Ensemble Therapeutics Corp.

CHICAGO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) today announced the funding of $821,000 towards 20 new research grants to advance brain tumor science and treatments. With more than $34 million invested in research to date, across all brain tumor types and ages, the ABTA research program plays a critical role in advancing the understanding of brain tumors and building the next generation of brain tumor researchers. "With more than $34 million invested to support 780 research projects, the ABTA continues to drive brain tumor research forward to discover new treatments for a ruthless and often deadly disease," said Nicole Willmarth, Ph.D., ABTA's chief mission officer. "Thanks to the generous support from donors and partners, including our newest partners StacheStrong and Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada, the ABTA is able to expand its research investment." This year's slate of research projects investigates the use of biomarkers, genetics, epigenetics, imaging, and immunotherapy for adult and pediatric brain tumors. The ABTA congratulates the 2022 grant recipients listed below. To learn more about the grant recipients and their research projects, visit . Basic Research Fellowships are two-year, $100,000 grants awarded to post-doctoral fellows who are mentored by established and nationally recognized experts in the neuro-oncology field. Kristen Huntoon, DO, PhD, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Aram Modrek, MD, PhD, New York University School of Medicine Discovery Grants are one-year, $50,000 grants supporting high risk, innovative approaches that hold potential to change current diagnostic or treatment standards of care. Floris Barthel, MD, The Translational Genomics Research Institute, Arizona Andrew Beharry, PhD, University of Toronto, Canada Aashim Bhatia, MD, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Henk De Feyter, PhD, Yale University, Connecticut Edjah Nduom, MD, Emory University, Georgia An-Chi Tien, PhD, Barrow Neurological Institute–St. Joseph Medical Center, Arizona Pavithra Viswanath, PhD, University of California, San Francisco Jacky Yeung, MD, Yale University, Connecticut Fan Zhang, PhD, University of Florida Medical Student Summer Fellowships are three-month, $3,000 grants awarded to medical students to conduct brain tumor research projects under the guidance of neuro-oncology experts. Through these grants, the ABTA seeks to encourage physician-scientists to enter and remain in the brain tumor field. Shreya Budhiraja, BA, Northwestern University, Illinois Eric Chalif, BA, University of California, San Francisco Stephen Frederico, MS, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh David Hou, BA, Northwestern University, Illinois Kyle McGrath, BS, University of Florida Kashayar Mozaffari, BS, University of California, Los Angeles Janet Wu, BA, BM, Stanford University, California The ABTA is now accepting applications for its 2023 Research Collaboration Grants, Discovery Grants, Basic Research Fellowships, and Jack and Fay Netchin Medical Student Summer Fellowships. For more information on grant opportunities and deadlines, visit . About American Brain Tumor Association Founded in 1973, the American Brain Tumor Association provides comprehensive resources to support the complex needs of brain tumor patients and caregivers, across all ages and tumor types, as well as the critical funding of research in pursuit of breakthroughs in brain tumor diagnoses, treatments, and care. To learn more, visit ABTA.org or call 1-800-886-ABTA (2282). SOURCE American Brain Tumor Association

Cardiovascular diseases remain a leading cause of death around the world. A primary contributor to these afflictions is high blood pressure, or hypertension. While treatments exist for the condition, which affects tens of millions of Americans, these remedies are not without side effects, and some variants of the disorder are treatment-resistant. The need for more effective therapies to address hypertension-related disease is therefore acute. To accomplish this however, biologists need more detailed maps of the mechanisms underlying cardiovascular regulation. One such regulator is a protein receptor that sits atop cardiovascular cells, acting as a conduit for messages that are transmitted when specific hormone molecules bind with them. Cardiovascular diseases remain a leading cause of death around the world. A primary contributor to these afflictions is high blood pressure, or hypertension. While treatments exist for the condition, which