Dr. Finer founded and was the former CEO of Oncorus, focused on the development of oncolytic viruses for the treatment of solid tumors. He is also a founder and the former CEO of CODA Biotherapeutics, focused on developing a novel chemogenetic neuromodulation platform for the treatment of severe neurological disorders. Dr. Finer serves as a member of the board of directors at CODA Biotherapeutics, Life Edit Therapeutics, Oncorus Inc, Turmeric, and ElevateBio. He is also Chairman of the Advisory Board of TCR2 Therapeutics. Dr. Finer currently serves as an executive partner at MPM Capital.
Prior to joining ElevateBio, Dr. Finer was the CSO of bluebird bio. He has also served as Senior Vice President of Development at Novacell (now Viacyte), CEO of Intracel Corporation and Genteric Inc, Vice President Research for Cell Genesys, and the Gencell division of Aventis Pharma (now Sanofi). He also co-founded a retinal disease gene therapy company Avalanche Biotechnologies (now Adverum Biotechnologies).
Dr. Finer has been named inventor on 15 issued U.S. patents. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University and a B.S. in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.