Meet our Therapeutics Leadership Team

William “Bill” Richards. Bill joined 23andMe in early 2020 as Director of Target and Drug Discovery. Bill leads a team focused on translating findings from 23andMe’s genetic database to the identification of therapeutic targets and advancement of therapeutic programs.

In roles prior to joining 23andMe, Bill was recently Chief Scientific Officer at ProNeurotech (now Nura Bio). From 1996 to 2019, Bill held various positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen culminating as Executive Director Research. At Amgen Bill and his teams contributed to the pre-clinical development of numerous molecules, including Sensipar, Parsibiv, Evenity, Olpasiran, AMG 594 and AMG 609. Also, at Amgen Bill worked closely with the team at deCODE genetics to identify and advance genetically validated therapeutic targets. Bill received his  Ph.D. in Genetics from SUNY-Stony Brook and conducted postdoctoral research at the Oak Ridge National Labs. Additionally, Bill has co-authored numerous publications and is co-inventor of many patents.

Kenneth joined 23andMe in 2019 as Head of Therapeutics. He leads a dedicated discovery research and therapeutic development team that uses human genetic data to identify and pursue novel therapies for common and rare diseases.

Kenneth held leadership roles at Genentech from 1994 to 2011. He led the medical and scientific strategies for its Immunology, Tissue Growth and Repair drug portfolio. He served in a number of key leadership positions in research and development, including Senior Vice President Clinical Development, Inflammation, Vice President Immunology, Tissue Growth and Repair (ITGR), Vice President Development Sciences and Vice President Research Operations and Pathology. He also served as Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Development and Product Development Strategy in Asia-Pacific for Roche in Shanghai, China.

Kenneth has served on the board of directors of Achaogen, Inc., since 2011. He served as Achaogen’s Chief Executive Officer from 2011 until 2017, and as its Chief Medical Officer from 2011 to 2014. He has served on the board of directors of Zymeworks, since February 2017. He served on the board of directors of Relypsa from 2014 until 2016, when it was acquired by Galenica AG.

Kenneth has an M.B. Ch.B. (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Glasgow, U.K. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS, Glasg), and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath). Dr. Hillan has authored dozens of scientific publications and is a named inventor on almost 50 issued patents.

Jennifer Low joined 23andMe in 2018 as Head of Therapeutics Development. She oversees the transition of potential therapeutics from 23andMe’s research laboratories into clinical development studies.

Jennifer has considerable drug development experience and has most recently worked as a consultant and advisor to biotech CEOs and investors on their drug development strategies. She has been the Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Loxo Oncology where she oversaw the clinical development of Vitrakvi (Trk inhibitor). Prior to that she was a Senior Group Director at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, where she oversaw the Erivedge (hedgehog), Zelboraf (b-RAF), and Cotellic (mek) clinical development programs among many others.

She received her undergraduate degree from Caltech, her MD and PhD degrees from Georgetown, and completed her internal medicine residency at the University of California Davis, her medical oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, and was a Senior Investigator at the Cancer Therapeutics Evaluation Program at NCI and an attending physician in breast cancer at the National Institutes of Health and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. She has co-authored papers appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Cancer Discovery, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Nature Reviews Cancer.

Monica Viziano joined 23andMe in 2020 as VP Portfolio Strategy and Alliance Management. She oversees the Business Development, Alliance Management and Project Management groups.

Monica has considerable experience in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry. She has participated in the development and commercialization of drugs across multiple therapeutic areas such as Inflammation, Oncology, HIV, HBV, CV and CNS.

She worked at Gilead for 18 years. During her tenure at Gilead, she developed and maintained the most important and complex alliance collaborations. She was involved in the development of several drugs at Gilead, including TRUVADA, ATRIPLA, STRIBILD and GENVOYA. Monica participated in several business development transactions, including in-licensing and partnerships with Japan Tobacco, ONO Pharmaceuticals and Galapagos. Prior to joining Gilead, Monica worked at Schering-Plough and GSK.

Monica received her degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies at the University of Milan.

Adam Auton is the VP of Human Genetics at 23andMe, and is responsible for computational approaches to target discovery via statistical genetics and computational biology. Before joining 23andMe, Adam was an assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where his group developed algorithmic approaches for using large-scale genomic data to understand human population genetics. Adam earned his DPhil in statistics from Oxford University, before completing his post-doctoral training at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford, and Cornell University.