OUR TEAM

Shinsan Michael Su, Ph.D.

Michael is a pioneering biotech leader with deep expertise in drug discovery and translational medicine. Michael was Volastra’s Chief Scientific Officer for 3 years overseeing the discovery of a diverse set of novel pipeline programs, which included the preclinical development and transition of Volastra’s Kif18A program to the clinic.  Prior to joining Volastra, Michael was chief scientific officer of Decibel Therapeutics where he led the development of a gene therapy candidate for hearing loss. Before Decibel, Michael served as co-founder and senior vice president of research and development at Agios Pharmaceuticals. During his time at Agios, Michael led the team responsible for identifying oncogenic targets for the company’s lead mutant isocitrate dehydrogenase programs and led the discovery of the resulting drug candidates. He previously chaired the Agios-Celgene joint research collaboration from 2010 to 2013 and then guided drug discovery in the rare genetic diseases franchise. Michael also served as general director and vice president of the Biomedical Engineering Research Laboratory (BEL) at ITRI in Taiwan. Prior, he spent 14 years in a number of roles at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Michael received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Duke University and was a Helen Hay Whitney fellow in biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard University.