Karen is a partner in the Boston office of Novo Ventures. Prior to Novo Ventures, Dr. Hong was a Senior Investment Director at Takeda Ventures, Inc. based in Cambridge, MA. Prior to TVI, she was a Partner at ProQuest Investments. She has served on the Board of Directors of Obsidian Therapeutics, Palleon Pharmaceuticals, Clarus Therapeutics, and Agile Therapeutics. In addition, she represented ProQuest as an observer on the Board of Directors of BioRexis Pharmaceutical Corp. (acquired by Pfizer), Gloucester Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Celgene) and LEAD Therapeutics (acquired by BioMarin), among others. She brings over twenty years of experience in life science investing and biomedical research. Prior to joining ProQuest, Dr. Hong led numerous research projects in the area of mammalian cancer genetics and genomics in the laboratory of Dr. Eric Lander at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Dr. Hong earned her Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds a B.S. in chemistry and a B.A. in molecular biology from the University of California at Berkeley, where she graduated with honors and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.