Robert DiFazio

Robert DiFazio is the Co-founder and CEO of Parallel Bio, a biotechnology company based in San Francisco, California. Under his leadership, the Y Combinator-backed startup has raised a $4.3 million seed round and a $21 million Series A to scale its human organoid platform and expand its 30-person team. The company currently works with eight global pharmaceutical partners to test more than 50 drugs using artificial intelligence and automation. Previously, DiFazio served as Director of Strategy and Research Development at Stanford University, where he managed a $100 million portfolio across eight research programs and collaborated on vaccine initiatives with GSK and the NIH. Equipped with a doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh, DiFazio focuses on advancing human-first drug discovery platforms to replace animal testing models in the development of cancer and autoimmune disease therapies.