Alan Crane

Entrepreneur Partner

Alan joined Polaris Partners in 2002 and serves as an entrepreneur partner. In this role, he focuses on building and investing in healthcare companies.

He has served in operating roles (as founder, CEO and/or Chairman) in building nine Polaris companies. Alan most recently co-founded Seismic Therapeutic, which uses machine learning to accelerate next generation immunology therapies, and Dyno Therapeutics, which uses machine learning to design better viruses for delivery of gene therapies. Prior to Dyno, Alan founded Pandion Therapeutics to focus on tissue-specific immunomodulation for autoimmune disorders and transplantation. In four years from the Polaris seed funding, Pandion became a clinical-stage, public company and was acquired by Merck for $1.85B. Previously, Alan was president and CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals. He joined Momenta as the fifth employee and built it into a public company, creating an advanced and diversified pipeline. Momenta was acquired by J&J for $6.5B.

Alan’s past portfolio companies have collectively been involved in 12 IPOs and M&A exits. His current and past portfolio includes: Momenta Pharmaceuticals (acquired by J&J), Pandion Therapeutics (acquired by Merck), Visterra (acquired by Otsuka), Seismic Therapeutic, Dyno Therapeutics, KSQ Therapeutics, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GSK), Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), Ocular Therapeutix, T2 Biosystems, Arsia Therapeutics (acquired by Eagle Pharmaceuticals), and Navitor Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to Polaris, Alan was senior vice president of corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for generating over $2B in partner funding and acquiring 19 development stage products, including Velcade®, which became the main basis of the company’s $9B acquisition by Takeda.

Alan’s current and former non-profit positions include: selection committee for the Harvard Life Lab, expert-in-residence at the Harvard School of Engineering, board member of the Boston Children’s Hospital Trust, founder of the Autism Consortium, and president of the board of Gann Academy. He is a recipient of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for New England.

Alan earned a BA in biology, summa cum laude, from Harvard College, an MA in biology from Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also spent two years studying towards an MD at Harvard Medical School.

Alan enjoys spending his free time traveling with his wife, three sons and daughter-in-law and working with non-profits in education and healthcare.