affects tens of millions of Americans, these remedies are not without side effects, and some variants of the disorder are treatment-resistant. The need for more effective therapies to address hypertension-related disease is therefore acute.The illustration shows a portion of the receptor pGC-A, known as the extracellular domain, which protrudes from cell surfaces in the cardiovascular system. Small molecules bind with the receptor and exert subtle control over blood pressure. The new research offers the first sneak peek at the full-length receptor, a vital step in the development of new drugs to treat hypertension and other afflictions. To accomplish this however, biologists need more detailed maps of the mechanisms underlying cardiovascular regulation. One such regulator is a protein receptor that sits atop cardiovascular cells, acting as a conduit for messages that are transmitted when specific hormone molecules bind with them. Known as pGC-A, this membrane receptor acts a bit like a thermostat, sensitively adjusting the body's blood pressure to maintain a homeostatic balance essential for health. The receptor acts not only as a vital cellular component for vascular and cardiac homeostasis, but also plays an important role in lipid metabolism and is implicated in cancer development. In a new study, published in the current issue of the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from Arizona State University's Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery and their colleagues, in collaboration with Mayo Clinic, Rochester, make critical progress toward unveiling the structure of pGC-A. The study provides the first purification, characterization and preliminary structural analysis of the full-length protein receptor. The research advances include crystallizing the protein and showing that these crystals diffract X-rays -- two critical steps essential to solving the structure. A clearer understanding of this complex receptor and its signaling mechanisms paves the way for a new suite of anti-hypertensive drugs, which could help stave off heart attacks and strokes and improve recovery from these incidents. "This accomplishment is the first described X-ray diffraction for a new class of membrane protein receptors, and represents an extraordinary effort by our graduate student, Shangji Zhang," says co-author and Biodesign researcher Debbie Hansen. "Structures of unique classes of membrane proteins often require years of effort and are built on similar critical advances." Co-author John C. Burnett Jr., from the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, has been working to develop candidate molecules for new anti-hypertensive drugs, based on the structure of the pGC-A receptor. Heart-stopping threat According to the World Health Organization, over a third of all deaths worldwide may be attributed to cardiovascular disease. Hypertension is among the leading factors contributing to the progression of cardiovascular disease. The burden of hypertension has been steadily growing, resulting in a recent recommendation by the Report of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Working Group on Hypertension to "develop new drugs and treatments to target diverse hypertensive patient populations, such as patients with resistant hypertension." Treatment-resistant forms of hypertension, which are more likely to occur in patients with obesity, diabetes or renal dysfunction, account for 12-15% of hypertensive patients. Such individuals show limited or poor response to existing therapeutics. The condition can develop when the blood vessels become calcified and inelastic, losing their ability to fully contract and relax. Clinical studies show that treating high blood pressure reduces the risk of stroke by 35-40%, and the risk of heart failure by 50%. Cardiovascular diseases include rheumatic and congenital heart disease; coronary, cerebral and peripheral arterial disease; deep vein thrombosis; and pulmonary embolism. Coronary artery disease, a leading killer, occurs when blood flow to heart muscle cells is reduced or obstructed, which can lead to heart failure. In the United States alone, the condition is projected to increase to $70 billion by the year 2030. New insights begin to crystalize The pGC-A membrane receptor exists in three primary forms. This class of receptors are so important, they comprise the majority of pharmaceutical drug targets. For most organisms, whether prokaryotes like bacteria or eukaryotes like mammals, a full 20-30% of the genome is devoted to the expression of membrane