SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- iPierian, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on changing the paradigm of drug discovery and development through the application of cellular reprogramming, today announced the appointment of Matthew J. Plunkett, Ph.D., as vice president and chief financial officer.
Prior to joining iPierian, Dr. Plunkett spent nine years at Oppenheimer & Co., most recently as Managing Director where he lead the firm’s biotechnology investment banking practice for the West Coast. His investment banking experience includes over 60 completed biopharmaceutical transactions, including initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, convertible debt, private placements, M&A and financial advisory assignments. Previously, he worked as a research scientist at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals and at Axys Advanced Technologies. He received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Ellman to develop synthetic methodology for the synthesis of structurally diverse small-molecule combinatorial libraries for drug discovery and lead optimization. He received a B.S. with honors in Chemistry, with a History concentration, from Harvey Mudd College.
Because iPS cells are believed to be able to grow indefinitely in culture and to differentiate into many cell types, iPS cells have great potential for disease research, preclinical drug testing and cell-based therapy. iPierian’s approach places the patient at the forefront of the drug discovery process in order to reduce drug development time and increase the probability of success for drug candidates. iPierian plans to use precise human disease models to find new molecular targets and develop proprietary therapeutic small molecule or biologic drugs for its own pipeline to treat specific diseases.
SOURCE iPierian, Inc.
CONTACT: Julie McDonnell of iPierian, +1-650-872-4714,
julie.mcdonnell@ipierian.com; or Danielle Bertrand of WeissComm Partners,
+1-415-946-1056, dbertrand@wcpglobal.com, for iPierian
