Arc Institute Welcomes Metagenomi's Megan van Overbeek as First Chief Scientific Officer
Arc has reached another institutional milestone—a full leadership team—with the appointment of Megan van Overbeek, PhD, as our first Chief Scientific Officer. In this role, Megan will drive the discovery and development of novel therapeutic strategies for complex diseases. She will also oversee the coordination of four of Arc’s five Technology Centers to advance the Institute’s Virtual Cell and Alzheimer's Disease Initiatives.
Megan brings over two decades of experience bridging fundamental research with therapeutic development. She most recently served as Vice President of Preclinical Research at in vivo gene editing biotech Metagenomi, where she led a portfolio of four therapeutic programs in cardiometabolic diseases in collaboration with Ionis Pharmaceuticals and directed the company's cross-functional Specificity Platform for CRISPR-based genome editing. Prior to that, she led the development of CB-010, an allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy, from early concept through IND submission at Caribou Biosciences.
Megan was drawn to Arc by the Institute's unique model—a hybrid of industry and academic research offering the sustained focus and funding needed to take on truly hard problems.
“Coming here to lead the Technology Centers and work collaboratively to uncover new disease biology and identify the most effective interventions—it feels phenomenal,” Megan says. “I’m excited to learn what energizes each researcher, what they are passionate about, and how to bring people together in ways that complement one another.”
Megan has a career-spanning passion for the fundamentals of biology. She earned her PhD in Genetics and Cell Biology from The Rockefeller University, where her doctoral research identified and characterized Apollo, a telomere-associated nuclease critical for genome stability. She then completed postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, investigating mechanisms of meiotic recombination and conducting pioneering whole-genome sequencing work.
"Megan is committed to fostering curiosity-driven research and technology advancement while maintaining the discipline to execute on ambitious, long-term initiatives with real potential for clinical impact," says Arc’s Executive Director and Co-Founder Silvana Konermann.
Megan’s industry leadership has featured multiple partnerships to further CRISPR therapeutics, immuno-oncology, and cell engineering. At Caribou Biosciences, she built and directed multidisciplinary teams and managed collaborations with Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and Intellia Therapeutics. At Metagenomi, she oversaw preclinical programs and technology development with strategic partners including Moderna, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, and Affini-T Therapeutics.
"We’re excited about Megan’s deep scientific expertise and her ability to build teams that take complex scientific projects from concept to clinical reality," says Arc Co-Founder Patrick Hsu. "She will be overseeing Arc’s multi-omics, genome engineering, cellular modeling, and mammalian disease modeling Technology Centers while working closely with our CTO Dave Burke, who leads the Computational Technology Center.”