proteins. Such receptors protrude from the outer cell membrane and penetrate deep into the cell's interior, often acting as conduits for external signals that modify the cell's behavior. Designing drugs to target membrane proteins however, requires a highly detailed blueprint of the receptor structure, usually with atomic-scale resolution. Using this information, drug designers can engineer a drug that will bind in a selective and precise manner with the cell receptor, to produce a given outcome. In the case of pGC-A, the binding molecules are peptide hormones produced by cells of the cardiovascular system. Known as natriuretic peptide hormones, they occur in natural variations and can also be synthetically designed, using genetic mutation. Part of the receptor's activity involves the conversion of GTP to cGMP, a molecule essential for the normal function of vital organs. "The heart is not only a pump but an endocrine gland which produces a highly beneficial hormone called atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP)," Burnett says. "This hormone plays an important role in blood pressure, kidney and over all metabolic balance." Digging deeper To date, only the extracellular component of the pGC-A receptor has been characterized. The current work is a major step toward characterizing the full-length structure, particularly the transmembrane domain and functional intracellular domain regions, about which little is currently known. To achieve this, the researchers use a method known as baculovirus protein expression. The process involves turning insect cells into tiny protein production factories. Insect cells resemble human cells in terms of their protein-processing machinery yet are easier and cheaper to grow than mammalian cells. Baculoviral vectors allow researchers to turn an insect virus into a vehicle for delivering the genetic recipe for a protein. The process involves inserting a gene for making the receptor into a special type of DNA vector or carrier known as a bacmid. The recombinant bacmid carrying the receptor gene is then used to infect insect cells, which begin manufacturing recombinant baculoviruses. The pGC-A receptor protein can then be extracted, purified and subjected to X-ray crystallography, to determine its structure. The process is tricky, labor-intensive and prone to failure for a variety of reasons. Only a small number of the many existing membrane proteins have been fully characterized, making the preliminary characterization of pGC-A an impressive achievement. The insect cell expression system offers several advantages for protein expression, particularly in the case of membrane proteins like pGC-A. The technique makes it easier for researchers to extract properly folded membrane proteins directly from the cell membrane, compared with the bacterial expression of misfolded and non-functional proteins common with traditional expression in Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. Horizon line "This was a massive accomplishment," Hansen says. "Membrane proteins are not trivial to purify, and she was also able to get crystallization of the protein and X-ray diffraction." Further purification and better diffraction data will ultimately enable atomic-level structural characterization. The research opens the door to the detailed characterization of other membrane proteins, which may ultimately find their way into effective drugs to control hypertension and a broad range of other medical conditions. "A major goal is to develop breakthrough drugs based on ANP and its target receptor in humans to treat high blood pressure, heart failure as well as obesity," Burnett says. "The work done by the ASU and Mayo teams and reported in Scientific Reports helps unlock the secret of the receptor target and will accelerate the development of new drugs and truly help patients worldwide." Petra Fromme, director of the Center for Applied Structural Discovery, who is the senior author of this study and served as the PhD supervisor of Zhang, is excited about the high impact of this work. "Metabolic diseases are one of the most important health threats of the 21st century, with diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases taking the lives of millions each year -- and the numbers are rising. The work on the pGC-A receptor has the potential to develop an effective drug that reduces the symptoms without serious side effects," she said. This project was supported by an award to J.C.B. and P.F. from the Mayo/ASU Structural Biology Alliance and by the Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery at Arizona State University. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The research was carried out with the generous assistance of the Biodesign Center for Innovations in Medicine and the Center for Personalized Diagnostics.

