Jayson Punwani
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Jayson Punwani

Managing Director

Location
San Francisco
Expertise
Venture Capital
Support
Sofia Jara (SJ)

Jayson joined Abingworth’s Menlo Park office in November 2021, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience in venture investing, start-up leadership, technology transfer, and academic research within the life sciences industry.

Previously, Jayson was a Senior Partner at Takeda Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where he focused on early-stage biotech investments. He led investments in, and was on the board of, VelosBio (acquired by Merck), Xilio (NASDAQ: XLO), StrideBio, and Coho Therapeutics. He also served as a member of the board of directors for Armagen (acquired by JCR) and Palleon Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Takeda, Jayson was a Senior Principal at Pappas Ventures where he played a key role in investments in CoLucid (acquired by Eli Lilly), Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ: AURA), Lumena Pharmaceutics (acquired by Shire), and Glycomine (also an Abingworth portfolio company). He started his career as a research scientist in the cardiovascular drug discovery group at Bristol Myers Squibb.

Jayson earned his M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Utah, and his B.S. in Biology from the College of New Jersey.