Inside Denali Therapeutics: A Fireside Chat with Peter Chin & Joe Lewcock

​Join MCBcDNA and Nucleate Bay Area for an evening with two leaders from Denali Therapeutics, the South San Francisco biotech working on medicines for neurodegenerative and lysosomal storage diseases.

​Denali’s core technology is its TransportVehicle platform, which carries large-molecule drugs across the blood-brain barrier. That barrier is one of the hardest problems in drug development. Denali’s programs span rare genetic disorders like Hunter syndrome as well as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

​Speakers

​Peter Chin, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development at Denali. He is a neurologist who joined the company in 2019. He previously led the Enzyme TransportVehicle franchise and late-stage clinical development, including the BLA filing for Denali’s Hunter syndrome program.

​Joe Lewcock, Ph.D. is Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Discovery at Denali, where he oversees the discovery-stage portfolio. Before Denali, he spent nine years at Genentech as Director of Neuroscience. He earned his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins and did his postdoc at the Salk Institute.

​The conversation will cover how a drug moves from discovery into the clinic, how to build a platform company around a hard biological problem, and what careers in biotech R&D and development actually look like.

​Agenda
7:30 PM: Doors open
7:40 PM: Welcome & introductions
7:45 PM: Fireside chat
8:15 PM: Audience Q&A
8:30 PM: Networking

​Food and drinks will be provided.

About the hosts

​MCBcDNA is a UC Berkeley student organization and 501(c)(3) nonprofit that connects students with the biotech and life sciences industry through speaker events, career programming, and mentorship. Learn more at mcbcdna.org.

​Nucleate is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the next generation of biotech leaders. With chapters spanning 41 geographic regions and participation from over 280 academic institutions, Nucleate sparks new intellectual communities and embeds emerging talent within a global biotech community. Through open-access educational programming, Nucleate helps democratize biotech innovation — removing barriers and helping founders concentrate on building transformational technologies. Visit www.nucleate.org for more information, and visit https://nucleate.org/privacy-policy/ to read our privacy policy.

About our partners

​Biocom Institute: Biocom California is the largest life science association in the state, and through its Biocom Institute it works to connect students and emerging talent with careers across biotech and the life sciences. Learn more at biocom.org.

​UC Berkeley Master of Translational Medicine (MTM): We’re proud to have the MTM Program as a partner for our Fall 2026 Speaker Series. The MTM Program trains students to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and real-world healthcare impact, equipping the next generation of leaders to translate biomedical research into therapies, products, and policy. Learn more at mtm.berkeley.edu.