Alum Profile: Embracing risk, from the bench to the boardroom
Paul Bruno (Ph.D., ’15) has a high threshold when it comes to the fear of failure. His dissertation focused on “undruggable” drug targets, he co-founded a start-up in an area outside his expertise while still in graduate school and he has seamlessly navigated high-level strategy roles for several biotechnology start-ups.
Bruno, a U-M Life Sciences Institute alum and chief business officer at Atavistik Bio, traces his interest in science to his time at Santa Clara University. An undergraduate research experience in Amelia Fuller’s lab, which focused on creating molecules that mimic peptides, inspired him to turn his ambitions into a career in research.
His graduate school aspirations led him to the lab of Anna Mapp, a faculty member at the LSI and Fuller’s former graduate school mentor. The common research threads between the Mapp and Fuller labs, and Bruno’s chemistry experience designing molecules inspired by biology, enabled him to begin his dissertation research with unusual momentum, Mapp says. “Paul was an absolute delight as a graduate student,” she recalls. “He was incredibly bright, he always asked good questions, and when he faced headwinds in his projects, he was great about both figuring out new experiments and pivoting to go in a different direction.”
Bruno’s dissertation work focused on what were then known as “undruggable targets” — proteins that were difficult to drug because little was known about their structure and mechanism, and because many were characterized by attributes like large surface areas that resulted in weak interactions. Bruno credits Mapp and the LSI for developing his problem-solving ability. Mapp’s research program includes multiple disciplines, including biophysics, biology and chemistry, and Bruno liked the multi-dimensionality of the problems the lab was looking to address.
By the time I left the LSI, I had great confidence that I could solve hard problems.
“There wasn’t an expectation that you were a chemistry expert or a biology expert,” he explains. “It was more, ‘We are going to take learnings from all of these different individual disciplines and pull them together to create something interesting.’ By the time I left the LSI, I had great confidence that I could solve hard problems.”
With this combination of different scientific disciplines and problem-solving approach, Bruno was able to successfully explore new applications of small molecule combinations and even help uncover new biologically active natural products during his graduate research.
While working on these undruggable targets at the LSI, Bruno also had his first exposure to entrepreneurship. He and his sister, Ariana Bruno, raised seed funding and co-founded a company based on a novel, patented polymer that they co-developed for helmets and other protective sports equipment. While the company ultimately did not succeed, Bruno found it a highly valuable experience.
“We got exposure to raising money, running a business and doing market research. It was a great experience for us,” he says.
After completing his Ph.D., Bruno’s entrepreneurial bent led him to the lab of Stuart Orkin, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a member of the LSI Scientific Advisory Board. Orkin was looking for someone with expertise in both chemical biology and entrepreneurship, with the hope of commercializing novel therapies for sickle cell disease.
During his postdoctoral experience, Bruno realized that he was ready to leave the bench and find a field where he could more directly combine his business acumen with his scientific expertise.
For each move, the question that excited me enough to make the move was, ‘Can I add value to this?’ If the answer was yes, I always felt comfortable taking that leap, even knowing things may not pan out the way I envisioned.
“While I couldn’t imagine doing anything outside the life sciences, I knew that being at the bench setting up reactions wasn’t for me,” he recalls. “I liked the business side of things.”
He joined Clearview Healthcare Partners, a boutique life sciences consulting firm, where he says his scientific training played a key role in operating as a successful consultant. Before long, he had the opportunity to join Fulcrum Therapeutics, a small biotechnology company whose scientific area of focus aligned with Bruno’s expertise. Bruno saw Fulcrum as an opportunity to continue strategic advising in a domain of strong scientific fit. The company developed two therapeutics during Bruno’s tenure. One, a sickle cell disease candidate, is currently in clinical trials.
In 2024, Bruno transitioned to his current role at Atavistik, where he leads efforts to establish the overall corporate strategy and finance the company for long-term success. He leverages both his consulting expertise and life sciences acumen to communicate a thoughtful, compelling vision of the company to stakeholders.
This vision has culminated in Atavistik raising $160 million to advance from a series A company to a series B company, a significant milestone in its developmental trajectory.
With each career change, Bruno has deliberately considered his potential for impact.
“For each move, the question that excited me enough to make the move was, ‘Can I add value to this?’ If the answer was yes, I always felt comfortable taking that leap, even knowing things may not pan out the way I envisioned.”
