Mitchell (Mitch) Finer, PhD, is the chief scientific officer of ElevateBio and president of ElevateBio BaseCamp. He has been instrumental in founding, building and leading a number of MPM Capital portfolio companies. He founded and is the former CEO of Oncorus, focused on the development of oncolytic herpes viruses for the treatment of solid tumors. He is also a founder and the former CEO of CODA Biotherapeutics, focused on developing a chemogenetic neuromodulation platform for the treatment of severe neurological disorders. Dr. Finer serves on several MPM Capital portfolio company boards, including CODA, Oncorus, Semma Therapeutics and TCR2 Therapeutics. 

For three decades, Dr. Finer has focused on drug development, utilizing the novel platforms of cell and gene therapy, cancer immunotherapy and regenerative medicine, and he has held several senior leadership roles in companies developing these therapies.  

Prior to joining MPM Capital, Dr. Finer was the CSO of bluebird bio. He also served as CEO of Intracel Corporation and Genteric, vice president research for Cell Genesys and the Gencell division of Aventis Pharma (now Sanofi) and senior vice president of development at Novacell (now Viacyte). He also successfully co-founded the retinal disease gene therapy company Avalanche Biotechnologies (now Adverum Biotechnologies) where he serves as a member of the board of directors. 

Dr. Finer has been named inventor on 15 issued U.S. patents. He received his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University and a BS in biochemistry and microbiology from the University of California, Berkeley. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.