Matthew Nelson, Ph.D.

Founder, CEO

Matthew Nelson, Ph.D., is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Genscience, an affiliate of Deerfield. He joined Deerfield in 2019 and continues in his role there as VP, Genetics & Genomics. Prior to Deerfield, he spent 15 years at GlaxoSmithKline where he was most recently the Head of Genetics. He was previously Director of Biostatistics at Sequenom and Director of Genomics at Esperion Therapeutics. Dr. Nelson is an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina and co-author of >80 publications, including several highly cited, field-leading works. He holds a Ph.D. in Human Genetics and M.A. in Statistics from the University of Michigan.

Selected Publications

Minikel, E. V., Painter, J. L., Dong, C. C. & Nelson, M. R. Refining the impact of genetic evidence on clinical success. Nature 629, 624–629 (2024)

Minikel, E. V. & Nelson, M. R. Human genetic evidence enriched for side effects of approved drugs. PLOS Genet. 21, e1011638 (2025)

Nelson, M. R. et al. The genetics of drug efficacy: opportunities and challenges. Nat Rev Genet 17, 197–206 (2016)

Nelson, M. R. et al. The support of human genetic evidence for approved drug indications. Nat Genet 47, 856–860 (2015)

David Twomey

Technology

David Twomey joined Genscience at its inception in 2023 as Vice President and Head of Technology, partnering with R&D to design and scale data platforms, analytics, and applications that turn complex biomedical data into decisions. He has led engineering, informatics, and data science teams across biotech startups and pharma. With 20+ years of leadership experience, David blends software architecture, data engineering, and software product development to deliver secure, scalable platforms that accelerate genetics-informed drug discovery.

Karsten Sieber, Ph.D.

Genetic Data Scientist

Karsten Sieber, Ph.D., joined Genscience in 2023 as a Genetic Data Scientist and is leading the scientific platform development. With a decade of pharma experience, Karsten has a strong background in developing and leveraging large scale genetics for drug discovery. Prior to Genscience, Karsten was in Johnson & Johnson’s Translational Immunology group leading development of the Immunology genetics. Before that, Karsten worked at GSK as a translational geneticist & statistical geneticist.

Selected Publications

A catalog of genetic loci associated with kidney function from analyses of a million individuals

Integrated Functional Genomic Analysis Enables Annotation of Kidney Genome-Wide Association Study Loci

Network and pathway expansion of genetic disease associations identifies successful drug targets

Qing Xie, Ph.D.

Computational Biologist

Qing Xie, Ph.D. joined Genscience as a Computational Biologist in 2024. Her primary role is to provide genomics data analysis to support the identification and prioritization of drug targets. Qing has more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development at large pharmaceutical company and investment firm, applying genetics and multi-omics data—including transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and single-cell omics—for target discovery, validation, and translational research. Prior to joining Genscience, Qing was Director of Computational Biology at Deerfield 3DC, and before that, she served as Director of Computational Biology at GlaxoSmithKline.

Selected Publications

Activating Inducible T-cell Costimulator Yields Antitumor Activity Alone and in Combination with Anti-PD-1 Checkpoint Blockade

Preclinical evaluation of EPHX2 inhibition as a novel treatment for inflammatory bowel disease

Evaluation of analytical methods for connectivity map data.

Karl Guo, Ph.D.

Translational Geneticist

Karl Guo, Ph.D., joined Genscience as a Translational Geneticist in 2024, and his primarily role is supporting the identification and prioritization of drug targets. Karl has a background in computational biology, statistical genetics, and translational genetics and brings over a decade of pharma and biotech experience. Prior to Genscience, Karl was the Director of Translational Genetics at Insitro. Prior to Insitro, Karl was a Director of Computational Biology at GlaxoSmithKline.

Selected Publications

From Prescription to Transcription: Genome Sequence as Drug Target

Identification of HKDC1 and BACE2 as Genes Influencing Glycemic Traits During Pregnancy Through Genome-Wide Association Studies

Machine learning across multiple imaging and biomarker modalities in the UK Biobank improves genetic discovery for liver fat accumulation

Sneha Grandhi, Ph.D.

Translational Geneticist

Sneha Grandhi, Ph.D. joined Genscience as a Translational Geneticist in 2025 to support disease- and modality-agnostic drug target identification and prioritization using human genetics. Sneha leverages over a decade of experience in statistical and translational genetics, evolutionary genomics, and bioinformatics to drive strategic decision-making in drug discovery. Prior to Genscience, Sneha was a Senior Manager of Genetics at Pfizer’s external-facing Emerging Sciences and Innovation division and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.

Selected Publications

Heteroplasmic shifts in tumor mitochondrial genomes reveal tissue-specific signals of relaxed and positive selection

Phylogenetic sequence analysis and functional studies reveal compensatory amino acid substitutions in loop 2 of human ribonucleotide reductase

Increased FAN1 expression by mRNA-LNP attenuates CAG repeat expansion in Huntington patients’ iPSC-derived astrocytes

Denis Baird, Ph.D.

Statistical Geneticist

Denis Baird, Ph.D., joined Genscience as a Principal Scientist in April 2025, where his primary goal is to leverage his statistical genetics expertise to inform drug discovery. With 15 years of research experience, Denis has worked across academic and industry settings, most recently in the Genomic Medicine group at Biogen and earlier at the Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol (UK). His research focuses on applying causal inference techniques (such as Mendelian Randomization) to pinpoint genes and mechanisms underlying disease risk.

Selected Publications

Plasma proteomic associations with genetics and health in the UK BioBank

Brain expression quantitative trait locus and network analysis reveal downstream effects and putative drivers for brain-related diseases

Identifying drug targets for neurological and psychiatric diseases via genetics and the brain transcriptome

Jonah Einson, Ph.D.

Genetic Data Scientist

Jonah Einson, Ph.D. joined Genscience at its inception in 2023 as a Senior Scientist in Genetic Data Sciences. In his time with the company, he has helped develop the Genscience platform with a focus on ontology mapping, large-scale GWAS harmonization, and Pharmaprojects analyses. He has also contributed to client facing projects which make use of the platform for target prioritization. Jonah comes with a background in statistical genetics and functional genomics, which he developed during his Ph.D. at Columbia and the New York Genome Center in the Lappalainen lab.

Selected Publications

Genetic control of mRNA splicing as a potential mechanism for incomplete penetrance of rare coding variants

The impact of genetically controlled splicing on exon inclusion and protein structure

Transcriptomic signatures across human tissues identify functional rare genetic variation

About

Genscience brings together industry-respected geneticists, biologists, and data scientists to drive evidence-first decisions across the R&D pipeline.

Who We Are

We are geneticists, biologists, data scientists, statisticians, and engineers dedicated to building a world-class genetics platform and providing insights across all stages of the drug discovery and development pipeline. We have over 100 years of collective experience in biotech and pharma across therapeutic areas.

Our Values

We value evidence-based decisions, and the integrity and creativity required to achieve that. We provide data-driven insights with the goal of creating value for our clients through discovering and advancing disease-modifying therapies that change patients’ lives.

Our Team

Matthew Nelson, Ph.D.
Founder, CEO

David Twomey
Technology

Karsten Sieber, Ph.D.
Genetic Data Scientist

Qing Xie, Ph.D.
Computational Biologist

Karl Guo, Ph.D.
Translational Geneticist

Sneha Grandhi, Ph.D.
Translational Geneticist

Denis Baird, Ph.D.
Statistical Geneticist

Jonah Einson, Ph.D.
Genetic Data Scientist

Get in Touch

info@genscience.com