Jak Knowles, MD is Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Affini-T Therapeutics. He has more than two decades of R&D, management, and entrepreneurial experience in the life science industry. Prior to launching Affini-T, Jak served as Co-founder and Chief Business Officer for Metagenomi, a next-generation gene editing company based in Berkeley, California. Jak was previously Head of Pharma Venture Investments for Leaps by Bayer, where he helped lead Metagenomi’s initial seed financing and early strategy serving on Metagenomi’s Board of Directors. Prior to joining Bayer, Jak served as Chief Executive Officer of CytoSen Therapeutics, where he developed Natural Killer immune cell therapies for oncology indications. In 2016, Jak co-founded and launched Exonics Therapeutics, a CRISPR gene-editing company, serving as President and interim-Chief Executive Officer. Jak previously served on the Board of Directors for Century Therapeutics, Exonics Therapeutics, Metagenomi Technologies, Triumvira Immunologics, and Pyxis Oncology.

Jak earned his MD from Stanford University where he graduated with honors in biomedical research, and an undergraduate degree in biology from Binghamton University.