Member Noubar Afeyan was profiled in Forbes magazine about his strategy for identifying and funding biotech startups that have become successful.

Afeyan is CEO of Flagship Ventures, a firm in Cambridge, Mass., that has launched more than 40 startups and invested in dozens of additional businesses. One of the companies in Afeyan’s portfolio is Moderna Therapeutics, a biotechnology business in Cambridge that produces innovative protein-based therapies to treat serious cardiovascular, metabolic, and renal diseases as well as cancer.  Moderna, founded in 2011, is now worth US $3.5 billion.

Fellow Duane Boning received MIT’s McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising, which is given to a faculty member who has demonstrated a lasting commitment to personal and professional development.

Boning, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, is director of the MIT and Masdar Institute Cooperative Program, an ongoing collaboration between the two institutes—the latter a graduate research university in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The program focuses on alternative energy, sustainability, innovation, and entrepreneurship.