NEWARK, Calif., April 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rain Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage company developing precision oncology therapeutics, today announced the appointments of Stefani Wolff to the board of directors and Simon N. Powell, M.D., Ph.D. to the scientific advisory board.
“We are thrilled to welcome both Ms. Wolff and Dr. Powell to the Rain team,” said Avanish Vellanki, co-founder and chief executive officer of Rain. “Stefani brings extensive leadership across clinical development and into commercial launch preparation which will be indispensable as we plan for the future of RAIN-32.”
Robert Doebele M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientific officer of Rain, commented, “The addition of Dr. Powell to Rain’s scientific advisory board is a meaningful step as Rain advances its RAD52 inhibitor program into the clinic, particularly given Dr. Powell’s role in discovering RAD52 as a synthetic lethal hit for critical homologous recombination deficiencies in cancer.”
Ms. Wolff added, “Rain’s pipeline is growing with various exciting programs, including RAIN-32, a potent MDM2 inhibitor, and a novel research program focused on the target, RAD52. I am looking forward to joining this dynamic team and contributing to Rain’s vision of bringing these novel precision oncology therapies to patients.”
Dr. Powell commented, “I am honored to join the scientific advisory board at this point in Rain’s evolution. I look forward to not only working with the knowledgeable and ambitious team, but also leveraging my experience and excitement for opportunities in DNA repair-targeted therapeutics in an effort to bring a preclinical program targeting RAD52 to patients as quickly as possible.”
Ms. Wolff has over 33 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and joins the Rain team from Principia Biopharma, where she served as chief development officer and formerly senior vice president of strategy and operations. During her four years at Principia, she generated and spearheaded successful clinical development strategies as she led clinical, manufacturing and technical operations, regulatory and medical affairs, and commercial and communications functions. She also worked at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, where she was vice president of development and global project team leader, Genentech, Inc., where she had increasing roles of responsibility over her 13-year tenure, and at Eli Lilly & Co., where she served as product manager, market analyst, hospital and retail sales for over nine years. Ms. Wolff earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and pharmacy from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Powell is the Enid A. Haupt professor and chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is also a member of the Molecular Biology Program of the Sloan-Kettering Institute, and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. His primary interests are DNA repair, breast cancer, cancer specific defects in DNA repair and the DNA damage response pathway. Dr. Powell has deep expertise specifically on the role of RAD52 in mediating the DNA damage response pathway, where his lab is one of the leading research centers in the field, and Dr. Powell has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications elucidating the potential of RAD52 as a therapeutic target for cancers characterized by BRCA1/2 deficiencies. Through this work, Dr. Powell contributed to the discovery of synthetic lethality in cancer cells lacking the function of the BRCA1-BRCA2 pathway, which has both mechanistic implications as well as applications for therapeutic strategies. Dr. Powell was an undergraduate at Oxford University and received his doctoral training in both medicine and science from the University of London.
About Rain Therapeutics Inc.
Rain Therapeutics Inc. is a clinical-stage precision oncology company developing therapies that target oncogenic drivers for which it is able to genetically select patients it believes will most likely benefit. This approach includes using a tumor-agnostic strategy to select patients based on their tumors’ underlying genetics rather than histology. Rain has in-licensed product candidates, each with a differentiated profile relative to available therapies, and it intends to continue strengthening its pipeline through focused business development and internal research efforts. Rain’s lead product candidate, RAIN-32 (milademetan, formerly known as DS-3032), is a small molecule, oral inhibitor of MDM2, which is oncogenic in numerous cancers. In addition to RAIN-32, Rain is also developing a preclinical program that is focused on inducing synthetic lethality in cancer cells by inhibiting RAD52. For more information, visit www.rainthera.com.
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