YUSUF ERKUL, MD

Dr. Yusuf Erkul is the co-founder and CEO of Kernal Bio, an mRNA 2.0 company. An expert in nucleic acid therapies, innate immunity, and cancer biology, Dr. Erkul led Kernal’s early drug discovery efforts in immuno-oncology, earning recognition from Amgen, Lilly, NVIDIA, NASA, and Y Combinator. Under his leadership, Kernal Bio has raised $30M from top-tier investors. Prior to Kernal, Dr. Erkul served as a Director in Sentegen’s R&D division and worked within Merck’s Oncology Department. At Merck, his group provided critical pharmacology and biomarker support for various siRNA and small molecule programs, including the PARP inhibitor niraparib (ZEJULA®), which later received FDA approval for ovarian cancer. His team also established the preclinical models that helped Merck develop the industry’s largest immuno-oncology pipeline. Dr. Erkul’s earlier research was conducted at the MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School. He holds an M.D. from Hacettepe University, a B.S. in Biology from MIT, and an Executive MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.