As Nitrome Biosciences — a biotech founded in 2017 to focus on a class of enzymes called nitrases — rebrands to Nitrase Therapeutics , the company is also bringing on a new CEO: Pierre Beaurang . In Nitrase’s statement earlier this week announcing its new CEO, the biotech said that the founder and now-former CEO — Irene Griswold-Prenner — will stay on with Nitrase as the new CSO. And this new appointment comes in tandem with the biotech’s Series A expansion, where Bristol Myers Squibb became an investor alongside AbbVie and Sofinnova Partners, bringing the total amount raised to $45 million. If you recognize Beaurang’s name, you may remember him as the former CBO at Nurix — and as one of the founding team members at Five Prime Therapeutics two decades ago. Beaurang first started in the bio sphere at Boston University, where he graduated with his bachelor’s and master’s in biology and biotechnology — before moving to UC-Berkeley to earn a PhD in molecular and cell biology. After Berkeley, he was a part of the team that founded Five Prime back in 2001 — where he spent the next 16 years working up to executive director of business development. And he was only in that position for less than a year before going over to Nurix. When we spoke with Beaurang, he told us that he took the position at Nitrase for three reasons: because of the opportunity it provided; because it fit his 3 personal “Ps” that he looks for in opportunities — people, platform, and pipeline; and because it felt like Nurix and Five Prime. “One of the feelings I felt when I was approached about this opportunity is that it reminded me very much of what Nurix was when I joined that company seven years ago. At Nitrase, to say we’re the leaders in nitrase therapeutics? That’s — that’s true. When I joined Nurix, at that time, we were saying we were the leaders in ligase therapeutics, and that was true at that time,” Beaurang said. “And we wanted to own that space, just like we are owning the space in networks or buildings. And so there were a lot of similarities there. And again, the same thing — the people, the platform, the early pipelines — all those things were kind of aligned with themselves,” Beaurang added. “And that takes me back to what we did at Five Prime in the very early days, again, having the right people, building a platform that can fill the pipeline, those three elements.” Since Beaurang came on board at Nitrase two months ago, he has had a few objectives to kick off his time as CEO — from expanding Nitrase’s R&D in different therapeutic areas to hiring on more employees and positioning the company for potential partnerships. The San Francisco biotech has a lead program potentially for Parkinson’s disease, targeting a nitrase for the popular synuclein target — which, according to Beaurang, formed the basis of Nitrase’s platform. The team is also looking at diversifying its pipeline into oncology, fibrotic diseases and immunology. And since the company has only 17 or so employees, the number of employees will change, depending on what partnerships or other projects Nitrase takes on. As for more specifics? You’ll have to wait for those. — Paul Schloesser → Back in January, Plexium put more cash in the hopper with a $35 million Series B and made ex- Amplyx CEO Mike Grey chairman. The San Diego protein degradation biotech has poached Percival Barretto-Ko from Astellas to be president and CEO, succeeding Swamy Vijayan and ending a 16-year run at the Japanese pharma. A mere nine months ago, Barretto-Ko took the CBO job at Astellas after three years as president of Astellas US. This marks the second straight week that a protein degradation company based in San Diego has named a chief executive following the appointment of BioTheryX CEO Philippe Drouet . → Paul Hoelscher has announced his retirement as CFO of Horizon Therapeutics , which is turning to one of their own to succeed him. Hoelscher steps aside on May 16, 2022, in favor of Aaron Cox , a Horizon staffer since 2016 who earns the title of EVP, finance until he takes over. A former exec at BMO Capital Markets , Cox had been SVP of business development the last four years at the Dublin-based biotech that bought AstraZeneca spinoff Viela Bio and its neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) drug Uplizna for $3 billion in February. Hoelscher