Norbert Bischofberger, Ph.D.

Director

Norbert Bischofberger, Ph.D., has served as a member of our Board since May 2024.

Dr. Bischofberger brings close to 40 years of experience as a biotech executive and in research and development leadership roles to the industry. He is currently President and Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors, of Kronos Bio, Inc., a clinical-stage company dedicated to the discovery and development of therapeutics that target the deregulated transcription that causes cancer and other serious diseases. 

Prior to joining Kronos, Dr. Bischofberger was Executive Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer at Gilead Sciences, Inc., which he joined in 1990 as Director of Chemistry after having worked as a Senior Scientist in Genentech, Inc.’s DNA Synthesis Group from 1986 until 1990. During his 28-year tenure at Gilead, Dr. Bischofberger presided over the development and approval of more than 25 medicines for a range of serious conditions which led to the transformation of the treatment of diseases such as HIV and viral hepatitis, including HBV and HCV. Dr. Bischofberger was part of the core management team that grew Gilead from less than 50 employees with no revenue to 10,000 employees with $25B in revenue. 

Dr. Bischofberger received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Zurich’s Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule and performed postdoctoral research in steroid chemistry at Syntex. He also performed additional research in organic chemistry and applied enzymology in Professor George Whiteside’s lab at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Bischofberger received an honorary doctorate in Natural Sciences (2016) from The University of Innsbruck and an honorary doctorate in Letters in Medicine (2017) from Baylor College of Medicine. He was elected a Fellow of The American Association for Advancement of Science (2018). 

In addition to Kronos Bio, Dr. Bischofberger serves on the Biopharma Advisory Board of Ginkgo Bioworks. Previously, Dr. Bischofberger served as a member of the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG, a multinational public company with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and agriculture.