Ben Liu is the CEO and co-founder of Formation Bio, an AI-native pharmaceutical company reimagining drug development. Trained as a computational biologist, Ben earned his doctorate at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. His research combined machine learning and scaled healthcare datasets – genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and imaging – to develop diagnostics and treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. While completing his doctoral work, Ben identified clinical trials, not discovery, as the main bottleneck in bringing new therapies to patients. Formation Bio was born from this insight, with a mission of accelerating clinical development through AI, automation, and better operational design. Ben previously completed an MPhil in Computational Biology at Cambridge University as a Paul Mellon Fellow and graduated from Yale University with top honors. His work has earned recognition across academia and industry, and he now serves as an advisor to Harvard Business School’s MS/MBA Biotechnology program. Under Ben’s leadership, Formation Bio was named to the CNBC Disruptor 50, Endpts11, World Economic Forum’s Innovators Community and has emerged as a model for how advanced technology can unlock speed, efficiency, and precision in pharmaceutical development – all things not offered by the traditional pharmaceutical model.
As CEO and co-founder of Formation Bio, Ben leads the company’s strategic vision, operational execution, and mission to transform drug development with AI. Formation Bio is an AI-native pharma company differentiated by radically more efficient drug development. Formation Bio has built technology and AI platforms, processes, and capabilities to accelerate all aspects of drug development and clinical trials. Formation Bio partners, acquires, or in-licenses drugs from pharma companies and biotechs to develop programs past clinical proof of concept and beyond, leveraging their proprietary tech and AI capabilities, ultimately helping to bring new medicines to patients. Ben drives: Company strategy & leadership – Ben defines and implements Formation Bio’s long-term goals, aligning business leaders around the company’s technology, business development, and financing. Ben leads with a first principles mindset, always optimizing for efficiency and impact and unafraid to veer from the status quo. Pipeline – Ben plays a pivotal role in sourcing, evaluating, and securing clinical-stage assets through licensing and acquisition – Formation Bio’s core growth engine. He leads the sourcing and development of a high-impact portfolio, optimized for rapid advancement. Partnerships - Ben nurtures high-impact external partnerships across pharma and tech (e.g. OpenAI, Sanofi) to unlock additional asset opportunities, expand funding access, and advance cutting-edge technology collaborations. Team building – Ben recruits and nurtures a team of experts from tech, biotech, pharma and business backgrounds, fostering a working environment that combines scientific and engineering rigor.