Mario Barro, PhD

Mario is Head of the Infectious Disease Team at RA Capital, Venture Partner at RA Ventures (RAVEN), and CEO-founder of GIVAX. As Head of the Infectious Disease Team, he is leading the RA Capital Infectious Diseases team to support its evidence-based investment strategy. Mario is responsible for partnering with several RA Capital portfolio companies as a Board Member or Technical Advisor and has more than three decades of experience in vaccinology, virology, and immunology in large pharma, government, academy, and biotech settings. He has served as Board Member, Investor, and Scientific Advisor for Cidara, Curevo, and Icosavax.

Prior to joining RA Capital, Mario was Associate Vice President for Advanced Research at Sanofi Pasteur and Head of the team executing a strategy for integrating influenza vaccine development with machine learning and antigen design. He also held a Project Director position at BARDA working on Universal Flu Vaccine and leading the technical selection and completion of multiyear/multimillion vaccine development programs. He has earned NIH/NIAID and WHO project grant awards as an independent researcher.

Mario received postdoctoral training at the NIH and Mount Sinai School of Medicine and earned a PhD in microbiology at the University of Chile.