Yvonne Yamanaka

Yvonne Yamanaka is a Partner at venBio Partners, a life science venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California. She was promoted to this partnership role in August 2024, directly coinciding with the firm successfully closing its $528 million Fund V. Prior to joining venBio, Yamanaka served on the venture creation team at Flagship Pioneering, where she invented proprietary technologies and helped launch multiple life science enterprises. She began her research career leading early-stage immunotherapy technology development at EMD/Merck Serono, where she won the Merck Serono Innovation Cup. Yamanaka holds a doctorate in Biological Engineering from MIT, where she was a Siebel Scholar, and a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University. Her professional focus centers on identifying, funding, and building innovative life science companies through specialized venture capital and venture creation models.