John Maraganore

Key takeaways

John Maraganore belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Maraganore to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Maraganore from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Maraganore is an American scientist, entrepreneur, and life sciences industry leader. In 2024, John Maraganore won the OTS Lifetime Achievement Award.

Education John was born in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. in 1962 to Greek immigrant parents. In 1984, he completed his B.A. from University of Chicago in Division of Biological Sciences. In 1985, he completed his M.S. from the University of Chicago in Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In 1986, Maraganore received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Career Maraganore started his career as a post-doctoral research scientist at Upjohn in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1985–86. During 1986–87, he was a senior scientist at Zymogenetics in Seattle, Washington. From 1987 to 1997, he was a senior scientist, group leader of thrombosis and hemostasis research, director of biological research, director of market and business development, and program executive at Biogen in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Biogen, he invented bivalirudin, a direct-acting thrombin inhibitor, later commercialized in the U.S. as ANGIOMAXTM. In 1997, Maraganore joined Millennium Pharmaceuticals and was the general manager of their Biotherapeutics subsidiary until 1999. He then became vice-president of mergers, acquisitions, and strategic planning and led the acquisitions of Leukosite and Cor Therapeutics. In 2000, he was appointed senior vice-president of strategic product development, where he was responsible for program leadership and portfolio strategy. From 2002 until 2021, John served as the founding chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. At Alnylam, he led the company’s pioneering efforts to advance RNA interference therapeutics from early research through global approval and commercialization of the first four RNAi therapeutic medicines: ONPATTRO, GIVLAARI, OXLUMO, and LEQVIO. The fifth RNAi therapeutic medicine, AMVUTTRA, was approved in 2021. A sixth RNAi therapeutic invented by Alnylam, QFITLIA, was approved in 2025. At Alnylam, Maraganore forged over 25 major partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, raised over $7.5 billion to fund the company’s research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization activities, and built $25 billion in market capitalization value. Over his nearly 20 year leadership tenure, Alnylam became a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company with global operations. Since his departure at Alnylam, Maraganore is the principal of JMM Innovation, LLC, committed to the advancement of transformative medicines to patients through investment, board and strategic advisory services. He serves as a Venture Partner or Advisor to a number of investment firms including Arch Venture Partners, Atlas Ventures, Blackstone Life Sciences, Jefferies Financial Services, and RTW Investments. He is a director of a number of publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies, including Beam Therapeutics, Hemab Therapeutics, Kymera Therapeutics, Rapport Therapeutics, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. He is also on the board and/or founder of a number of privately held biotechnology companies, including Aera Therapeutics, Brixton Biosciences, City Therapeutics, Corsera Health, Gemma Biotherapeutics, Mérida Biosciences, Protego Bio, Tevard Biosciences, amongst other companies. He is also a strategic advisor for a number of public and private biotechnology companies advancing biomedical innovation to patients. Maraganore was the chair of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization also known as BIO from 2017 to 2019, was appointed chair emeritus in 2022, and serves as a member of BIO's board. In addition, he is a director of the Termeer Foundation, which advances the legacy of the late Henri Termeer, on the advisory board of Ariadne Labs, which focuses on health system innovations, a director of Nucleate, a student-led organization facilitating the formation of pioneering life sciences companies, and a director of CHDI Foundation, committed to accelerating therapeutics for Huntington’s Disease. He is also chair of the advisory board for n-Lorem, committed to advancing medicines for patients with nano-rare diseases, and a member of the MGH Research Institute's advisory council. He is on the Advisory Board of the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, serves on the Visiting Committee of the Biology Department for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is Chair of the Therapeutics Discovery Institute at The University of Chicago. Finally, Maraganore is a mentor to leaders across the biotechnology industry.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Maraganore

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Maraganore claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Maraganore before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Maraganore ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Maraganore

In research: John Maraganore appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Maraganore in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Maraganore is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American scientists, Living people, University of Chicago alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Maraganore outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study John Maraganore in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Maraganore means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Maraganore out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Maraganore in simple terms?

John Maraganore is an American scientist, entrepreneur, and life sciences industry leader. In 2024, John Maraganore won the OTS Lifetime Achievement Award.

Why does John Maraganore matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Maraganore?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Maraganore.