JDRF T1D Fund, a Leading Disease-Focused Venture Philanthropy Fund, Appoints Sylvia Tobé as Managing Director

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The JDRF T1D Fund, a venture philanthropy investment fund focused on curing type 1 diabetes (T1D), announced today that Sylvia Tobé, PhD had joined as a Managing Director based in Boston. Dr. Tobé will work alongside the T1D Fund’s other Managing Directors and members of the investment team to advance and broaden the T1D Fund's investment activities and capabilities.

Dr. Tobé has a decade of life sciences industry experience and joins from Omega Funds, where she served as a Principal on the investment team. In this role, she focused on early-stage investments and company creation across a diverse range of therapeutic areas, including neurology, immunology, and rare diseases.

Prior to joining Omega Funds, Dr. Tobé spent seven years at Ra Pharmaceuticals, a peptide drug discovery company focused on rare diseases associated with complement dysregulation. During her tenure at Ra Pharmaceuticals, she was involved in the early development of the company's discovery platform, as well as developing preclinical and translational models for first-in-human studies of its lead product. Dr. Tobé also provided scientific leadership for multiple discovery programs within the company's internal pipeline and in collaboration with Merck.

“Sylvia brings significant expertise in the autoimmune disease arena, and we are fortunate to welcome someone of her caliber to the Fund’s leadership team,” said Timothy Clark, Chair of the T1D Fund. “Her appointment underscores the Fund’s continued growth and commitment to attracting top-tier talent who share our dedication to advancing our mission to expedite life-altering solutions and serve as a catalyst for significant investments aimed at curing, preventing, and treating T1D.”

“I have been deeply impressed with the innovative and mission-driven approach the T1D Fund is employing to catalyze needed private investments in potential cures for T1D," said Dr. Tobé. "I’m excited for the opportunity to help build on the Fund’s important work and look forward to collaborating with this experienced team to advance the mission of bringing cures to the T1D population."

Dr. Tobé earned her Ph.D in Biochemistry from the University Pierre-and-Marie-Curie in Paris, France, while being a full-time visiting fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard University where she worked in synthetic biology. She holds an M.S. from Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University in Paris, France and a B.S. in Biochemistry from Joseph-Fourier University in Grenoble, France

About the JDRF T1D Fund

The JDRF T1D Fund (www.t1dfund.org) is the largest single disease-focused venture philanthropy investment fund in the world. The T1D Fund invests in companies developing life-changing solutions to treat, prevent, and cure type 1 diabetes (T1D). Since its launch in 2016, the T1D Fund has invested in more than forty private and public companies with an emphasis on cure-oriented therapies. In nurturing a pipeline of next-generation novel opportunities in T1D, the T1D Fund works in partnership with private capital, including venture capital, public market investors, corporations and foundations. The T1D Fund invests in areas strategically aligned with JDRF and the Helmsley Charitable Trust, the leading global organizations funding T1D research and working to change the lives of those who affected by T1D. The T1D Fund is managed by a dedicated team of investment professional team, and all realized gains are re-deployed into new investments aligned with its mission to cure T1D.