Dr. Jeffrey Stafford ‘84, CEO of 858 Therapeutics and a veteran biotechnology executive and scientist, has been named the recipient of the 2026 UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Alumni Award.
Stafford will accept the award and present the commencement address at the UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 13, 2026.
Stafford has co-founded several innovative biotech companies and led teams that have discovered medicines for patients worldwide. His discovery teams have been responsible for three FDA-approved medicines—Votrient™ for cancer, Nesina™ for diabetes, and Byfavo™ for anesthesia.
Previously, Stafford served as CEO of Jecure Therapeutics, a company developing NLRP3 inhibitors for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases that was later acquired by Genentech. He also served as the founding Chief Scientific Officer of Quanticel Pharmaceuticals, a drug discovery company that pioneered single-cell mapping of tumor heterogeneity for precision targeting of cancer stem cells.
A California native, former resident of Sproul and Rieber Halls, and proud alumnus of UCLA, Stafford earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1984 before going on to receive his Ph.D. from Cornell University and complete an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley.
“Everybody who knows me also knows that UCLA is a central part of my identity,” Stafford said. “Being associated with UCLA has been a lifelong source of pride.”
