Leigh Zawel Biography and Net Worth

Leigh Zawel is Chief Scientific Officer, Small Molecules at Cullinan and an Executive Partner at MPM Capital.

Prior to joining Cullinan and MPM, Leigh led Pfizer’s Center for Therapeutic Innovation and worked as the site head for Pfizer’s New York and Boston offices. Prior to Pfizer, Leigh was the oncology site lead at Merck Research Laboratories Boston, where he was responsible for drug discovery efforts focused on the identification of development candidates for programs in the oncology franchise. Leigh worked previously at Sanofi-Aventis, where he was Director of Cancer Biology, and Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research/Oncology, where he was an Oncology Group Leader. Leigh has a deep background in identifying and validating oncology drug targets and in transitioning drug discovery programs through lead optimization to Phase 1 clinical trials.

Leigh earned his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Danny Reinberg where he identified and characterized components of the RNA Polymerase II basal transcription machinery. Leigh’s postdoctoral training was in the laboratory of Bert Vogelstein and Ken Kinzler and focused on dysregulation of TGFB signaling in cancer. Leigh also holds an M.S. in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin, as well as a B.S. in Biology from Rutgers University. He has published more than 30 scientific publications. He is also an author on 45 patents covering chemical matter, drug combinations, biomarker utility, and gene function in areas of apoptosis, inflammation and TGFB signaling.