About Jake
Jake Becraft is the CEO and co-founder Strand Therapeutics, the leading next-generation mRNA therapeutics company. Beginning with his research at MIT spanning back more than a decade, together with colleagues at MIT’s renowned Synthetic Biology Center, he led the development of the world’s first programmable platform for mRNA therapeutics. This technology enabled the delivery of therapies to areas of the body currently unreachable by traditional mRNA technologies and promises to revolutionize how medicines are designed for oncology, cell therapy, gene editing, and beyond.
Jake regularly appears on outlets such as Bloomberg, CNBC, and the Wall Street Journal both as a genetic medicine expert, as well as an industry voice and innovation policy leader. In addition to Strand, Jake also serves as a science and technology advisor to legislators both in DC and the Massachusetts State House, helping to advise on policy that empowers innovation and national biomedicine resilience. He is an avid angel investor and independent board member for deep tech startups and an advisor to multiple venture funds.
He holds a PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT and a BS in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In his free time, he is an avid back country snowboarder and trains jiu-jitsu, in addition to spending his days with his wife Robin and their son Jonas.