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The ultimate list of leaders in life sciences.

The 2024 STATUS List features 50 influential people shaping the future of health and life sciences across biotech, medicine, health care, policy, and health tech. The list is wide-ranging: from executives and VCs who set their industries’ priorities, to scientists expanding the scope of CRISPR technology, to researchers determined to eliminate racial bias from clinical algorithms. 

Some are big names you’ve surely heard of; others behind-the-scenes players, trying to shake up the status quo. We didn’t shy away from leaders who are controversial. What these 50 people have in common is their impact over the past year, and why they’re worth our readers’ attention in the year ahead.

This list is necessarily subjective. It’s the product of a months-long (and sometimes painstaking) nomination and judging process involving editors and reporters at STAT. We welcome readers’ thoughts on who they would select and why. We hope the list will spark fresh conversations about the changemakers who are driving headlines in health and medicine.

All Industries
All Industries Academia Business Government Medicine Nonprofit Philanthropy

Business

Greg Adams

Chair and CEO, Kaiser Permanente

Business

Behzad Aghazadeh

Managing partner and portfolio manager, Avoro Capital

Academia

David Baker

Professor, biochemistry, University of Washington

Academia

Ruha Benjamin

Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University

Spotlight

Academia

Elisabeth Bik

Science integrity consultant

Nonprofit

Brian Blase

President, Paragon Health Institute

Spotlight

Business

Kristina Burow

Managing director, ARCH Venture Partners

Academia

Emmanuelle Charpentier

Scientific and managing director, Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens

Academia

Rory Cooper

Director, Human Engineering Research Labs, University of Pittsburgh and U.S. VA Department

Medicine

Foluso Fakorede

CEO, Cardiovascular Solutions of Central Mississippi and Fusion Vascular

Government

Jeremy Farrar

Chief scientist, World Health Organization

Nonprofit

Cynthia Fisher

Founder and chairman, PatientRightsAdvocate.org

Academia

Diana Greene Foster

Professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences, UCSF

Business

Susan Galbraith

Executive vice president of oncology research and development, AstraZeneca

Academia

Judy Gichoya

Associate professor of interventional radiology and informatics, Emory University

Medicine

Laurie Glimcher

President and CEO, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Business

Matt Gline

CEO, Roivant Sciences

Academia

Barney S. Graham

Professor of medicine and microbiology, biochemistry, and immunology, Morehouse School of Medicine

Philanthropy

John Green and Hank Green

Authors, patient advocates, YouTube vloggers

Spotlight

Academia

Jacob Hanna

Professor of stem cell biology and synthetic embryology, Weizmann Institute of Science

Medicine

Katalin Karikó

Adjunct professor, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Medicine

Alex Keuroghlian

Director, The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center

Business

Reshma Kewalramani

CEO and president, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Business

Lotte Knudsen

Chief scientific adviser, Novo Nordisk

Medicine

Grace Lee

Chief quality officer, Stanford Medicine Children’s Health

Spotlight

Business

Peter Lee

Corporate vice president, Microsoft Research & Incubations

Government

Henry Liu

Director of Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission

Business

Ted Love

Chair, BIO

Business

Karen S. Lynch

CVS Health president and CEO

Government

Peter Marks

Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA

Government

Jeanne Marrazzo

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH

Spotlight

Medicine

Aletha Maybank

Chief health equity officer and senior vice president, American Medical Association

Academia

Monica McLemore

Interim director, Manning Price Spratlen Center for Anti-Racism and Equity, U. of Washington

Business

Joshua Miele

Principal accessibility researcher, Amazon

Government

Michelle Morse

Chief medical officer, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Academia

Dariush Mozaffarian

Director, Food Is Medicine Institute, Tufts University

Medicine

Stuart Orkin

David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor, Harvard Medical School; investigator, HHMI

Business

Umer Raffat

Senior managing director, Evercore ISI

Medicine

Steven Rosenberg

Chief, surgery branch, National Cancer Institute

Business

Daniel Skovronsky

Chief scientific officer, Eli Lilly and Company

Academia

Ida Sim

Professor and chief research informatics officer, UCSF

Medicine

Melissa A. Simon

OB-GYN and professor, Northwestern Medicine

Government

Neera Tanden

White House domestic policy advisor

Nonprofit

Holden Thorp

Editor-in-chief, Science journals; professor at George Washington University

Medicine

Krystal Tsosie

Assistant professor of life sciences, Arizona State University

Business

Tim Van Hauwermeiren

CEO, Argenx

Business

Chris Viehbacher

President and chief executive officer, Biogen

Medicine

Drew Weissman

Director of vaccine research, infectious diseases division, University of Pennsylvania

Business

Andrew Witty

CEO, UnitedHealth Group

Academia

Feng Zhang

Core member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard