George Harb

Bio

George Harb, PhD, has more than 20 years of diabetes drug discovery and development experience at both biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He is currently co-founder of a biotech startup and consultant to life sciences companies.

Previously, Dr. Harb served as vice president of the diabetes program at Sana Biotechnology. Prior to Sana, he was vice president of regenerative biology at Cellino Biotech, a tech-bio company, developing an autonomous cell therapy manufacturing platform for autologous applications.

In 2015, Dr. Harb joined Semma Therapeutics, a biotech company in Cambridge, MA to develop cell therapies for type 1 diabetes. As Director of Discovery Biology, he oversaw early research, platform development and next generation cell therapy programs. In 2019, Semma was acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals enabling clinical evaluation and validation of the cell therapies in type 1 diabetes patients.

Prior to Semma, Dr. Harb joined Novartis Pharmaceuticals in La Jolla, California to develop small molecule treatments for type 1 diabetes. As part of an inaugural public/private joint venture (JDRF-industry partnership), the program focused on leveraging isolated pancreatic beta cells to identify novel drug targets.  

Dr. Harb earned his BSc in physiology and PhD in Experimental surgery from the University of Alberta, Canada. He then pursued postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in beta cell regeneration.