About Us

Pratik Shah, Ph.D., is co-founder, president, chief executive officer and 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.

Jae Kim, M.D. is Consulting Chief Medical Officer at Design Therapeutics. He has deep experience developing innovative therapies across multiple diseases and therapeutic modalities through all phases of drug development. Prior to joining Design, Dr. Kim was Chief Medical Officer of Avidity Biosciences. Prior to Avidity, he served as Clinical Research Head, Vice President of Clinical Development and Chair of the Clinical Trial Review Board at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Before Alnylam, he served in roles of increasing responsibility in global development at MyoKardia, Inc. and Amgen. He contributed substantially to the development and/or approvals of Givlaari^® (givosiran), Amvuttra^® (vutrisiran), Leqvio^® (inclisiran), Camzyos^® (mavacamten), Corlanor^® (ivabradine), and Repatha^® (evolocumab). Dr. Kim received his B.A. in Neurobiology Magna Cum Laude from Cornell University and his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship in genetics at Harvard Medical School and his clinical training in cardiovascular disease at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachisetts General Hospital, and he served on the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital before joining industry.

Julie Burgess is the chief accounting officer at Design Therapeutics. Ms. Burgess brings more than 25 years of experience in financial reporting, technical accounting, debt and equity financings, and financial planning and management for public and private biotechnology companies. Prior to Design, Ms. Burgess served as the senior vice president of finance at Otonomy, Inc., Corporate Controller at Apricus Biosciences, and a consultant to several other biopharmaceutical companies. Ms. Burgess is a licensed CPA and completed her MBA at San Diego State University.

Mustapha Parekh serves as general counsel at Design Therapeutics. Mustapha joins Design from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, where he served as special counsel in the Corporate & Securities – Technology practice group, representing start-up, emerging, and public companies in a wide range of transactions and matters throughout the business life cycle. Prior to Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, he served as senior corporate attorney at Genoptix, a Novartis Company, where he advised the company on a variety of legal matters and played an active role with the acquisition of Genoptix by Novartis and other strategic transactions. Mustapha completed his J.D. from University of San Diego School of Law.