Korro Bio's Ram Aiyar and Novo Nordisk's Uli Stilz discuss their RNA editing collaboration, the field of genetic medicine, and the future of drug discovery

Ram Aiyar, President & CEO of Korro Bio, and Uli Stilz, Head of Novo Nordisk's Bio Innovation Hub in Kendall Square, share their backgrounds and the scope of their work today. They discuss their RNA editing collaboration and how both the smaller and larger companies bring difference skills to these kinds of partnerships. Plus, their visions of what drug discovery might look like ten years from now.

The Experts

Ram Aiyar, Ph.D., MBA, is the chief executive officer and president of Korro Bio and sits on the board of directors.

Ram brings nearly two decades of diverse experience in biotech and pharma, working across all stages of development from launch to clinical to commercialization. He has a long history of launching and building biotech startups, and previously held a wide range of roles in finance, strategy, product development and venture capital. Most recently, he was a co-founder, chief financial officer and chief business officer at Corvidia Therapeutics, and eventually led its acquisition by Novo Nordisk for $2.1B. Prior to Corvidia, he was an entrepreneur-in-residence at BioHealth Innovation (BHI).

Ram started his scientific career in research at Janssen Pharmaceuticals’ immunology group. He has also held leadership roles in corporate development, finance and strategy at FlowMetric Inc., Sofinnova Partners, and J.P. Morgan Chase.

Ram received his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Drexel University and an MBA in finance and business strategy from INSEAD (France/Singapore).

Uli Stilz, PhD is Vice President of the Novo Nordisk Bio Innovation Hub in Boston, MA. In this role he is leading a cross functional R&D team establishing innovative partnerships with biotech, venture capital, and academia to co-create novel therapies and technologies to improve the life of patients with cardiometabolic and rare diseases. 

Uli graduated with a Master degree in Organic Chemistry from ETH Zürich. He then moved to the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, where he received his Ph.D. in 1990. After postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology he joined Hoechst AG where he held various positions before he was appointed Associate Vice President of the newly established Innovation unit within the Diabetes Division at Sanofi in 2010. Over a period of 20 years he contributed to more than 60 preclinical and clinical drug candidates across cardiometabolic, immunology, and oncology therapy areas.

Uli was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Frankfurt in 2012. He serves on various Editorial Boards for international peer-reviewed journals, is member of Scientific Advisory Boards in North America and Europe, and has represented Novo Nordisk A/S at trade organisations (EFPIA). Between 2012 and 2014 he was President of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry.

In 2014 he joined Novo Nordisk A/S in Copenhagen, relocated to Boston in 2019, and assumed his current role as Vice President of the Novo Nordisk Bio Innovation Hub in 2020.