[Boston, Massachusetts — January 9th, 2025]
Nucleate, the global nonprofit dedicated to empowering the next generation of biotech leaders, is announcing the appointment of Soufiane Aboulhouda, PhD as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Oliver Dodd, PhD as Chief Operating Officer (COO), effective immediately
This milestone advances the continued expansion of Nucleate’s full-time staff, further strengthening its professional foundation, and reflects Nucleate’s long term commitment to advancing life sciences innovation. Soufiane and Oliver are both co-founders of Nucleate and members of its Board of Directors, each contributing over six years of volunteer leadership experience as PhD students training under Prof. George Church at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute. They bring a unique blend of institutional knowledge, ambitious vision, and a deep commitment to empowering the next generation of biotech leaders.
“We’re excited to work alongside Souf and Oliver to amplify Nucleate’s reach and bring even greater value to our ecosystem,” said Zach Cogan, Co-President at Nucleate and PhD candidate at UCSF. “Their deep experience and vision will enable us to empower more innovators and enhance our programs worldwide,” added Heer Joisher, Co-President at Nucleate and PhD candidate at Harvard.
As CEO and COO, Soufiane and Oliver will work directly with Nucleate’s Co-Presidents, focusing on strengthening partnerships, supporting core initiatives, growing external relations, and establishing a sustainable strategy to scale Nucleate’s impact. This includes facilitating company formation, workforce development, and advancing life sciences ecosystems.
“Nucleate has rapidly established a globally unified ecosystem to empower early-stage innovators, and is now well positioned to take the next steps in support of our mission to improve human and planetary health at an unprecedented scale” said Soufiane Aboulhouda, Co-Founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board. “We are privileged to be learning from the great leaders and companies of our industry, and believe this milestone marks an early chapter of Nucleate’s story”
While these changes signify an exciting new phase for Nucleate, the organization’s core values remain unchanged. Nucleate will continue to offer unparalleled leadership opportunities for trainees, operating at the intersection of academia and industry. A key responsibility shared between the new C-Suite and Co-Presidents is to bolster support for its dynamic grassroots movement that serves academic trainees and early-stage innovators.
“From the beginning, Nucleate has been about building bridges — between academia and industry, and between bold ideas and real-world solutions,” said Oliver Dodd, Co-Founder, COO, and Treasurer of the Board of Directors. “As we step into these roles, we remain deeply committed to preserving Nucleate’s identity, while scaling our ability to empower the next generation of biotech leaders.”
With the addition of a full time C-Suite, Nucleate is poised to start 2025 with an amplified purpose and capacity for engagements. We invite the biotech community to learn more about our work, and explore opportunities for collaborations. Our C-Suite and Co-Presidents can be reached at any time at souf@nucleate.org, oliver@nucleate.org, heer@nucleate.org, and zach@nucleate.org.
“Our industry’s success requires a strong commitment to help advance and develop the next generation of biotechnology leaders. Indeed, the key limiting factor for our mission of bringing transformative medicines to patients is not science or capital, but people!” said John Maraganore, founding CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and member of the Nucleate Board of Directors “I’m excited to support this ambitious new phase of Nucleate and wish Souf and Oliver all the best in their new roles.”
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About Nucleate:
Nucleate is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the next generation of biotech leaders. With chapters spanning 41 geographic regions and participation from over 280 academic institutions, Nucleate sparks new intellectual communities and embeds emerging talent within a global biotech community. Through open-access educational programming, Nucleate helps democratize biotech innovation — removing barriers and helping founders concentrate on building transformational technologies. For more information, download Nucleate’s 5-Year Impact Report!
About Soufiane Aboulhouda, PhD:
Soufiane received his BS from the University of California, Santa Cruz, has worked at the University of California, San Francisco, and received his PhD from Harvard University in the lab of George Church at the Wyss Institute. His thesis research focused on developing pooled in vivo functional genomics tools to interrogate the biology of cell trafficking to enhance solid tumor homing of immune cells. Soufiane has previously served as the President of the GSAS Harvard Biotech Club, and interned with RA Capital Management.
About Oliver Dodd, PhD:
Oliver received his BSc from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received his PhD from Harvard University where he worked in the laboratory of George Church at the Wyss Institute. His thesis research focused on technology development for pooled in vivo functional genomics to study and control cell homing in the context of disease states, with a goal of identifying genes which could increase immune cell tumor infiltration. Oliver previously worked as co-founder and CEO of Remora Therapeutics, Venture Associate at Pillar VC, founding president of the MIT BioMakers student group, and research assistant at FVL59, DFCI, the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, St. Elizbeth’s Medical Center, and the Broad Institute of MIT/Harvard.
