PRESS RELEASE
CHARM Therapeutics Announces Foundation of Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)
LONDON – 19 March 2024 -- CHARM Therapeutics (“CHARM”, “The Company”), a 3D deep-learning research company discovering and developing transformational medicines, today announces the foundation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to provide expert insight and guidance to the Company on the optimal application of 3D deep learning, protein design and prediction in real world medicine.
The newly formed Board is comprised of world-leading experts whose skillsets span 3D deep learning and protein structure prediction, drug discovery and oncology. These individuals have a deep understanding of CHARM and its strategic priorities and will work closely with the CHARM leadership team to further advance the Company's proprietary DragonFold platform.
DragonFold is an end-to-end 3D deep learning protein-ligand co-folding technology designed for the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics. This pioneering technology enables CHARM to target and develop treatments for previously hard-to-drug targets in cancer and other therapeutic areas.
Laksh Aithani, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of CHARM Therapeutics, said: “As CHARM advances its 3D deep learning platform in discovery it’s critical to maintain aligned oversight of our priorities and keep abreast of this emerging field. The individuals who are founding our Scientific Advisory Board are world experts in the application of machine learning to medicine and will provide crucial expertise as we move forward in advancing our programs towards clinical development. I am delighted that CHARM will be guided by such experts and look forward to working closely with them."
Founding members of CHARM’s SAB:
David Baker, Ph.D. is a Scientific Co-Founder at CHARM and Chair of the SAB. He serves as the director of the Institute for Protein Design, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor of Biochemistry, and an adjunct professor of Genome Sciences, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, and Physics at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
David Baker has been leading the field of protein design and protein structure prediction for the last two decades, for which he received the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. David has published over 600 peer-reviewed scientific papers and been awarded over 100 patents.
David has also co-founded a number of biotechnology companies, including SANA Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: SANA), Lyell Immunopharma (NASDAQ: LYEL), and Icosavax (NASDAQ: ICVX; recently acquired by AstraZeneca).
Professor Paul Workman is a leading cancer research scientist known for pioneering many innovative cancer drugs and personalised medicines targeted at specific molecular abnormalities, a strategy he terms 'drugging the cancer genome'. He introduced the 'Pharmacological Audit Trail', a method employing biomarkers for informed drug development decisions. His work has significantly contributed to understanding cancer-causing proteins, drug resistance mechanisms, and developing inhibitors for protein and lipid kinases, such as AKT and PI3 kinases, and also molecular chaperones like Hsp90.
Paul has been instrumental in cancer drug discovery both in academia and the industry over the last 27 years, leading teams based on the non-profit, team science model. Notably, he directed the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London from 1997 to 2016, where he was pivotal in the discovery of 20 drug candidates, 12 of which entered clinical trials, including capivasertib which was approved for breast cancer. From 2014-21, Paul also served as Chief Executive and President of ICR. In addition, Paul was a Co-Founder of Chroma Therapeutics and Piramed Pharma, and he is Science Partner at Nextech Invest. He has won numerous awards and is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Professor Ryan Adams, Ph.D. is a Professor of Computer Science and Machine Learning Researcher at Princeton University. Ryan completed his Ph.D. in Physics under David MacKay at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Cambridge Scholar and a member of St. John's College. From 2011 to 2016, he was an Assistant Professor at Harvard University in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In 2015, Ryan sold the company he co-founded, Whetlab, to Twitter (now X) and spent three years in industry at Twitter and Google before joining the faculty at Princeton in 2018. Professor Adams received the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award and the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.
Professor John P. Cunningham, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Statistics and a Principal Investigator at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute. His research focuses on machine learning and its application to both science and industry, particularly employing artificial intelligence tools to understand complex processes such as biological intelligence. Professor Cunningham's background includes postdoctoral work in the Machine Learning Group at the University of Cambridge, graduate studies in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Dartmouth College. He is affiliated with several centres at Columbia, including the Foundations of Data Science, the Grossman Center for the Statistics of Mind, and the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
CHARM Therapeutics
Laksh Aithani, Chief Executive Officer
Phone +44 7933 185425
ICR Consilium
Amber Fennell /Jessica Hodgson / Davide Salvi
Phone: 44 (0)20 3709 5700
About CHARM Therapeutics
CHARM Therapeutics is discovering and developing small molecule medicines against difficult-to-drug targets with its proprietary 3D deep learning-enabled platform, DragonFold. Powered by the first high throughput protein-ligand co-folding algorithm and a world-class team of scientists and engineers, CHARM seeks to deliver innovative approaches to create life-changing therapies for patients.
Cambridge and London-based CHARM has raised $70 million to date and is building an interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial team, combining leaders from the fields of AI and biotechnology. It is supported by high quality international investors including OrbiMed, F-Prime Capital, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, NVIDIA and grep -vc. For more information, please visit: www.charmtx.com
