CEO, Radar Therapeutics
Sophia Lugo is co-founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of Radar Therapeutics, a California-based company building the world’s most targeted genetic medicines. Sophia founded Radar with Chief Scientific Officer Eerik Kaseniit, Ph.D., inventor of the company’s RADAR platform, alongside academic co-founders Dr. Jim Collins (“Father of synthetic biology”, Foresight Feynman Prize, MIT Professor) and Dr. Xiaojing Gao (NIH New Innovator, Stanford Professor). RADAR uses RNA sensors to read a cell’s transcriptome and switch on a therapeutic payload only in cells carrying a defined RNA signature, an approach first published in Nature Biotechnology. Radar’s programs target diseases across immunology, oncology, and neurosensory diseases, and has been recognized as a top innovation in cell & gene therapy by awards from Science Magazine, BioInnovation Institute, AbbVie, J&J, Amgen, and Wacker CDMO.
Sophia additionally serves on the board and executive committee of the international Alliance for mRNA Medicine, representing 90+ leading global companies in the mRNA industry. She serves on the National Leadership Board of the National Hispanic Health Research Institute. She is a Termeer Fellow and was named a Biocom California Life Science Catalyst Award winner, a San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40 honoree, the Tsinghua University/Schwarzman Scholars Alumni Excellence Award (inaugural award across ten years of Schwarzman Scholars), the National Hispanic Institute’s Person of the Year, and the Mendoza Founder Impact Award. Before founding Radar, Sophia worked at the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, the Gates Foundation, BCG, and BGI Genomics in Shenzhen, China. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree from Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman Scholar, and an MBA from Stanford University.
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