Helping early-stage teams know what their programs need next
Alpine Start Bio was founded to solve a problem that shows up again and again across early-stage biotech: promising programs stall because the right decisions weren’t made early enough.
Founded by Gene Petrella, Alpine Start Bio works with pre-seed to pre-Series A biotech teams navigating the practical decisions that determine whether a program reaches the clinic. Dr. Petrella has 25+ years of experience across big pharma and early-stage biotech — including Novartis NIBR, Wave Life Sciences, and Neutrolis — his work spans small molecules, RNA therapeutics, and biologics.
Our goal is to bring downstream thinking forward, make the right calls early, and keep the program on their path to clinic.
Gene Petrella, Founder
Independent Development Advisor
Boston, Cambridge, MA (2024 – Present)
I help teams during early-stage drug discovery decisions across small molecules, biomarkers and the RNA field. We offer personalized and advice and connect them to expert partners in clinical development and bioanalysis.
Provided solutions across RNA research, development, and manufacturing lifecycle. Brokered partnerships and collaborations.
Neutrolis, Cambridge, MA
Head of Discovery (2022-2024)
Led enabling technologies and IND-enabling in vitro pharmacology, including development of LNP–mRNA delivery approaches for engineered protein therapeutics and biomarker-driven precision medicine in autoimmune/inflammatory disease, resulting in one pending U.S. patent.
Sai Life Sciences, Cambridge, MA & Hyderabad, India
Senior Director, Discovery Biology Business Development (2021-2022)
Leveraged scientific depth and network relationships to secure new clients and expand discovery biology capabilities.
Wave Life Sciences, Cambridge, MA
Senior Director, Platform & Innovation (2019-2020)
Led platform initiatives spanning RNA editing and in vivo biology operations, including scaling internal capabilities and CRO execution models.
TargetRNA, Nashua, NH
President & CSO (2017-2020)
Founded TargetRNA, a start-up focused on enabling rapid discovery of small-molecule therapeutics targeting RNA. Led fundraising, team building, platform development, scientific strategy, and company operations.
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), Cambridge, MA.
Investigator III – Developmental and Molecular Pathways (2006-2017)
Led RNA-targeting drug discovery efforts in neuromuscular diseases, spearheading a myotonic dystrophy program approved at the highest research level and catalyzing the institute-wide global RNA Initiative.
Developed and deployed high-throughput biochemical, cellular, and imaging platforms, executed a 1.5M-compound high-throughput screening (HTS), and discovered novel small-molecule chemotypes that reversed disease phenotypes in patient-derived cellular models.
Piloted muscle atrophy and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) programs later adopted by the Musculoskeletal Disease Area, with compounds advancing toward clinical development.
Helped establish the Drug Discovery Incubator and co-founded the Academic HTS Partnership Program, building early discovery biology capabilities and leading a synthetic lethality screen in p53-mutant cancers that launched an institute-wide oncology program.
Co-founded and led a proteomics-based target identification platform supporting multiple disease areas through mechanism-of-action and target discovery studies.
These contributions were recognized with the NIBR Team Award (2010) and NIBR Star Award (2013).
DAIAMED, (f.k.a. Suntory Pharm. Res. Labs), Cambridge, MA
Principal Scientist I, Biochemistry (2002-2005)
Advanced HTS-ready biochemical assays and developed protein-stability approaches that enabled determination of the first 3D structure of ZAP kinase.
3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals, Exton, PA.
Research Fellow (1996-2002)
Helped develop and industrialize ThermoFluor® (differential scanning fluorimetry/DSF) into a core discovery platform and led biophysics/HTS operations supporting internal programs and major partnerships. These contributions included five issued U.S. patents covering ThermoFluor®/thermal shift assay methods.
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy
Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC.
Ph.D., Biochemistry
