Dena Grayson, MD, PhD, is the Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs and is responsible for overseeing Kyverna’s Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, and Translational Medicines Teams. Dena is an executive physician-scientist with more than 20 years of global drug development and medical affairs experience across a variety of clinical indications.

Prior to Kyverna, Dena served as the Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at Keros Therapeutics. An accomplished clinical development leader, Dena has successfully led development programs from Phase 1 through Phase 3 of small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, and other biologics, cell-based therapies, and therapeutic vaccines. This includes her work on the early clinical development of Repatha® (evolocumab), now approved for the treatment of hypercholesteremia, and her work to develop of Orladeyo® (berotralstat), now approved for the treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE). Previously, she worked at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. as a Clinical Development and Medical Affairs Physician-Scientist, and at Curis as a Clinical Development and Medical Affairs Leader. Dena also served as the Chief Medical Officer at Valor Biotherapeutics from 2014 to 2017, and has experience at Amgen, where she served as the Director of Medical Sciences and Associate Director of Licensing.

Dena earned her Medical Degree and her Doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was distinguished as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. She conducted her residency training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. Her research has been published in prominent journals, such as Nature, and featured in the New York Times.