Marc Uknis is Chief Medical Officer at Gemini Therapeutics. Dr. Uknis has more than 35 years of experience in industry and academia in varied research programs related to surgery, rare disease, immunology, genetics and infectious disease.
He first worked for SmithKline and French laboratories in 1984 as a bench scientist. He then attended Temple University medical school and upon receiving his MD, trained and graduated as a surgeon/scientist at the University of Minnesota where he further dedicated his career to improving the lives of patients with rare diseases. He has been a successful transplant surgeon at the University of Minnesota, Harvard and University of Massachusetts (performing hundreds of kidney, liver, pancreas and small intestine transplants as well as pancreatic islet cell transplants) before re-joining industry full time more than a decade ago.
Dr. Uknis joined Achillion in 2018 as the Vice President and global development lead for complement factor D inhibition programs, successfully completing phase 2 development programs which led recently to Achillion’s acquisition by Alexion. Prior to that, he has held positions of increasing responsibility with ViroPharma, ViroPharma/Shire and CSL Behring. At each of those companies, he led clinical programs (including clinical development at all phases, medical affairs and pharmacovigilance) for immunology and complement inhibition in rare diseases, gaining alignment with global Regulatory Authorities for multiple accelerated approval developmental programs and has gained global approvals for C1 esterase inhibitor for the treatment and prevention of hereditary angioedema attacks.
Dr. Uknis also holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from George Washington University. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and continues to hold an adjunct associate professorship in Surgery and Molecular Genetics at UMass Medical School. He holds several patents in genetics and transplantation.