Srivastava, a cardiologist and stem cell
pioneer, has served in the top leadership role at Gladstone
Institutes since 2018; he's recognized as one of the Bay Area's
most revered executives.
SAN
FRANCISCO, May 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The San
Francisco Business Times has named Gladstone Institutes
President Deepak Srivastava, MD, as
one of the Most Admired CEOs among Bay Area businesses and
nonprofits. In an article now appearing in the weekly publication,
Srivastava is noted for his inspiring leadership style and ability
to successfully navigate both the nonprofit research landscape and
the startup biotech world.
Srivastava has led Gladstone since 2018, the third president in
the organization's history. But he's played an instrumental role at
Gladstone for nearly 20 years, having joined as director of the
Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in 2005. In addition
to serving as president, Srivastava is a senior investigator at
Gladstone, running a 20-person lab focused on gene networks that
guide the development of the heart; his lab's discoveries have shed
new light on genetic drivers of heart disease and uncovered novel
strategies for repairing heart damage.
Srivastava also is director of the Roddenberry Stem Cell Center
at Gladstone and holds the title of Robert W. and Linda Mahley
Distinguished Professor. Additionally, he is a professor at UC San
Francisco and an attending physician in pediatric cardiology at
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals.
"Deepak is a natural leader who very quickly engendered the
trust and respect of all the faculty and administration here at
Gladstone," says Robert Mahley, MD,
PhD, president emeritus and founder of Gladstone, and a senior
investigator in the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease.
"He's leading a group of highly motivated people, including some of
the most brilliant scientists in the world, which is not a job for
just anyone. And he's able to do that successfully while also
engaging with the larger scientific world and the Bay Area
community."
Gladstone, known for its explicit focus on disease research, is
composed of five deeply interconnected institutes specializing in
the areas of cardiovascular disease, neurology, virology,
immunology, and data science and biotechnology. The organization's
more-than 600 biologists, chemists, engineers, and data scientists
bring a deeply mechanistic understanding of how the human body
works and what goes wrong in disease. But they don't stop there;
driven by the potential to save human lives, they work to advance
their discoveries into the clinic in the form of new treatments or
even cures.
Among Srivastava's most admirable leadership qualities, says
Mahley, are his ability to build momentum around the organization's
disease-focused mission and create consensus among Gladstone's
diverse team of scientists and staff: "He solicits opinions and is
exceptionally good at listening. He works to ensure a very
inclusive leadership."
A key to Gladstone's success has been Srivastava's ability to
identify and recruit extraordinary talent, including two
scientists, Shinya Yamanaka, MD,
PhD, and Jennifer Doudna, PhD, who
subsequently received Nobel prizes for their discoveries in stem
cell biology and gene editing, respectively.
On top of this, Srivastava has a keen sense of how to translate
scientific findings into therapies that will benefit patients. In
2016, he joined with fellow Gladstone scientists and local venture
capitalists to launch Tenaya Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical
company that's advancing cardiovascular discoveries made at
Gladstone. The company, focused on regenerative medicine and drug
discovery for heart failure, now has multiple programs in clinical
stages. Srivastava serves on Tenaya's board of directors and chairs
the scientific advisory board.
"The Bay Area is a beacon for the world's business elite, so to
be named among the San Francisco Business Times' most
admired leaders is one of the best compliments I could receive,"
Srivastava says. "I feel grateful every day that I have the
opportunity to lead Gladstone during this pivotal time for human
health. Very few places in the country have Gladstone's caliber of
science, the collaborative culture, and the resources we have to
change the future of medicine. It's so much more than a job to me.
It's the potential to save lives."
Srivastava has laid out ambitious plans for the future growth of
Gladstone, with goals to add considerable lab space and hundreds of
new scientists, as well as expanded capabilities in AI and clinical
translation.
"We're living in an extraordinary time for science and
medicine," Srivastava says. "Advances in genetic engineering, AI,
and stem cell biology are changing what's possible for human
health—and, for the first time, it's realistic to contemplate
cures, not just treatments. Gladstone is at the forefront of this
revolution, and I have never been more hopeful about the future we
can create."
The San Francisco Business Times will honor Srivastava at
its Most Admired CEOs gala on May 16.
About Gladstone Institutes
Gladstone Institutes is an independent, nonprofit life
science research organization that uses visionary science and
technology to overcome disease. Established in 1979, it is located
in the epicenter of biomedical and technological innovation, in the
Mission Bay neighborhood of San
Francisco. Gladstone has created a research model that
disrupts how science is done, funds big ideas, and attracts the
brightest minds.
CONTACT: Kelly Quigley,
kelly.quigley@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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