Mitchell Mutz, PhD, is an accomplished biotech serial entrepreneur, venture investor, and inventor. Since 2021, he has served as Entrepreneur Partner at Vivo Capital. Mitchell focuses on early stage investment opportunities in therapeutics. He is currently on the board of Epi Biologics.
Prior to joining Vivo, Mitchell was Senior Investment Director at the Roche Venture Fund, a $750M Swiss corporate venture fund which invests for financial return. Deals led for Roche included Pandion Therapeutics (acquired by Merck), Enliven Therapeutics, Good Therapeutics (acquired by Roche), Jasper Therapeutics (NASDAQ:JSPR), and Kumquat Biosciences.
Previously, Mitchell was a co-founder, president, chief scientific officer, and board member of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotherapeutics company and Stanford University spinout developing small molecule therapeutics to treat invasive fungal infections. Mitchell led the company’s R&D and financing efforts, and helped grow the company from early preclinical discovery to the clinical stage. Amplyx attracted over $140M in venture financing and was acquired by Pfizer after completing a successful Phase 2 clinical trial. Mitchell was also on the founding team and the Principal Scientist of Labcyte, a tools company employing acoustic physics to enable liquid handling for drug discovery as well as synthetic biology. Labcyte attracted over $80M in venture financing and was acquired by Beckman Coulter.
Mitchell earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Rochester, a diploma in orchestral studies from the University of London, and a B.A. in chemistry with high honors from Oberlin College. He spent one year studying towards a PhD in the Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology at Harvard University. Mitchell is also an inventor on 38 issued patents.