WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Frequency Therapeutics, a company developing a pipeline of new drugs that activate progenitor cells within the body and restore healthy tissue, today announced the expansion of its management team with the promotion of Raj Manchanda, Ph.D. to Chief Development Officer and the appointment of Steven Dworetzky, Ph.D., to Senior Vice President of Molecular and Cell Biology. Dr. Dworetzky brings over 27 years of experience in key research and development roles to Frequency and will be working closely with senior leadership on scientific strategy and program development.
“Frequency continues to rapidly advance our Progenitor Cell Activation (PCA™) platform with a lead program addressing hearing loss. I am very pleased to have a proven scientist and businessman like Steven lead the Frequency team in our Farmington, CT location,” said David Lucchino, President, CEO and Co-founder of Frequency. “I am also honored to announce the well-deserved promotion of Raj to Chief Development Officer. Raj’s leadership has been critical in transforming Frequency to a highly efficient development stage organization since joining us from Biogen.”
Raj Manchanda, Ph.D., has been promoted to Chief Development Officer from his prior role as the Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development and Technical Operations. He will continue to spearhead development activities including formulation and analytical development, manufacturing and non-clinical safety studies to facilitate clinical trials and broaden Frequency’s drug development pipeline. Raj joined Frequency in 2016 from Biogen where he held a series of leadership positions, most recently as Vice President of Neurodegeneration. While at Biogen, he led the CMC development for approval and commercialization for Tecfidera™, the leading oral therapy for MS. Before Biogen, held key R&D positions at Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly), PerkinElmer, and Diatide (acquired by Schering AG). During his 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, he has worked on over 25 INDs and 6 NDAs, including two Fast Track programs. Raj holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University and was the Anna Fuller Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT.
Steven Dworetzky, Ph.D. joins Frequency as Senior Vice President of Molecular and Cell Biology Research. Dr. Dworetzky rose to the level of Senior Principal Scientist in the Neuroscience department at Bristol-Myers Squibb, with experience leading interdisciplinary programs to the clinic. Steven’s ion channels team was responsible for bringing multiple compounds into clinical study. Post BMS and prior to joining Frequency, Steven was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Discovery Research at Knopp Biosciences. While there, he implemented a fully integrated drug discovery team for ALS and other neurology indications, as well as new directions in hematopoiesis studies. Steven received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Chemistry from Skidmore College and his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Florida in Gainesville.
“Frequency’s PCA platform presents outstanding opportunities for the development of new medicines in indications with high unmet medical needs,” said Dr. Dworetzky. “I look forward to lending my experience and expertise to continue the work started by Bob Langer and Jeff Karp, and bolstering the Company goals in driving the next wave of regenerative medicine.”
ABOUT PROGENITOR CELL ACTIVATION (PCA™)
Frequency’s precise and controlled approach transiently causes Lgr5+ progenitor cells to divide and differentiate, much like what is seen in naturally regenerating tissues such as the skin and intestine. Frequency activates ‘stemness’ through mimicking signals provided by neighboring cells (the stem cell niche) with small molecules, and this proprietary approach is known as the Progenitor Cell Activation (PCA™) platform. Frequency believes that PCA has the potential to yield a whole new category of disease-modifying therapeutics for a wide range of degenerative conditions. To fuel its drug discovery programs, Frequency is leveraging a PCA screening platform using primary human cells, including cochlear progenitor cells and adult human progenitor cells from the GI tract. Frequency’s initial focus is on chronic noise induced hearing loss. Other potential applications include skin disorders, gastrointestinal diseases and diabetes.
ABOUT FREQUENCY THERAPEUTICS
Frequency Therapeutics develops small molecule drugs that activate progenitor cells within the body to restore healthy tissue. Through the transient activation of these progenitor cells, Frequency enables disease modification without the complexity of genetic engineering. Our lead program re-creates sensory cells in the inner ear to treat chronic noise induced hearing loss, which affects over 30 million people in the U.S. alone. www.frequencytx.com.
MacDougall Biomedical Communications
Stefanie Tuck or Kari Watson, +1 781-235-3060
frequencytx@macbiocom.com
