Each member of Epizyme’s SAB was recruited to represent important expertise required for long-term company success ranging from early target identification and validation, through enzymology and animal models to clinical development and oncology. The SAB is uniquely active in the way that the members partner with the internal scientific team to rapidly translate cutting edge science into novel medicines.

• H. Robert Horvitz, Ph.D.
• Yi Zhang, Ph.D.
• Bruce A Chabner, M.D.
• George Q. Daley, Ph.D., M.D.
• Ronald DePinho, M.D.
• Ronald Evans, Ph.D.
• Steven Henikoff, Ph.D.
• Joel Huff, Ph.D.
• Tyler Jacks, Ph.D.
• Christopher T. Walsh, Ph.D.

H. Robert Horvitz, Ph.D.
SAB Chairman
Epizyme Scientific Co- Founder
Horvitz Lab

Dr. H. Robert Horvitz received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002. He is the David H. Koch Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Neurobiologist (Neurology) and Geneticist (Medicine) at the Massachusetts General Hospital; and a Member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the MIT Center for Cancer Research.

Dr. Horvitz received S.B. degrees in Mathematics and in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968. He performed his graduate studies at Harvard University in the laboratories of Drs. James Watson and Walter Gilbert and received his Ph.D. in 1974. Dr. Horvitz was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Sydney Brenner at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.

Dr. Horvitz is a member of the SAB of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Science and is chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the venture capital company MPM Capital. Dr. Horvitz has co-founded five biotechnology companies and served on the SABs of 11 biotechnology companies. TOP^

Yi Zhang, Ph.D.
Epizyme Scientific Co-Founder
Zhang Lab

Dr. Zhang is a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Yi Zhang earned an undergraduate degree and an M.S. at the College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, in the People’s Republic of China. He received a Ph.D. at the Institute of Molecular Biophysics of Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Dr. Zhang has won the Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award from the American Association of Cancer Research and the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research Scholar Award. TOP^

Bruce A Chabner, M.D.
Chabner Harvard Profile

Dr. Chabner serves as a Clinical Director for the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, is the Chief of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine, and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale College and an M.D. cum laude, from Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Chabner has received the Public Health Service’s Distinguished Service Medal, the Karnofsky Award of the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the Bruce F. Cain Award for Drug Development of the American Association for Cancer Research. TOP^

George Q. Daley, M.D., Ph.D.
Daley Lab

Dr. Daley is the Samuel E. Lux IV Chair in Hematology and
the Director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Children's Hospital Boston. He is also Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Dr. Daley earned his bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Harvard University, his PhD from MIT, and his MD summa cum laude from Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Daley has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and has received numerous research awards including the NIH Director's Pioneer Award, the Judson Daland Prize of the American Philosophical Society, and the E. Mead Johnson Award of the American Pediatric Society. TOP^

Ronald DePinho, M.D.

Dr. DePinho is an American Cancer Society Research Professor and Professor of Medicine and Genetics at Harvard Medical School.  He is the Director for the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a fully integrated cancer gene discovery to drug development program focused on the most intractable cancers.  

He received his M.D. Degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and conducted his Internal Medicine residency at Columbia.  During his postdoctoral training at Columbia and later as a member of the faculty at Albert Einstein, he led efforts to develop and utilize genetically engineered mouse models to dissect the complex biology and genetics of human cancer. 

He is a member of the Institute of Medicine.  He established the concept of tumor maintenance and his program defined mSin3 transcriptional repression networks, Ink4a and Arf tumor suppression actions, and telomeres dynamics in cancer, aging and degenerative disorders.  providing. He is the recipient of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (Korsmeyer) Award, the AACR Clowes Award, and the Albert Szent Gyorgyi Award for Progress in Cancer Research. TOP^

Ronald Evans, Ph.D.
Evans Lab

Ronald M. Evans, a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory, is the March of Dimes Chair in Developmental and Molecular Biology. Evans is an authority on hormones, both their normal activities and their roles in disease.

He received his B.A. in Bacteriology from the University of California, Los Angeles and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

A major achievement in Evans' lab was the discovery of a large family of molecules, named receptors, which respond to various steroid hormones, Vitamin A and thyroid hormones. The receptors Evans discovered are primary targets in the treatment of breast cancer, prostate cancer and leukemia, as well as osteoporosis and asthma. TOP^

Steven Henikoff, Ph.D.
Henikoff Lab

Steve Henikoff is currently an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Member of the Basic Sciences Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Affiliate Professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington.

He received a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard University in the laboratory of Matthew Meselson, and did postdoctoral research with Charles Laird at the University of Washington.

He is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and serves as co-Editor-in-chief of the journal Epigenetics and Chromatin. His laboratory studies histone variants, DNA methylation, epigenetic inheritance and centromere evolution, and develops tools for epigenomics and functional genomics.TOP^

Joel Huff, Ph.D.

Dr. Huff retired in 2004 from his position of Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories following 30 years of service.

He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Texas, Austin, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At Merck he led efforts to develop therapeutic agents for HIV, resulting in the discovery of indianvir (Crixivan®), and efavirenz (Stocrin®, Sustiva®). Dr. Huff has authored or co-authored 98 publications and patents. TOP^

Tyler Jacks, Ph.D.
Jacks Lab

Dr. Jacks is the David H. Koch Professor of Biology and Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a postdoctoral fellow with Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute at MIT, Dr. Jacks initiated his studies on tumor-suppressor gene function.

He received his A.B. degree in biology from Harvard College and his Ph.D. degree in biochemistry and biophysics from UCSF.

Tyler Jacks is interested in the genetics of cancer development. His laboratory has constructed a series of mutant mouse strains that have served as animal models of tumor development and as a means to study the functions of cancer-associated genes. TOP^

Christopher T. Walsh, Ph.D.
Walsh Lab

Dr. Walsh is the Hamilton Kuhn Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology (BCMP) at Harvard Medical School and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

After completing undergraduate studies at Harvardl University, Dr. Walsh earned his Ph.D. from the Rockefeller University.

Dr. Walsh and his group have authored 700 research papers and 3 books. Dr. Walsh has also served on many boards and in many capacities to leading innovators in biotechnology. TOP^