Brian Bettencourt

Brian Bettencourt is Chair of Believe in a Cure’s Scientific Advisory Board. In his “day job,” as he likes to call it, Brian is CSO of Torque Bio, focusing on scientific strategy and execution of gene therapy drug development for genetic disorders with large, unmet medical need.

Prior to Torque, Brian was instrumental in the launch of four biotech companies at Third Rock Ventures and Atlas Ventures, including Triplet Therapeutics, where he was Head of Research. He also held leadership roles in bioinformatics and biometrics at Translate Bio and Alnylam Therapeutics. It was at Alnylam that Brian got his first direct experience with an oligonucleotide completing the journey from a sequence of letters on a computer all the way to a life-saving medicine. Before joining the biotech industry, Brian was a biology professor with a research focus on Drosophila population genetics and neurodegeneration models.

Outside the office and the lab, Brian’s main loves are gardening, playing music, and herding his rambunctious children (which is impossible without his wife’s patience and help!). Brian also spends a lot of his free time working on scientific projects for rare disease foundations, and he can’t imagine a more rewarding pastime. He holds a B.S. in Biology from UMass Amherst and a Ph.D. in Organismal Biology and Anatomy from the University of Chicago.