Dr. Makoto
Ohori

Dr. Mark (Makoto) Ohori is Executive Director, Head of Early-stage Partnering, Astellas Innovation Management (AIM) Cambridge, MA since April 2019. He most recently served as Senior Director, Head of AIM Cambridge.
From 2016-2018, Mark was Visiting Scientific Director for Astellas Venture Management LLC (AVM, Menlo Park, CA), working in-residence at Potenza Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA) where he served as Co-chair of the Joint Steering Committee overseeing a strategic immune-oncology research collaboration between the companies.
Previously, Mark was an Investment Director at AVM from 2011, where he led investments in early-stage biotech companies (Potenza Therapeutics, Mitobridge, Verastem, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Crescendo Biologics (UK), Bicycle Therapeutics, Cleave Biosciences, Tizona Therapeutics, PhaseBio, Viamet, etc) and established research partnerships with Potenza, Mitobridge and other portfolio companies or academic institutions, and facilitated acquisition of Potenza Therapeutics and Mitobridge by Astellas, or helped Initial Public Offerings of Epizyme, Verastem, Fate Therapeutics, Taigen, etc.
Prior to AVM, Mark led biologics research in Astellas as a leader of the cross-organizational research team. He also worked at Post-Marketing Development Research Center at Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals to maximize the value of marketed products thorough clinical research collaborations with academia partners. He also managed research collaborations with academic institutions such as Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Grenoble University Hospital, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Kyoto University Hospital, or various contract research organizations.

Mark has authored two patents and 16 peer reviewed papers and invited reviews. He received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Tokyo.