Marco Lobba and Sophia Lugo Named to San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40
By Bella Liu.
Many people don’t end up in the jobs they wanted when they were four years old. But Catena Biosciences CEO Marco Lobba and Radar Therapeutics CEO Sophia Lugo aren’t most people — a fact that didn’t escape the San Francisco Business Times.
For their innovative contributions to biotech and precision medicine — Lobba with CatenaBio’s Multi-Payload Conjugate™ antibody-drug combinations, Lugo with Radar’s targeted mRNA therapies — the SF Business Times named both Lobba and Lugo to their 2025 “40 Under 40” class of honorees, recognizing them as two of the most influential and industrious leaders in the Bay Area. The awards will be presented on Thursday, April 24 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.
“At four, I literally told my parents that my life’s ambition was to find a way to suck things back out of black holes. I’ve always been really interested in how the world works and why it works,” Lobba said. “I always knew that I wanted to use science to make people’s lives better, but I never thought I’d be the person that got to start a company doing that.”
Lugo (once an aspiring astronaut) echoed that sentiment, explaining that while she always wanted to use science to help people, her plans also did not initially include her doing that as CEO of a startup.
“I figured if I want to help people, and I want to use science to do it, I should do that by being a doctor,” Lugo said. “But I realized I do not want to be a doctor in a system that doesn’t really allow you to fully care for the patient in all of their circumstances. I had a really strong pull for justice.”
Besides recognizing technical achievements, the 40 Under 40 club honors those who positively impact their community.
“In order to do good by doing science, it’s important to also engage outside of the lab as well,” Lobba, who serves as a mentor for a Berkeley campus entrepreneurship program, said.
But beyond community service, both Lobba and Lugo emphasize the human impact aspect of the 40 Under 40 award through their efforts to make their therapies more accessible.
“It’s really important to make sure that when you’re dealing with people’s lives and their health, that we build these therapeutics following a principles-first approach,” Lobba said, “particularly in times when science is being questioned or put under the rug.”
“This award recognizes that [Radar] is really a breakthrough,” Lugo said. “But I don’t necessarily see this award as goal realization. I don’t see this award as being the final place I want to be. I want to be in a place where me and my team are able to actually cure people and actually scale this therapy. We want to be in a place where we know that we have actually contributed to making mRNA therapies and gene therapies broadly available and very safe.”
“We’re not there yet,” Lugo continued, “but I think the award recognizes that it’s worth being on the journey.”
“It’s a hard journey,” Lobba agreed. “But allow good science to take the lead and know where your limits are.”
