Renowned Genetics Researcher Dr. Michael Hayden Appointed Scientific Advisory Board Chair
Renowned Genetics Researcher Dr. Michael Hayden Appointed Scientific Advisory Board Chair
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CAMP4 Therapeutics, a biotechnology company unraveling transcriptional machinery to accelerate drug discovery and development across therapeutic areas, today announced two key appointments to its Board of Directors: Steven Holtzman as Chair and Paula Ragan, Ph.D. as Director. Mr. Holtzman currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Decibel Therapeutics. Dr. Ragan is a founder and President and CEO of X4 Pharmaceuticals. CAMP4 also announced that Michael Hayden, C.M., O.B.C., M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D. has been appointed Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Hayden is a Killam Professor at the University of British Columbia.
“We are thrilled to have Steve and Paula join our board,” said Josh Mandel-Brehm, President and CEO of CAMP4. “Both are incredibly talented, passionate and admired industry leaders with proven track records building standout organizations and advancing important medicines for patients. I look forward to partnering with Steve and Paula and leveraging their insights and guidance in the months and years ahead as we scale our Gene Circuitry Platform™ and evolve our strategy to maximize the potential of our approach to revolutionize drug discovery and development.”
Prior to joining Decibel Therapeutics, Mr. Holtzman served as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development at Biogen, Inc., where he led eight new drug approvals. Previously, he was the founder, CEO and board Chair of Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a cancer drug discovery and development company. He was also an early leader and the Chief Business Officer of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer in large-scale genetics and genomics, and was a founder, board member and Executive Vice President of DNX Corporation, the first transgenic animal company.
“The integration of largescale systems biology, single cell interrogation techniques and advanced information sciences has created the opportunity to elucidate key drug targets to modulate the expression of disease-causing genes,” said Mr. Holtzman. “CAMP4 is pioneering and scaling this approach with the goal of affecting a broad array of diseases on its own and through partnerships. I look forward to working with Josh, Paula and our fellow board members, and the CAMP4 team to advance this bold vision.”
Dr. Ragan has more than 19 years of experience building companies in the biotechnology industry. Prior to founding X4 Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Ragan consulted as Chief Business Officer at Lysosomal Therapeutics Inc (LTI), an Atlas Venture portfolio company, where she led the company’s business development activities. Prior to LTI, Dr. Ragan held leadership roles in corporate development and operations at Genzyme/Sanofi where she led strategic partnering efforts for Genzyme’s Rare Disease business and headed the supply chain planning for Genzyme’s flagship commercial products.
“I’m thrilled to be part of CAMP4’s ambitious journey and have been impressed with the notable progress Josh and the team have made to date creating transcriptional machinery cell maps across myriad disease-associated human cell types, each with the potential to serve as a distinct therapeutic area discovery engine,” said Dr. Ragan. “Understanding how to dial up or down the expression of any gene could have very broad implications to improve human heath – this is the novelty and promise that CAMP4 brings.”
Prior to his current role at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Hayden served as the President of Global R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. from 2012 to 2017. He built and transformed research and development at Teva to become a highly productive research engine and led the approval of 35 new products. Dr. Hayden has founded five biotechnology companies and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious honors and awards including being inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, receiving the July 2012 Diamond Jubilee Medal, on behalf of HRH Queen Elisabeth II and the Margolese National Brain Disorder Prize, awarded to Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to the treatment, amelioration, or cure of brain diseases.
Mr. Mandel-Brehm commented, “Starting with our founders, Rick Young and Len Zon, our origins are steeped in pioneering scientific excellence. We are privileged to continue that heritage with Michael Hayden as Chair of our Scientific Advisory Board, joined by a cadre of preeminent researchers in gene regulation and genetic and genomic medicine. Their collective counsel is helping to further inform and propel our efforts to create a faster, smarter and better approach to drug discovery and development.”
About CAMP4 Therapeutics
At CAMP4 Therapeutics, we are revolutionizing drug discovery and development to be faster, smarter and better. With our Gene Circuitry Platform™, we have discovered how to dial up or dial down the expression of any gene. Using the foundational insights enabled by our platform, we are pioneering a systematic and scalable approach to discover new, druggable targets to control gene expression to treat diseases across all therapeutic areas. This approach involves creating tissue-specific Gene Circuitry Maps™ that comprehensively reveal the transcriptional machinery and its connected network of signaling pathways governing gene expression. Each map serves as its own therapeutic area discovery engine, revealing dozens, sometimes even hundreds of disease-solving opportunities. Our goal is to decipher the transcriptional machinery and signaling networks controlling gene expression for all cell types central to disease, ultimately delivering druggable targets for a multitude of undruggable diseases. Our vision is to create a world where a treatment for every disease is possible. Learn more about us at www.camp4tx.com.
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Source: CAMP4 Therapeutics
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