Samantha Truex, the current CEO of Upstream Bio, has served in leadership roles at multiple venture-backed companies including as CEO of Quench Bio, COO of Synlogic and CBO for Padlock Therapeutics.

In late 2019, as the CEO of Quench Bio, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech that had focused on blocking the gasdermin D protein with oral inhibitors to treat inflammatory diseases; Sam raised $50 million from the likes of RA Capital, AbbVie Ventures, Atlas Venture and Arix Bioscience, and was a 2020 Fierce 15 winner.  

March 2021 Endpoints tweeted:

Quench Bio, the Cambridge, MA-based biotech looking for new ways to target the gene Gasdermin D in treating inflammatory diseases, has decided to wind down operations after the gene proved “undruggable” with their technology.

Sam won a lot of kudos inside the industry for how she handled this "fail" - not just in terms of communication:

“It’s important to boldly pursue novel targets with potential to be transformative to patients,” Quench wrote on Twitter. “It’s also important to make disciplined decisions in the face of challenge — to know when to ‘fold ’em.’”

We are thrilled that Sam will be sharing the INSIGHTS learned from Quence Bio with our community.

Previously, Sam was Vice President of Corporate Development at Biogen where she led transactional business development activities and served as program executive for now-marketed products FAMPYRA,® ELOCTATE™ and ALPROLIX™. Sam also previously worked in Corporate Development at Genzyme, Chiron Diagnostics and Health Advances. 

Sam earned a BA in biology from Dartmouth College, a BE in biomedical engineering from the Thayer School at Dartmouth and an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth. Sam is also on the boards of Artios Pharma, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth and Life Science Cares.