Robert Nelsen is a co-founder and a Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners. He joined ARCH at its founding and played a significant role in the early sourcing, financing and development of more than thirty companies, including nineteen which have reached valuations exceeding $1 billion. His seed and early-stage investments include Illumina (ILMN); Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY); Juno Therapeutics (JUNO); Vir Biotechnology, Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO); Sage Therapeutics (SAGE); GRAIL, Ikaria; Kythera Biopharmaceuticals (KYTH), Receptos (RCPT); Aviron (AVIR); Denali Therapeutics; NetBot; Bluebird Bio (BLUE); R2 Technology; XenoPort (XNPT); Caliper Life Sciences (CALP); Trubion Pharmaceuticals (TRBN); Adolor (ADLR); deCODE Genetics; Array BioPharma (ARRY); Editas (EDIT), IDUN Pharmaceuticals; Classmates.com; Hua Medicine; Fate Therapeutics (FATE); NextCODE Health; and Everyday Learning Corporation.

Mr. Nelsen is a director of Vir Biotechnology, GRAIL, Juno Therapeutics, Denali Therapeutics, Arivale, Syros Pharmaceuticals, and serves as Chairman of Hua Medicine, among others. He previously served as a Trustee of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, the Institute for Systems Biology, and as a director of the National Venture Capital Association. Mr. Nelsen holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. from the University of Puget Sound with majors in Economics and Biology.

Robert Nelsen has a curative vision. His mission: to detect, prevent, and eradicate disease. Over a thirty-year career, he's invested in Grail, an Illumina spinout to create a single blood test for cancers, as well as Vir Biotechnology, a company looking to develop a pan-vaccine platform. Those two companies recently raised several of the largest rounds in the history of biotech, and among them and Denali Therapeutics (a company seeking to develop treatments for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease), Nelsen has had three more companies hit the billion-dollar club -- with Hua Medicine (co-founded by Nelsen) likely to move up in 2017 on the strength of positive data in Type 2 Diabetes treatment.