Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc. Announces Appointment Of Dr. Po-Shun Lee As Vice President Of Clinical Development

CAMBRIDGE, MA--(Marketwired - December 03, 2014) - Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc., a company developing novel therapeutics that regulate protein homeostasis to improve outcomes for patients with orphan and neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Dr. Po-Shun Lee, MD, as Vice President of Clinical Development. Dr. Lee is a pulmonary and critical care physician with extensive experience in biopharmaceutical research and development in both the industry and academia. His initial focus will be on leading the strategic selection process of which of the Company’s proprietary PTI CFTR compounds should proceed to clinical development, as part of its leading program in cystic fibrosis.

“Dr. Lee brings to Proteostasis the clinical and managerial drug development expertise that is critical to transitioning our lead program for cystic fibrosis from its current early development to market,” commented Meenu Chhabra, Chief Executive Officer of Proteostasis. “As a self-described physician-scientist, Dr. Lee’s combined experience will shepherd the Proteostasis pipeline from our proprietary screening platform, through proof of concept, to market, and, most importantly, to the patients suffering from the orphan and neurological diseases we wish to treat.”

Prior to joining Proteostasis, Dr. Lee was the Translational Medicine Expert that led the cystic fibrosis and asthma programs from early development to proof of concept at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research. Before joining Novartis, Dr. Lee was the Associate Medical Director at Vertex where he supported Kalydeco registration and led a CFTR corrector program to positive proof of concept. Previously, Dr. Lee was a physician-scientist at Brigham Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School where he was the scientific founder of two biotech companies, Critical Biologics Corporation and BioAegis Therapeutics. He served as a principal investigator in the Pulmonary and Translational Medicine Units, medical director of the Pulmonary Function Lab, an attending physician in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, and Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lee’s academic research interests included endogenous inflammation control, aberrant cellular proliferation in rare lung diseases and gene therapy for cystic fibrosis. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University.

“I am honored to join the Proteostasis team at this pivotal moment in their cystic fibrosis program,” said Dr. Lee. “Throughout my medical career I have had an interest in and have worked to find different therapies to treat cystic fibrosis. I look forward to helping lead the selection process and guide the design and conduct of future studies that will evaluate the selected drug candidates Proteostasis has so effectively developed with their platform technology.”

About Proteostasis Therapeutics
Proteostasis Therapeutics is developing disease-modifying therapeutics for cystic fibrosis, genetic diseases and neurodegenerative diseases. The Company’s technology combines both phenotypic and target based drug discovery to develop therapeutics that modulate protein homeostasis pathways and correct for imbalances in protein folding, trafficking, and clearance. For more information, please visit www.proteostasis.com.