SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Foundery Innovations (“Foundery”), a biotechnology venture studio focused on translating immunology discoveries into drug candidates, announced the establishment of its scientific advisory board (“SAB”) with the appointments of key opinion leaders (“KOLs”) in immunology, oncology, and protein engineering. The SAB’s role is to provide expertise and guidance to advance Foundery’s groundbreaking immunotherapy pipeline.
“To date, several early-stage product candidates, such as those addressing cold and checkpoint resistant tumors, have emerged from our internal scientific team’s research,” said Max Krummel, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Managing Member of Foundery. “Our world-class SAB, comprised of KOLs in their respective fields, will collaborate with our team by sharing current knowledge, providing constructive feedback and, when appropriate, bringing in scientific leaders that could further guide our development programs. Their participation will ensure that we design optimal experiments to generate consequential preclinical data for Foundery’s Pharma-ready development candidate packages.”
Initial members of Foundery’s SAB include:
Richard Locksley, M.D.: Marion and Herbert Sandler Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco (“UCSF”) and KOL in innate lymphocyte biology. Dr. Locksley’s laboratory pioneered the use of mice genetically engineered to express cytokines during allergic immune responses. This resulted in the discovery of innate lymphoid type 2 cells and tuft cells, enigmatic epithelial cells at mucosal surfaces which activate tissue ILC2s and neural regulatory circuits, thus revealing entirely new avenues for discovery. Dr. Locksley earned his M.D. from the University of Rochester.
Ananda Goldrath, Ph.D.: Tata Chancellor’s Endowed Professor in the School of Biological Sciences in the Molecular Biology Department at the University of California, San Diego and KOL in T cell biology. Dr. Goldrath’s work as an immunologist has contributed to the understanding of transcriptional networks that govern the formation and maintenance of long-lived protective immunity. Her research explores the mechanistic basis underlying memory T cell differentiation by driving or suppressing target genes essential for differentiation of protective T cell subsets. This information has proved it possible to beneficially manipulate the immune system to eliminate infection and malignancies. Dr. Goldrath earned her Ph.D. from the University of Washington and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School.
Adil Daud, M.D.: Director of Melanoma Clinical Research at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF and immunotherapy KOL. Dr. Daud led the development of IL-12 for use in melanoma along with a novel in vivo drug delivery technology and played a major role in developing anti-PD-1 therapies in humans. Most recently, he developed novel assays to determine immune responsiveness in vivo, which can be used to determine the likelihood of response to immune therapy and provide novel insights into immune drug development. Dr. Daud earned his M.D. at Government Medical College, Nagpur.
Alexis Combes, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at UCSF and is an immune archetype KOL whose expertise is in elucidating mechanisms of immune pathogenesis. Dr. Combes is currently taking a systems immunology approach to discover and dissect recurring patterns of the immune system in health and disease with the aim of guiding the development of relevant, precision immunotherapies. Dr. Combes earned his Ph.D. in immunology from Aix-Marseille University with a focus on cellular signaling during dendritic cell activation.
Leonard G. Presta, Ph.D.: Biotechnology industry research scientist with more than 30 years of experience and renowned antibody and protein engineer. Dr. Presta has held positions of increasing responsibility at Genentech, Inc., including Director of the Antibody Technology Group, where he was directly responsible for or led the protein engineering of notable antibody therapeutics, including Herceptin®, Perjeta®, Raptiva®, Xolair®, Avastin®, Lucentis®, and Ocrevus®, and the therapeutic protein Tenecteplase®. Additionally, he is an inventor of 190 U.S. patents. Dr. Presta earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Texas A&M University with a thesis on the computational modeling of protein-ligand interactions.
Foundery is in discussions with a handful of other KOLs and looks forward to announcing them in the coming months. Additionally, Foundery’s scientific advisor pool is expected to grow in parallel with the Company’s portfolio expansion.
About Foundery Innovations:
Foundery Innovations is a San Francisco-based biotechnology venture studio; a novel scientist-driven enterprise galvanized by untapped biological discoveries working to accelerate early-stage R&D. Foundery is led by an academic-oriented leadership team with a combined 50+ years of storied success in preclinical drug discovery and development. In close collaboration with academic investigators, Foundery aims to develop high-value, transformative immunotherapies and provide a simplified pathway to mint next-generation immunotherapy companies to treat high unmet-need diseases caused by dysfunctional immunological responses. To learn more, please visit www.founderyinnovations.com.
Foundery Innovations contact:
Jate Samathivathanachai
Chief Business Officer
jsam@founderyinnovations.com
Foundery Innovations media:
Burns McClellan
Katie Mathioudakis / Robert Flamm, Ph.D.
klarch@burnsmc.com / rflamm@burnsmc.com
