Hok Hei Tam

Hok Hei joined Flagship Pioneering as an associate after completing the Flagship Pioneering Fellowship and consulting for three Flagship Labs companies. At Flagship, Hok Hei conducts explorations to discover unexplored biological mechanisms and create new biotechnologies. As part of a team of entrepreneurial scientists, he develops the science, intellectual property, and business strategy that form the foundation of Flagship’s breakthrough startups.

Hok Hei brings to Flagship expertise in chemical and bioengineering, informatics, and machine learning. Prior to joining Flagship, he received a Ph.D. from MIT in chemical engineering under the tutelage of the Dr. Daniel Anderson, where he worked on a wide range of projects in drug delivery, fibrosis prevention, and vaccines. Hok Hei’s work has been published in top journals including PNAS, Nature Materials, Nature Biotechnology, and Nature Medicine. Two of the projects he worked on have become actualized companies (Sigilon Therapeutics and Verseau Therapeutics). Hok Hei’s graduate research was supported by a competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Outside of his work in the lab, as part of MIT Sana, Hok Hei led the development of a cloud-based electronic medical record system for Syrian refugees with chronic diseases in Lebanon. This system was deployed in ten primary health care centers across Lebanon in partnership with the International Organization for Migration and the JHU School of Public Health.

In addition to his Ph.D. from MIT, Hok Hei holds a B.Sc. in mathematics and a B.Sc. in chemical engineering from the Ohio State University.