will remain with Horizon in an advisory role until May 2023. → On the subject of CFO retirements, there’s another one taking place at Provention Bio as Andrew Drechsler has decided to hang up the cleats after four years on the job and almost 30 years in the business overall. Provention Bio has already lined up Alexion ’s Thierry Chauche to take over as finance chief on Dec. 1, and Drechsler will stay until mid-2002 as a special advisor to CEO Ashleigh Palmer . Chauche was previously the head of strategic financial planning and analysis at Alexion, which is experiencing a consistent drain in talent following the sale to AstraZeneca . Earlier, Chauche was VP of FP&A at Intercept and has a Big Pharma background at Novartis and Bristol Myers Squibb . → Fabian Tenenbaum has informed Peer Review that he has been appointed CEO of Israeli immuno-oncology startup Nectin Therapeutics as it develops a pipeline that includes ADCs, CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies. Tenenbaum, the former CEO of Bellerophon Therapeutics , has also been CBO and CFO of Anterios Therapeutics , which was sold to Allergan for $90 million upfront at the start of 2016. → It hasn’t been peaches and cream at all for Oncopeptides lately — a couple weeks ago its multiple myeloma drug Pepaxto got yanked from the US market, which in turn pummeled the stock. A week earlier, CFO Anders Martin-Löf resigned for personal reasons after three years on the job, and the Stockholm biotech has turned to Annika Muskantor to succeed him in an interim capacity beginning Monday. Muskantor, most recently the finance chief at Stockholm-based Frisq , has been an interim group CFO before at Scienta Omicron and Sobi , among other companies. → Last week Ipsen CBO Philippe Lopes-Fernandes gave our Nicole DeFeudis an inside look at the company in the year since he took the job, and now Ipsen has given Stewart Campbell a different role: EVP and president of North America. Just this year, Campbell joined CEO David Loew ’s squad as SVP and franchise head of oncology following a 15-year run at Roche / Genentech that saw him take on a collage of roles working with such blockbusters as Rituxan and Kadcyla , ending with his time as lifecycle leader, global product strategy. → Swiss-based Santhera has been riding the struggle bus for awhile, punctuated by a significant reduction in its staff after scrapping a Duchenne muscular dystrophy program in October 2020. But hitting the primary endpoint with another Duchenne drug, vamorolone , in a Phase IIb study has given Santhera reason for optimism, and Stephanie Brown will be president, North America starting Dec. 1. Brown’s career is a veritable Big Pharma sampler, taking on leadership positions at Takeda , Biogen , Merck and Genentech. She will jump to Santhera next month after closing out her tenure as Ipsen’s SVP and head of the rare diseases franchise, North America. → According to an SEC filing Monday, both COO Daniel Faga and CMO Joseph Leveque are out at Mirati , while chief accounting officer Vickie Reed has stepped into the role of CFO. After his FerGene flameout , David Meek will now retool his leadership a month and a half into his tenure as CEO, shepherding Mirati through an NDA slated for Q4 with a KRAS inhibitor that it hopes can put a dent in Amgen ’s Lumakras in non-small cell lung cancer. Mirati also took the wraps off positive colon cancer data for that same drug, adagrasib , in September. → On Dec. 3, Eric Murphy will walk away as CSO of Nima Farzan ’s cancer biotech Kinnate Biopharma “to pursue a new opportunity.” This isn’t goodbye completely for Murphy, who stays on as a member of the scientific advisory board at the California-based developer of small molecule kinase inhibitors. After a whopping $276 million IPO at the tail end of the 2020 gold rush, Kinnate established a subsidiary in Shanghai with the assistance of OrbiMed and Foresite Capital in May. → Fresh off a new alliance with Sinopharm , Shanghai-based I-Mab has shifted CFO Jielun Zhu to chief strategy officer and named John Long as finance lead in his stead. Zhu, the CFO since August 2018, steered I-Mab to an IPO that cracked the $100 million mark in January 2020, the first Chinese biotech to hit Nasdaq since Samantha Du ’s Zai Lab in 2017. Long will become part of I-Mab’s board of directors and has previously been SVP of finance at WuXi AppTec . → San Diego-based Acadia — forced by the FDA to reassess its sNDA for Nuplazid after the agency saddled the neuro biotech with a CRL in April — has promoted Brendan Teehan to EVP, COO, head