led Life Sciences investments and helped develop Microsoft corporate strategy in the field. Prior to M12, he was a senior Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (Bio Fund). Prior to his time in venture capital, Dr. Harasaki held executive roles in Drug Discovery, Animal Pharmacology, Strategy, Finance, and Business Development at Novartis AG and Baxalta. At Baxalta, he was responsible for building a majority of the company’s Oncology pipeline/portfolio corporate by closing $5B+ in BD transactions to fund/in-license 14 drug programs. Baxalta was acquired by Shire in 2016 for $32B, in what would become the largest pharma M&A transaction of that year. Dr. Harasaki has over 25 years of biomedical science experience working across major health systems, research institutes, biopharmaceutical corporations, technology companies, and venture capital firms. He has led over $700M in financing deals that have funded more than 30 therapeutics programs across stages (discovery to marketed), across therapeutic areas (CVM, Immunology, Oncology, Neuro/CNS), and across modalities (small molecules, biologics, genome editors, cell therapies). Dr. Harasaki earned a BA in Molecular & Cellular Biology from Cornell University, a PhD in Clinical Biochemistry from Cambridge University (Wellcome Trust Fellow | Cambridge Trust Fellow), and an MBA from Harvard Business School (Robert S. Kaplan Fellow | Blavatnik Fellow).