About Us

João Siffert, M.D., is the president and chief executive officer of Design Therapeutics and is a member of our board of directors. Dr. Siffert brings more than 30 years of experience to Design Therapeutics, having successfully led organizations responsible for multiple drug development programs in biotech and pharma from pre-clinical to regulatory approvals and commercial launches in the U.S. and Europe. He joined Design Therapeutics from Abeona Therapeutics where he was the chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors. Prior to Abeona, Dr. Siffert held a number of medical and scientific roles, including as chief scientific and medical officer, and has served at biopharmaceutical companies including Nestle Health Science, Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Ceregene Inc., Avera Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer. Dr. Siffert also served as an independent director for Avexis, Inc. and Alcobra Pharma (now Arcturus Therapeutics). Before joining industry, Dr. Siffert spent seven years in academic practice as a neuro-oncologist at Beth Israel Hospital and as an assistant professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Dr. Siffert earned his M.D. from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and his MBA from Columbia University. He completed medical residencies in pediatrics at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and in neurology at Harvard Medical School, followed by a fellowship training in neuro-oncology at NYU. The American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry certified Dr. Siffert in 1996.

Pratik Shah, Ph.D., is a co-founder and executive chairperson of Design Therapeutics. In addition, Dr. Shah serves as chairperson of the board at ARS Pharmaceuticals. Until February of 2020, he served as chairperson of Synthorx, Inc., a biotechnology company developing innovative protein therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune disorders that was acquired by Sanofi for $2.5 billion. Before that, Dr. Shah was president and chief executive officer of Auspex Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel medicines for people with movement disorders, including AUSTEDO^® (deutetrabenazine). He became involved in Auspex as an investor in 2007 and served as its chairperson until he took over as its chief executive officer in 2013, after which he took the company public and oversaw its growth until its acquisition by Teva Pharmaceuticals for $3.5 billion in 2015. Before that, Dr. Shah was a partner in the healthcare venture capital firm Thomas, McNerney & Partners for nearly a decade, and prior to that, he co-founded two biotechnology companies and was also a consultant at McKinsey & Company in San Francisco. Dr. Shah obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology as well as his MBA in finance from the University of Chicago.

Sean Jeffries, Ph.D., is the chief operating officer at Design Therapeutics. Dr. Jeffries brings over twenty years of experience in biopharma with extensive experience in strategy and R&D. Prior to Design, Dr. Jeffries led projects to develop R&D and therapeutic strategies for biopharma at the Boston Consulting Group. He was instrumental in pioneering miniPCR, which performed the first PCR on the international space station. Prior to that, Dr. Jeffries established and led the informatics group at Kalypsys. Dr. Jeffries completed his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in epigenetics as an NIH-Cambridge scholar.