of commercial. Teehan has swiftly climbed the ladder here after joining Acadia in 2018 as VP, commercial insights, analytics & operations; since January he had held the title of chief insights and analytics officer. The J&J and Amgen vet also logged two years as VP, provider solutions at Tesaro . → Tango in the night : Under the leadership of Barbara Weber , precision oncology player Tango Therapeutics found a dance partner to light up the biotech ballroom in April, reverse merging with Boxer Capital ’s blank-check company BCTG Acquisition Corp. Tango has now tapped Marc Rudoltz as CMO and Doug Barry as general counsel to shore up the leadership. Rudoltz is a Novartis vet in clinical development (with Gleevec and Tasigna ) who has held the CMO job on an interim basis at WindMIL Therapeutics , Deciphera Pharmaceuticals and Constellation Pharmaceuticals . Barry was previously VP of corporate law at Alexion. → As radiopharma continues to sizzle, Fusion Pharmaceuticals — a Canadian biotech in the space that burst onto Nasdaq with a $212.5 million IPO last summer — has selected Christopher Leamon as CSO. Leamon was VP of research and later president of Endocyte , the radiopharmaceutical player Novartis bought in 2018 for $2.1 billion. And just before he took this gig at Fusion, Leamon served as Novartis’ executive director, radioligand drug discovery. Eric Burak , Fusion’s only other chief scientist since its launch, will now shift to chief technology officer. → Roche immunology and neurology partner Jnana Therapeutics has bumped up its co-founder Joel Barrish to president and CSO. A 27-year veteran of Bristol Myers, Barrish helped found Jnana after a short stay as CSO of Achillion , and he’s also on the scientific advisory board at Kojin Therapeutics , led by new CEO Luba Greenwood . The Stuart Schreiber -founded Jnana, focused on solute carrier (SLC) transporters, enjoyed a $50 million Series B haul in August that was headlined by RA Capital . → Boston hearing loss biotech Akouos has named Stacy Price as chief technical officer, its first major hire since ex- Spark CMO Kathy Reape joined Manny Simons ’ team in early May as chief development officer. Price escapes the drama at Ziopharm Oncology — now under new management after the activist attack brouhaha — where she was SVP of technical operations. While with Shire , Price led pharmaceutical development operations and was in charge of CMC program management. → Blending together with K5 Therapeutics and gathering up a Series A in July co-led by Novo Holdings and Sofinnova Partners , Danish neurodegenerative disease company Muna Therapeutics has pegged Niels Plath as CSO. Plath had been a mainstay at a familiar Danish name, closing out 16 years at Lundbeck as acting head of global research and VP for neuroscience. Muna has its sights set on small molecule drugs for such diseases as Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson’s. → It didn’t take long for Los Angeles-based cancer outfit Aadi Bioscience to resurface in Peer Review, naming Scott Giacobello CFO after the appointment of CMO Loretta Itri last week. A former finance exec for seven years at Allergan, Giacobello spent the last four years as CFO of GW Pharmaceuticals , the maker of the cannabinoid Epidiolex that Jazz Pharmaceuticals scooped up in a $7.2 buyout in February. Giacobello’s first day at Aadi is Nov. 28. → J&J vet Frank Wiegand has leapfrogged to Oxford-based Beckley Psytech , which received $80 million in Series B funding this summer, as CMO. Before pivoting to Beckley, which is developing therapies derived from psilocybin and “toad venom” for severe headaches and treatment-resistant depression, Wiegand spent more than 20 years with J&J, rounding out his time at the pharma giant as VP, global medical affairs in neuroscience. → Houston neuro startup Coya Therapeutics is building out its leadership roster further by welcoming Adrian Hepner as CMO and Greg MacMichael as chief technical officer. Hepner jumps to Coya from his double duty at Pharnext as CMO and head of R&D, and he spent his previous five years as the medical chief of Eagle Pharmaceuticals . An Eli Lilly and Novartis alum, MacMichael held the same title at Castle Creek Biosciences and has been a manufacturing exec with Axovant , NantKwest and Rocket Pharmaceuticals . → Gene, we hardly knew ye: Gene Mack seemed like he just took the CFO job 10 minutes ago at Coya, but he’s already had a change of heart and has become finance chief at Imcyse , a Belgian biotech developing synthetic peptides called Imotopes which is partnering with