Alan Crane

Alan joined Polaris Partners in 2002 and serves as an entrepreneur partner. In this role, he focuses on building and investing in healthcare companies.

He has served as founder, chairman and/or CEO in building ten Polaris companies. Prior to founding Seismic, Alan co-founded Dyno Therapeutics along with Harvard Professor George Church and scientist Eric Kelsic. Dyno is using insights from computer science and biology to design better viruses for the delivery of gene therapies. Prior to Dyno, Alan founded Pandion Therapeutics to focus on tissue-specific immunomodulation for autoimmune disorders and transplantation. In four years from the Polaris seed funding, Pandion became a clinical-stage, public company and was acquired by Merck for $1.85B. Alan’s past portfolio companies have collectively been involved in 12 IPOs and M&A exits.

His current and past portfolio includes: Momenta Pharmaceuticals (acquired by J&J), Pandion Therapeutics (acquired by Merck), Visterra (acquired by Otsuka), Dyno Therapeutics, KSQ Therapeutics, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GSK), Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), Ocular Therapeutix, T2 Biosystems, Arsia Therapeutics (acquired by Eagle Pharmaceuticals), and Navitor Pharmaceuticals. From 2002 to 2006, Alan was president and CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals. He joined Momenta as the fifth employee and built it into a public company, creating an advanced and diversified pipeline. Momenta was acquired by J&J for $6.5B.

Prior to Polaris, Alan was senior vice president of global corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for leading Millennium’s strategic partnering, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing activities, generating over $2B in partner funding to help fuel the company’s growth and acquiring 19 development stage products. Among these products was Velcade, which became the main basis of the company’s $9B acquisition by Takeda.

Alan received Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for New England while serving as CEO of Momenta. His current and former non-profit positions include selection committee for the Harvard Life Lab, expert-in-residence at the Harvard School of Engineering, board member of the Boston Children’s Hospital Trust, founder of the Autism Consortium, and president of the board of Gann Academy.

Alan earned a BA in biology, summa cum laude, from Harvard College, an MA in biology from Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also spent two years studying towards an MD at Harvard Medical School.