Today, we’re standing right on the cusp of a new wave of discoveries. Disease won’t wait for us, so we need to combine the transformational advances we’re seeing in data, AI, and therapeutic intervention technologies with the talent of our people to get ahead of it.
Dr Christopher Austin
SVP, Head of R&D Technologies
Christopher Austin, M.D., is Senior Vice President of R&D Technologies at GSK, responsible for innovative discovery platforms that drive medicine and vaccine development at scale across the company’s therapeutic areas. Combining novel target discovery via large-scale human systems data generation and causal inference, generative AI-driven antibody, oligonucleotide, and small molecule drug discovery and lab-in-a-loop engineering technologies with human clinical, tissue, and biomarker analyses, the group is driving unprecedented efficiency and speed in the discovery of novel therapies.
A physician-scientist, Chris has over 30 years of industry and academic experience across the full spectrum of translation. After beginning his pharmaceutical career at Merck, he had a distinguished 20-year career at the United States National Institutes of Health, where he led the translation of the Human Genome Project into biological insights and therapeutics. Later as the inaugural Director of the NIH National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences, he created and led a new discipline of translational science to address systematic limitations to translational efficiency from target identification through clinical trials to implementation science, and led NIH’s efforts in rare diseases. Immediately prior to GSK, Chris was founding CEO of Vesalius Therapeutics, where he created a precision therapeutics platform for common diseases focused on neurology and immunology.
Chris obtained his BA from Princeton, MD from Harvard, clinical training in internal medicine and neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and research training in genetics at Harvard. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association of Physicians.
The Double Click with Shobie Ramakrishnan and Chris Austin
Chris's achievements
2024 – Present
Appointed Senior Vice President, R&D Technologies. Currently responsible for the company’s early stage pipeline across all therapeutic areas and technological innovation that drives productivity and value creation. Combining industry-leading platform and data platforms for novel causal target identification, mechanism determination, drug candidate discovery across modalities, preclinical/clinical development, and robust external innovation, he is helping lead GSK into a new era of frontier science and therapeutics for large unmet medical needs.
2021 – 2024
Served as CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering, responsible for the development of a proprietary platform for precision therapeutics in common diseases. Concurrently, as founding CEO of Vesalius Therapeutics, he developed a precision platform for common disease therapeutics that integrated disease phenotypes, human genetics, AI/ML, and translational technologies that led to novel drug development programs in neuroscience and immunology.
2012 – 2021
As inaugural director of the NIH National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), he led technological and operational innovations to increase the predictivity and effectiveness of therapeutic development from target and molecule discovery through clinical trials and implementation science, led NIH’s largest clinical trial network, and directed national and international consortia on translational science and rare diseases.
2002 – 2011
He held multiple leadership roles at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the NIH Center for Translational Therapeutics. leading the translation of the human genome sequence into biological insights and therapeutic applications. He founded and directed the NIH Chemical Genomics Centre focusing on chemical probe development and chemical genomics, the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases Program creating a new paradigm for efficient therapeutic development, and the NIH Center for Translational Therapeutics where he directed innovative programs in small molecule and oligonucleotide drug development, toxicology, stem cell biology, and gene therapy and gene editing.
1996 - 2002
As Senior Research Fellow in Human Genetics at Merck, he developed techniques for genome-based discovery of novel drug targets with a particular emphasis on neuropsychiatric diseases. As Director of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, he led drug discovery efforts for schizophrenia, bipolar illness, and Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases.
1990 – 1996
As a Fellow in Genetics at Harvard Medical School, he conducted postdoctoral research in developmental neurogenetics, studying genetic and environmental influences on stem cell fate determination.
1987 – 1990
Served as a resident and chief resident in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, providing clinical care and training in neurological medicine.
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