Robert J. Desnick is an American human geneticist whose basic and translational research accomplishments include significant discoveries in genomics, pharmacogenetics, gene therapy, personalized medicine, and the treatment of genetic diseases.

[3] He was the co-founder of Amicus Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing pharmacologic chaperone therapies (Galafold approved 2018[4]), and served as the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committees (SAC) of Synageva BioPharma [5] and Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals.

The enzyme therapy developed in his laboratory and licensed to Genzyme as Fabrazyme, along with Cerazyme for Gaucher disease, helped build the rare disease company Genzyme, which has spawned more CEOs than any other company in history following its 2011 sale to Sanofi for $20.1 billion.

[6] Desnick is the Dean for Genetics and Genomic Medicine, and Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Genetics & Genomic Sciences at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

[10] Part of his genetics laboratory at Mount Sinai was spun out into Sema4 (NASDAQ: SMFR), which IPO’d in 2021 for $3 billion.