Robbie Barbero

Dr. Robbie Barbero is a Senior Fellow with Renaissance Philanthropy. Robbie has over 20 years of experience operating across a range of responsibilities in the biotechnology and life sciences sector, including in public policy, research and development, business development, startup management and fundraising, and quality and manufacturing roles. Robbie has extensive experience building and maintaining strategic partnerships with foundations, philanthropists, investors, universities, private research institutes, non-profit organizations, federal agencies, and companies across a variety of scientific and technical topics.

Robbie was previously the Chief Business Officer at Ceres Nanosciences, a venture-backed biotechnology company that makes products used in a wide range of diagnostic tests, public health labs, and research settings. Prior to that, Robbie was the Assistant Director of Biological Innovation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where he spent more than four years developing and implementing policy on global and national life science issues, including the BRAIN Initiative, the Precision Medicine Initiative, biotechnology regulatory policy, genome editing, reducing the organ transplant waiting list, cancer diagnostics for the developing world, the federal government's response to the Zika virus, student innovation and entrepreneurship, prizes and challenges, and federal R&D agency budgets.

Robbie received his Ph.D. in biological engineering from MIT, where he was a member of Angela Belcher's Biomolecular Materials Group and led or co-led projects on antimicrobial peptides, carbon capture, and industrial biocatalysts. While at MIT, Robbie ran the MIT Clean Energy Prize, co-founded a clean tech company that was developing a color-changing roof, and was named an MIT Presidential Fellow and a Siebel Scholar. Robbie also volunteered as a mentor for an incarcerated individual who was pursuing her college degree through Boston University’s College Behind Bars program, which she successfully completed in 2016. Before graduate school, Robbie spent five years working for three biotechnology startups -- GlycoFi (acquired by Merck), Quantum Dot Corporation (acquired by Invitrogen), and Nanostream. Robbie holds A.B. and B.E. degrees in engineering sciences from Dartmouth College, where he was also a member of the 2000 Dartmouth Men’s soccer team that qualified for the NCAA Division I Tournament.