Multidisciplinary board members bring expertise in drug discovery, clinical development, computational life science, GPCRs and drug formulation
BOSTON, Sept. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Superluminal Medicines, Inc., “The Membrane Company” using generative biology, chemistry and machine learning approaches to revolutionize the speed and accuracy of how medicines are created, today announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). Comprised of renowned experts whose skillsets span drug discovery, computational life science, translational research, GCPRs, clinical trials and commercialization, the newly formed SAB has a deep understanding of Superluminal Medicines and its strategic priorities and will play a crucial role in advising the Company as it progresses its lead program into clinical development and increases the number of small molecule drug discovery programs focused on high-value G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets.
“The members of our new Scientific Advisory Board are world-renowned experts in their fields who have pushed the boundaries of science, established new areas of research and have brought new therapeutics to market,” said Cony D’Cruz, CEO of Superluminal Medicines. “I can think of no better set of advisors to help Superluminal Medicines take our lead program into clinical development, advance six small molecule programs and build our discovery platform to quickly and efficiently generate therapeutics for any membrane drug target.”
Inaugural members of Superluminal Medicine’s Scientific Advisory Board include:
Morris J. Birnbaum MD, PhD, SAB Chairman, is a physician-scientist who has led research teams in academic and pharmaceutical settings, investigating fundamental problems in metabolic regulation and their relevance to chronic disease. Dr. Birnbaum was Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, at Pfizer Inc., initially of the Cardiometabolic and later the Internal Medicine Research Unit, where he was responsible for the discovery and early clinical development of drugs designed to treat metabolic diseases. Under his leadership, Pfizer brought seven novel potential medicines into clinical development. Dr. Birnbaum has held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Birnbaum received his AB, PhD and MD from Brown University and completed an Internal Medicine residency at Barnes Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, and Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York.
John Griffin, PhD, is an entrepreneur and advisor to science-driven organizations. With more than 30 years of R&D leadership experience, he is the Co-Founder and former Chief Scientific Officer of Theravance, Inc. Dr. Griffin was Chief Scientific Officer of Numerate, a startup that sought to overcome major challenges in drug discovery by applying novel machine-learning algorithms to drug design at cloud scale which was acquired by Valo Health. After the acquisition, he was Vice President at Valo Health—a technology company focused on utilizing large-scale data and AI-driven computation to discover and develop therapeutics. Dr. Griffin was also an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University, has authored 40 publications and is co-inventor of 29 patents. He received his BS in Chemistry from Hope College, a PhD in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School.
Carrie Haskell-Luevano, PhD, conducts research focused on GPCRs, the neuroendocrine regulation of pain (opioid receptors), food intake and energy homeostasis (melanocortin receptors). She is the Philip S. Portoghese Endowed Chair in Chemical Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Medicinal Chemistry. The Haskell-Luevano laboratory uses a variety of multidisciplinary techniques and research approaches including peptide, small molecule and combinatorial chemistry synthesis; cell-based assays; chemical biology; neuromolecular pharmacology; developing knock-out mice and neuroscience. The Haskell Luevano laboratory has published over 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts, reviews, book chapters and conference proceedings. Dr. Haskell-Luevano completed her postdoctoral studies and started an independent research program at the University of Florida Department of Medicinal Chemistry, where she was promoted through the ranks of Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor. Dr. Haskell-Luevano received her BS degree in Chemistry from the California State University of Fresno and her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Arizona.
Terrence Kenakin, PhD, is a leader in the use of pharmacologic tools and concepts to characterize the activity of molecules in biological systems using quantified molecular properties so that their activity can be predicted in therapeutic and other systems. Currently, Dr. Kenakin is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, where he optimizes the design of drug activity assay systems, discovery and testing of allosteric molecules for therapeutic application and quantitative modeling of drug effects. He joined Burroughs-Wellcome as an associate scientist following a postdoctoral fellowship at University College London, UK . Dr. Kenakin worked in drug discovery for 25 years at Glaxo, Inc., Glaxo Wellcome and GlaxoSmithKline’s Research and Development laboratories. He has authored numerous articles and 10 books on Pharmacology. Dr. Kenakin received his BSc in Organic Chemistry and PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Alberta in Canada.
Georgia McGaughey, PhD, is a veteran scientific leader with more than 30 years of corporate experience in drug discovery and digital transformation earned at Pfizer, Merck and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. In 2024, she retired from Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she was Vice President of the global Data and Computational Sciences (DCS) group and a member of the Research Leadership Team, which is responsible for the scientific strategy and direction for the entire Vertex drug discovery portfolio. Under her leadership, the DCS group was responsible for leveraging data and advanced analytics with impact from research to FDA approval and played a central role in the approval of CASGEVY®, a gene-editing CRISPR therapy. Dr. McGaughey spent 13 years at Merck in a variety of roles in infectious diseases, CNS and other therapeutic areas, contributing directly to Belsomra®, Filorexant, MK-8189 and MK-8193, a PET-tracer used to measure target engagement for PDE10. Upon her departure from Vertex, Dr. McGaughey founded Trilligant to continue lending her expertise in digital transformation for a wide variety of businesses from sports analytics to drug discovery. Dr. McGaughey completed her PhD studies at the University of Georgia and has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and contributed to numerous patents.
Sandeep Menon, MD, PhD, MPH, MS, is the Chief Development Officer at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where he leads a multifunctional global team and oversees end-to-end development. Before, Dr. Menon was Senior Vice President and head of Early Clinical Development at Pfizer. He oversaw Pfizer’s early clinical pipeline of assets from IND through Phase 2b across all therapeutic areas, playing a critical leadership role in increasing Pfizer’s R&D productivity resulting in a Phase II success rate of over 50%. In 2021, his team co-led the early clinical development of Paxlovid, which went from first-in-human to emergency use authorization in nine months. He also served as Chief Scientific Officer for AI and Digital Sciences, overseeing the cutting-edge Pfizer Innovation and Research Lab (PfIRE Lab), responsible for using state-of-the-art technology to develop meaningful novel quantitative digital endpoints through dynamic and remote monitoring of human behaviors. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Menon was at Biogen where he worked on Tecfidera and Tysabri; prior to that he was a Research fellow at Harvard Clinical Research Institute. Dr. Menon received his medical degree from Karnataka University, India, his Master’s in Public Health and PhD in Biostatistics at Boston University and his MS in Translational Pharmacology from Ohio State University. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications and book chapters and co-authored / co-edited 9 books.
About Superluminal Medicines Inc.
Superluminal Medicines is a generative biology and chemistry company developing a differentiated pipeline and revolutionizing the speed and accuracy of how medicine is created. The company’s platform creates candidate-ready compounds with unprecedented speed using a comprehensive combination of deep biology and chemistry expertise, machine learning, and proprietary big data infrastructure. The predict-design-test architecture accurately models protein shapes and designs highly selective compounds to target the precise structural change for therapeutic effect. Its discovery engine is powered by an industry-leading, pharmacokinetic and toxicology in silico prediction capability. The company’s proprietary pipeline validates its platform with initial programs focused on high-value GPCR targets. Based in Boston, the company is backed by a strong network of investors including RA Capital Management, Insight Partners, NVentures, Catalio Capital Management, Eli Lilly and Company, Gaingels, and Cooley LLP. For more, visit www.superluminalrx.com.
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