Alexis Ji

Dr. Alexis Ji is a Partner at Illumina Ventures since its founding in 2016. She brings 20 years of experience in life science R&D and venture investment in the biopharmaceutical and genomics industries. Alexis focuses on building pioneering companies that bring disruptive science and technology into novel therapies, research tools or diagnostics. Alexis currently manages portfolio investments in Actym Therapeutics, NanoCellect Biomedical, SQZ Biotechnologies, and Twist Bioscience (TWST).

Previously, Alexis was a principal at WuXi Healthcare Ventures, responsible for venture investment in the US, where she was instrumental in the investment in Twist Bioscience, 23andme, Juno Therapeutics, Unity Biotechnology, Vivace Therapeutics, Ideaya Therapeutics, and Medeor Therapeutics, among other companies. Before WuXi, Alexis was an investment consultant at ARCH Venture Partners, where she helped found Twist Bioscience and Nextcode Health and backed portfolio operations. Alexis started her career in biotechnology R&D, in early drug discovery at Merck, translational research and clinical development at Roche, and molecular diagnostics and next-generation sequencing at Life Technologies.

Alexis earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Washington University School of Medicine and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.