Ken Gabriel Announced as CEO of Pitt Bioforge

On Monday, the Pitt School of Medicine announced Ken Gabriel will become the inaugural chief executive officer (CEO) of Pitt BioForge. 

The BioForge Manufacturing Center, which will be located at Hazelwood Green, the site of Pittsburgh’s last operating steel mill, is a groundbreaking $100 million project that will utilize laboratories and new biomanufacturing technologies for life science research, aiming to establish Pittsburgh as a pioneer in biotechnology. Gabriel’s role of CEO will include leading the construction and operation of the facility, which plans to break ground in early 2024. 

“Ken’s depth of experience as an innovator across government, academic and commercial sectors makes him a perfect fit for leveraging Pitt’s world-class research in medicine and the health sciences at BioForge,” Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine, said on Monday during the announcement. 

Gabriel, a former tenured professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, said BioForge will aim to “accelerate breakthroughs in both the development and manufacturing of precision medicines to speed their delivery, use and impact.”

“As a society, we often celebrate new inventions while overlooking the ingenuity and passion required to deliver them. Manufacturing precision medicines will require innovations just as potent as those that led to their invention,” Gabriel said.

Gabriel’s credentials include the founding chief operating officer of Wellcome Leap, an international innovation organization working at the intersection of life sciences and engineering to deliver medical and healthcare innovations on accelerated timelines. He helped develop 10 multimillion-dollar life science research programs. 

He was also the president and CEO of Draper, a spin-off MIT engineering company which recently engineered human organ-on-a-chip platforms for drug discovery and the world’s first adaptive pediatric heart valve. During his time as CEO, he raised the revenue growth to $600 million. 

University Chancellor Joan Gabel said Pitt is excited about Gabriel’s hire and his role in the future of the BioForge project. 

“Together we are demonstrating how anything is possible at Pitt, as well as how we are at our best when we are serving the community and expanding opportunity and knowledge,” Gabel said.