Dr. Novak is a serial entrepreneur, long-time pharmaceutical and biotechnology senior executive who co-founded CRISPR Therapeutics AG in late 2013. 他作为首席执行官领导该公司直到2017年12月。 在他任职期间，他为公司进行了IPO，并负责与Vertex和Bayer的两个里程碑式的交易。 目前, Novak博士作为总裁和董事会主席为CRISPR Therapeutics服务。 他还 在英国剑桥的Rockend公司和瑞士巴塞尔的Matterhorn Biosciences公司的董事会担任执行主席。

在CRISPR Therapeutics之前, Novak博士是法国巴黎赛诺菲公司(Sanofi)的传染病全球负责人。 His responsibility included discovery, research and development, and late stage clinical development of anti-infectives, including diseases of the developing world. In early 2006 Dr. Novak became COO of Nabriva Therapeutics, an antibacterial development company in Vienna, Austria, he co-founded. Nabriva was a spin-out from Sandoz/Novartis, where Dr. Novak served as Vice-Head of the Antibiotic Research Institute.

Dr. Novak received his medical degree in Germany in 1993 and his medical license for the USA in 1994. From 1996 to 2001 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller University, the Skirball Institute, NYU Medical Center, and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In 2001, he was appointed as tenured Professor for Microbiology at the Vienna Biocenter, Austria. Dr. Novak authored numerous publications, among them articles in Nature, Nature Medicine and Molecular Cell, provided key contributions in different scientific textbooks in the fields of anti-infectives, genetics and personalized medicine. He is also a co-inventor of several patents.