CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Seaside Therapeutics today announced the appointment of Steven E. Hyman, MD and Geoffrey Duyk, MD, PhD as founding members of its Board of Directors. Harvard University Provost, Professor Steven E. Hyman, MD, will serve as Chairman.
“It is with great pleasure that I welcome Professor Hyman and Dr. Duyk to our Board of Directors,” said Dr. Randall Carpenter, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Seaside Therapeutics. “Their broad experience, strategic insights and industry knowledge will be significant assets to the company as we develop treatments for patients with fragile X syndrome, autism and other disorders of brain development.”
Steven E. Hyman, MD is Provost of Harvard University and Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. From 1996 to 2001, he served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the component of the US National Institutes of Health charged with generating the knowledge needed to understand and treat mental illness. Before serving as Director of NIMH, Dr. Hyman was Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Director of Psychiatry Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the first faculty Director of Harvard University’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative. In the laboratory, he studied the molecular biology of neurotransmitter action. Dr. Hyman is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“I look forward to working with the team of a truly innovative company,” said Professor Hyman. “Seaside is the first and only company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for individuals with disorders of brain development such as fragile X syndrome and autism. The lead compound has the potential to significantly improve the quality of life for these patients and their families.”
Geoffrey Duyk, MD, PhD, is Managing Director of Texas Pacific Group Ventures, where he focuses on the Life Sciences sector. Prior to joining Texas Pacific Group Ventures in 2004, Dr. Duyk served on the Board of Directors and was President of Research & Development at Exelixis where he led a 550+ person group focused on the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics. Prior to Exelixis, he was one of the founding scientific staff at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. As Vice President of Genomics at Millennium, Dr. Duyk was responsible for building and leading the informatics, automation, DNA sequencing and genotyping groups as well as the mouse and human genetics group. Prior to his tenure at Millennium, Dr. Duyk was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) in the Department of Genetics and Assistant Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). While at HMS, Dr. Duyk was a Co-Principal Investigator in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Cooperative Human Linkage Center. Dr. Duyk has been and continues to be a member of numerous NIH panels and oversight committees focused on the planning and execution of the human genome project.
“The founders have brought together a world-class scientific team and acquired an excellent lead compound from Merck that has demonstrated strong preclinical efficacy,” said Dr. Duyk. “I look forward to working with the Seaside team to develop important drugs that will make a significant difference in patients’ lives.”
Please visit http://www.seasidetherapeutics.com for more information on our board members and drug development program.
About Seaside Therapeutics
Seaside Therapeutics was founded to translate exciting new brain research, including the promising discoveries of Scientific Founder Professor Mark Bear, into effective therapeutics for patients with disorders of brain development such as fragile X syndrome and autism. Dr. Bear, Picower Professor Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, discovered a link between genetic mutations found in individuals with fragile X syndrome, a specific genetic disorder of brain development, and dysfunction in the metabotropic glutamate (mGluR) neurotransmitter system. Independent international researchers have confirmed that genetic and pharmacologic interventions targeting specific mGluR receptors normalize brain development and behavior in animal models, thus validating the “mGluR theory of fragile X.” Our lead selective mGluR compound was licensed from Merck Pharmaceuticals, is in advanced stages of preclinical development and has demonstrated profound efficacy in animal models of fragile X, thus providing compelling justification for advancing this novel treatment into human trials.
Contact: Colleen Baker
Phone: 617.374.9009 X1003
Email: cbaker@seasidetherapeutics.com
Source: Seaside Therapeutics
