A physician-scientist father shares his heartbreaking story of the death of his daughter who was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease and how it motivated him to become the CEO of JScreen to prevent this experience in other families. 

Matt Goldstein is a physician-scientist and entrepreneur. He has founded companies, built R&D teams, and led strategy and execution of both pre-clinical research and clinical development. Prior to joining JScreen and Emory University, Matt was a Partner at Related Sciences, a venture creation firm. As an entrepreneur at Third Rock Ventures he spent a decade building and operating Third Rock portfolio companies. He was responsible for building and leading the Immunology program at Tango Therapeutics, the centerpiece of Tango’s strategic multi-billion dollar partnership with Gilead Sciences, Inc. He also served as the development head for Tango’s lead program which entered the clinic in 1H 2022. Matt was a co-founder of Neon Therapeutics leading Translational Medicine and Early Development through completion of their first clinical study and initial public offering. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the MD/PhD program at Stanford University, where he pioneered novel cancer immunotherapies in the lab of Ron Levy, MD. He completed his clinical training in Internal Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He lives in Boston with his wife, Myra, their second daughter Kaia and son Ezra. His oldest daughter Havi died on January 20th, 2021 of Tay-Sachs disease.

A quick update that during the episode Matthew mentioned there are 4,000 genetic counselors in the USA, this number has now surpassed 5,000.  

During the episode, Matthew recommends the book Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore. 

Check out his wife, Myra’s organization, Emotion, which is for grieving individuals to find community and cope with loss. 

In our next episode we will chat with Myra about Emotion and her upcoming book, Fifty-Seven Fridays, which consists of memoirs from Matt and Myra, Havi’s diagnosis, and how they celebrated her life. 

Stay tuned for the next new episode of It Happened To Me! In the meantime, you can listen to our previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, streaming on the website, or any other podcast player by searching, “It Happened To Me”. 

“It Happened To Me” is created and hosted by Cathy Gildenhorn and Beth Glassman. DNA Today’s Kira Dineen is our executive producer and marketing lead. Amanda Andreoli is our associate producer. Ashlyn Enokian is our graphic designer.

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