Jacob Becraft

Jacob Becraft is a synthetic biologist and biotech entrepreneur, as well as the co-founder and CEO of Strand Therapeutics. He received his BS in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, graduating magna cum laude with distinction. Becraft started his career at MIT, where he earned his PhD, developing the SAfER platform—the world’s first synthetic biology programming language for mRNA. Strand Therapeutics is situated at the intersection of synthetic biology, immunotherapy, and mRNA therapeutics. He is an inventor on a multitude of patents in the biotech/gene therapy space and has won numerous awards for his scientific and entrepreneurial achievements, including a Goldwater Scholarship, a Viterbi Fellowship, and an Amgen Fellowship. He previously served as a science and technology advisor to the Massachusetts State Legislature. Becraft also serves on the executive board of Public Health United, a non-profit focused on helping scientists to become scientific ambassadors.