R1 Members Noubar Afeyan and Duane Boning make headlines!

Photo: World Economic Health Forum

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.

Photo: MIT

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.