About me
Kevin Forrest, Ph.D., was most recently co-founder, President, and CEO of Kate Therapeutics, a patient-focused biotechnology company developing AAV-based gene therapies to treat genetically defined muscle and heart diseases. Dr. Forrest led KateTx from inception through its acquisition by Novartis Pharmaceuticals for up to 1.1bln USD in late 2024. Prior to KateTx Dr. Forrest was co-founder, President, and CEO of Expansion Therapeutics, a drug discovery and development company advancing small molecule medicines for RNA-mediated diseases. Prior to Expansion, he served as Chief Strategy Officer of Cidara Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CDTX), an infectious disease company he co-founded and helped take public as COO/CFO. Dr. Forrest co-invented Cidara’s Cloudbreak antimicrobial immunotherapy platform and was responsible for the acquisition of rezafungin, a preclinical stage novel long acting echinocandin antifungal approved by the FDA in 2023. Prior to Cidara, Dr. Forrest held positions of increasing responsibility at 5AM Ventures, a life science venture capital firm. While at 5AM, Dr. Forrest supported the spin-out of Relypsa (acquired by Galenica) from Ilypsa/Amgen and led or supported investments in Semprus Biosciences (acquired by Teleflex), Marcadia Biotechnologies (acquired by Roche), among others. Dr. Forrest holds a B.S. in biology from Boston College and Ph.D. in molecular biology from Princeton University where he developed novel in vivo imaging tools to examine RNA localization and translational control.
