Joe Bolen

As president of research and development (R&D), Dr. Joe Bolen oversees all aspects of R&D at Moderna Therapeutics including discovery research, preclinical and clinical development, and clinical operations. Prior to joining Moderna Therapeutics, Dr. Joe Bolen was the chief scientific officer and global head of oncology research at Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, where he held various senior positions beginning in 1999. There he established the oncology research department and helped transition Millennium from a genomics service provider for pharmaceutical companies into a drug maker focused on cancer, cardiovascular disease, and inflammation. He has also held leadership positions at Hoechst Marion Roussel and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute, and was the founding director of the DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Palo Alto, California.

Dr. Joe Bolen brings a proven track record of leading a large and multi-faceted international R&D organization while fostering a culture of scientific innovation within a global commercial-stage company. He has more than 30 years of industry and research experience and has been at the forefront of cancer and immunology research since starting his career as a scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Joe Bolen has published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters, and has presented hundreds of lectures and seminars at leading universities, as well as at national and international scientific meetings. He has served on numerous journal editorial boards as well as study sections, panels, and committees for the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the American Cancer Society, the American Association for Cancer Research, and academic institution scientific advisory boards.

Dr. Joe Bolen graduated from the University of Nebraska with a B.S. in Microbiology & Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Immunology. He pursued postdoctoral training in Molecular Virology at the Kansas State University Cancer Center where his research was directed towards analysis of the polyoma DNA tumor virus.

  • Work
    • Moderna Therapeutics