Dr. Balkrishen (Bal) Bhat has more than 25 years of experience in the discovery and development of nucleosides, oligonucleotides for antisense, RNAi, microNA, IncRNA and mRNA technologies for therapeutic applications. He currently serves on Scientific Advisory Boards for several companies.
Dr. Bhat was most recently Vice President and Head of Chemistry at Translate Bio, where he built world class oligonucleotide synthesis capability and led the chemistry efforts in LNP and cell-based delivery systems. Prior to this, Bal worked at Regulus Therapeutics as Senior Director and Department Head of Chemistry. In this role he successfully built robust oligonucleotide synthesis, analytical and bioanalytical capability, and led the efforts in compound identification and optimization of microRNA modulators for therapeutic applications. Bal played a key role in the discovery and development of RG101 for the treatment of hepatitis C, RG012 for the treatment of Alport Syndrome and RG125 for the treatment of NASH. He also led efforts to develop new chemical entities and cell-based delivery systems including GalNAc conjugates to various cell and tissue types. Prior to Regulus, Bal spent 13 years at Isis/Ionis Pharmaceuticals where he held various positions including Director of Medicinal Chemistry. He played a key role in creating new chemical entities in the field of nucleosides, nucleotides and backbone modifications including bycyclic nucleic acids.
Dr. Bhat has co-authored over 95 publications and is co-inventor of more than 100 patent applications. He received his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) in India and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.