Pfizer on rheumatoid arthritis therapies. Mack was previously CFO at OncoImmune and its spinout OncoC4 . → A triad of new execs is hoping to strike the right chord at San Diego-based Inhibrx , which rolled out results in October for its alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency drug INBRX-101 . Eli Lilly vet David Matly (chief commercial officer) climbs aboard after four years at Novartis Oncology , and in his final year he was the global leader of the MDS/AML portfolio. David Kao (VP of regulatory affairs) owns regulatory experience from Roche, Daiichi Sankyo and Receptos / Celgene and was recently development program lead (immunoscience) at Bristol Myers. And after 12 years at Sanofi Genzyme , Jack Tsai (VP of business development) had a year-long stay as Takeda’s oncology and cell therapy new product business development lead before taking on this role. Finally, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute president Kristiina Vuori has been added to Inhibrx’s board of directors. → Philadelphia-based women’s cancer biotech Context Therapeutics has announced two updates to its C-suite. Jennifer Minai-Azary has taken over as CFO this month, and back in April, ex- Teva associate general counsel Alex Levit was appointed chief legal officer. Most recently, Minai-Azary served as CFO at Millendo Therapeutics , and Levit was VP, deputy general counsel and assistant corporate secretary of OptiNose . → One of the biotechs tackling the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside of an enigma known as NASH, Pennsylvania-based Madrigal Pharmaceuticals has recruited Stephen Dodge as global head of medical affairs and Kia Motesharei as SVP, business & corporate development. Dodge worked in medical affairs at Merck, Novo Nordisk and Novartis, changing course here after two years at Intercept that concluded as cholestasis program head. Motesharei just had a quick stay at another company out of Pennsylvania, NeuBase Therapeutics , as chief business and strategy officer. The ex- Genfit CFO has also been a business development exec at EMD Serono and Akcea . → Livija Deban has been promoted to CSO at Prokarium , a microbial immunotherapy biotech out of London with a lead program that targets non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Deban, a Prokarium exec since 2018, previously got elevated to VP of research in 2020 from her original post — VP of immunology and oncology. Kristen Albright received the ultimate promotion in July at Prokarium, vaulting to CEO after a year as COO. → Ted Danse has hit the ground running as head of business development at Seattle presbyopia biotech Visus Therapeutics , which bagged a $36 million Series A in March. Danse, an Allergan and Schering-Plough alum, is the ex-CEO of ISTA Pharmaceuticals and Neurotech . Elsewhere at Visus, SV Health Investors venture partner David Guyer has been named chairman of the board after serving as an advisor since the company was founded in 2019. → CDMO AGC Biologics has recruited Jean-Baptiste Agnus as CBO. Agnus hails from Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services . Additionally, Agnus has served at Novasep and Isochem . → Brian Johnson is making his way back to Novan to take back the mantle of his former job as CCO. Johnson’s been busy since he parted ways with the company in 2018, busy working stints at Two Hearts Group , UCB and Galderma . Additionally, Johnson formerly served at Revian , Novartis, Ortho Pharmaceutical and Medicis . → Palo Alto, CA-based 180 Life Sciences has reeled in Quan Vu as COO/CBO. Vu hops aboard with experience from his times at LS Associates , Baleena Bioscience , Opiant Pharmaceuticals , Anthem and Amgen. → Hail to the victors: Located west of the University of Michigan , Strata Oncology — a startup that captured a $90 million Series C this summer with the help of Merck and Pfizer — has welcomed Jennifer Reyntjes as chief people officer. Reyntjes, who began her career at General Motors , comes from the animal health world after a year and a half as chief human resources officer for Mission Veterinary Partners . → BioCryst has promoted Jinky Ang Rosselli to the position of chief data and insights officer. Rosselli joined the NC-based company in 2015 as VP of global business analysis and operations. She made her way over to BioCryst from United Therapeutics , where she led the global business intelligence and insight team. Prior to that, Rosselli was with Talecris Biotherapeutics (now Grifols ) and Novartis. → Better Therapeutics is welcoming aboard Thiago Licias de Oliveira