Certain scientific professions are founded on publications. While others are built around probability. In the case of Timo Hagen, science is impact-focused, making it a matter of bringing complex concepts in the laboratory with actual solutions to patients.
Today, Timo is a Founding Scientist and Director of RNA Research at Therna Biosciences and is assisting in the creation of a new future of RNA medicine. It extends well beyond vaccines and into long term care of inflammatory and genetic disorders.
From Research Questions to a Real Company
Therna did not start as a business idea. It started as a scientific breakthrough. The research team realized something powerful when they reached the ability to test tens of thousands of RNA molecules in parallel, across different cell types and tissues.
For the first time, they could generate clean, comparable datasets that revealed deeper design rules of RNA inside living cells. It was no longer just research.
They were mapping how RNA truly works.
Working alongside scientific cofounder Hani Goodarzi, Timo helped combine large-scale experimentation with AI-driven analysis. That partnership proved that RNA could become a programmable therapeutic tool, not just a laboratory curiosity.
That was the moment Therna became more than a project. It became a company.
Making RNA Work for Real-World Disease
Most people know RNA because of COVID vaccines. But Timo knew early on that this was only the beginning. For many inflammatory and genetic diseases, the challenge is not identifying the right protein, it is delivering RNA safely, predictably, and to the right tissue.
At Therna, Timo does not treat delivery as a separate problem. Instead, RNA is designed with delivery in mind from the very start.
His team engineers RNAs that work with cellular biology, not against it. Rather than forcing stability through viral or highly structured elements that may trigger immune responses, they focus on programmable RNA designs that are long-lasting, tissue-specific, and safe.
“My goal is simple but ambitious, i.e., to create RNA therapies that can be used repeatedly and reliably in long-term patient care,” he says.
Building a Platform, Not Just a Drug
Timo is not only developing treatments. He is building an RNA platform. At Therna, discovery happens through a lab-in-the-loop system, where experiments guide AI models, and AI models guide the next experiments. This rapid cycle allows the team to learn faster and design smarter.
He balances deep scientific discovery with scalability by focusing first on robustness and reproducibility. Once something works consistently, deeper mechanisms can be explored.
Many diseases already have known biological targets. The real challenge is reaching those targets at scale, and that is where Timo’s platform approach shines.
Learning to Lead Beyond the Lab
Transitioning from academic research to startup leadership taught Timo an unexpected lesson. It wasn’t about speed. It was about alignment. In a company, everyone works toward the same outcome. That means every experiment must connect clearly to the bigger vision.
Timo learned that progress accelerates when every team member understands not just what they are doing, but why it matters. Choosing the right experiment at the right time became one of his most important leadership skills.
The Power of Trust Between Science and Strategy
Timo works closely with Therna’s CEO, Nazli Azimi, and he believes their partnership is built on trust and clear ownership. Nazli leads business strategy. Timo leads research execution.
What Timo values most is her patient-first mindset. Every decision begins with unmet medical need, what patients lack today, and how Therna can truly change outcomes. That clarity keeps science focused and timelines moving.
What Being Visionary Really Means
To Timo, being visionary is not about bold ideas alone. It is about discipline. True innovation requires high scientific standards, relentless execution, and openness to learning. Plans change as data evolves, but purpose stays constant. That mix of clarity, adaptability, and rigor is what turns complex science into real medicine.
Looking Toward 2030
By the end of this decade, Timo hopes to see multiple Therna-designed RNAs reach clinical trials. He believes tighter integration of AI with laboratory execution will unlock vast RNA design spaces, discovering solutions that already exist but remain hidden. Faster feedback loops mean deeper exploration, smarter designs, and better outcomes. “Success means seeing patients benefit from therapies our team helped create,” he shares.
Advice for Future Biotech Founders
To young researchers dreaming of building biotech companies, Timo offers one powerful idea: Design the perfect experiment. “Start with the real scientific problem. Imagine the most direct way to answer it, without being limited by tradition or convenience,” he shares.
He believes that the biggest breakthroughs come when experiments are redesigned around questions, not habits. For Timo Hagen, leadership is not about titles. It is about precision, purpose, and persistence. Every RNA sequence designed, every experiment run, and every dataset analyzed carries the same quiet hope that science, when guided with care, can change lives. And that is what continues to drive him forward.
