Brian Bettencourt

Brian Bettencourt is Chair of Believe in a Cure’s Scientific Advisory Board.

In his “day job,” as he likes to call it, Brian works at Third Rock Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence, where he focuses on scientific strategy and execution of RNA-based drug development at Third Rock portfolio companies. He loves inquiry at the intersection of computational and “wet” biology, and especially appreciates the speed with which RNA drugs test clinical hypotheses. Brian has worked in a variety of diverse roles in biotech, and seeks to create companies that foster and reward similar career flexibility.

Prior to Third Rock, Brian was instrumental in the launch of three biotech companies, including Triplet Therapeutics, where he was Head of Research. He also held leadership roles in bioinformatics and biometrics at Translate Bio and Alnylam Therapeutics. It was at Alnylam that Brian got his first direct experience with an oligonucleotide completing the journey from a sequence of letters on a computer all the way to a life-saving medicine. Before joining the biotech industry, Brian was a biology professor with a research focus on Drosophila population genetics and neurodegeneration models.

Outside the office and the lab, Brian’s main loves are gardening, playing music, and herding his rambunctious children (which is impossible without his wife’s patience and help!). Brian also spends a lot of his free time working on scientific projects for rare disease foundations, and he can’t imagine a more rewarding pastime. He holds a B.S. in Biology from UMass Amherst and a Ph.D. in Organismal Biology and Anatomy from the University of Chicago.