as chief people officer. de Oliveira most recently served as head of global talent management for J&J Medical Devices . → Surf’s up: Steven Spector , who spent almost 20 years as general counsel at Arena Pharmaceuticals from 2001-20, has signed on at ex-Arena sub Longboard Pharmaceuticals in the same capacity. After his departure from Arena, Spector worked part-time as a general counsel and advisor for not just Longboard, but Dynavax and Galecto as well. Making its debut with a $56 million round in October 2020, Longboard ventured off to Nasdaq in March through an $80 million IPO. → Over in The Netherlands, AM-Pharma has appointed Alexander Bastian as VP, value and market access. Bastian held the same position at Galapagos , which has imploded impressively after the filgotinib fail with Gilead, before making the leap to AM-Pharma. Back in September, AM-Pharma partnered with Tokyo-based Kyowa Kirin for exclusive development and commercialization rights in Japan for its kidney drug, ilofotase alfa . → While grabbing a cool $275 million to help launch startups, Mission BioCapital has signed on Mike Taylor as operating partner and Steve Tregay as co-managing partner. Taylor comes with experience from his times at Pfizer, Ensemble Therapeutics and Deciphera Pharmaceuticals under his belt; while Tregay formerly served at Novartis and FORMA Therapeutics . → Brion Murray has been appointed SVP of research at Lengo Therapeutics , led by first-year CEO Enoch Kariuki . Before joining the San Diego-based Lengo, Murray was VP, cancer biology and translational research at Turning Point Therapeutics . He has also served as a research fellow at Pfizer. Speaking of Lengo, its chairman Dave Johnson has been added to the board of directors at glyco-immunology biotech Palleon Pharmaceuticals , which racked up a nine-figure Series B last year to propel its lead candidate — a enzymatic sialoglycan degrader — toward the clinic. Johnson, the ex-CEO of VelosBio and Acerta Pharma , also chairs the board at Aura Biosciences . → If Laronde CEO Diego Miralles started singing the chorus of “We’re In the Money” after the Flagship company’s gigantic $440 million Series B in August, Peer Review wouldn’t begrudge him. This week Sheri McCoy and Pablo Cagnoni have been elected to the board of directors at Laronde, which is making a play at endless RNA (eRNA). McCoy devoted 30 years to J&J and was the pharma giant’s vice chair before becoming CEO of Avon , while Cagnoni has helmed Rubius Therapeutics since 2018. → Longtime Genzyme vet Richard Douglas , who has been on the board at MaxCyte since 2018, has now been appointed chairman. Douglas, a board member at Novavax , serves as an advisor at RedSky Partners and is chairman of Aldeyra Therapeutics . → Back in October, Esperion announced that it would cut 40% of its staff due to budget concerns over the course of the month and there’s also been a change at the top . On the brighter side of things, the biotech has announced the appointment of Seth Fischer to its board of directors. Fischer, a J&J alum, also serves as a board member for Agile Therapeutics , Spectrum Pharmaceuticals and Marinus Pharmaceuticals . → J&J alum Tom Graney is the latest member of the board of directors at Cambridge, UK startup Mogrify , which just brought in CSO Louise Modis last month. Graney, the current CFO at Oxurion , also held that role at Ironwood , Vertex and Generation Bio . → Graney is on the board of Andrea Pfeifer -led AC Immune , which is chaired by Codiak CEO Doug Williams and also includes Carl June and Evotec CEO Werner Lanthaler — and has grown further with the additions of Monica Shaw and Monika Bütler . Shaw is Leo Pharma ’s EVP, head region for Europe, Canada and Australia, and Bütler is an economist who’s a board member with Schindler Group and Huber+Suhner . → Anemia-focused Akebia Therapeutics has a seat ready for Ron Frieson on the board of directors. A former chairman of the American Kidney Fund’s board of trustees, Frieson is COO at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. → After naming attorney Ken Clark to the board of directors a month ago, Bob Duggan ’s Summit Therapeutics has appointed Urte Gayko to the board this week. Gayko worked for Duggan in regulatory affairs at Pharmacyclics in the 2010s and she’s now the SVP of drug development & regulatory affairs for Nektar . → Former Bristol Myers and Amgen R&D exec Elliott Levy has joined the board of directors at UK-based NuCana . Back in May, Levy became a board member at Omega Therapeutics and he previously chaired the board at TransCelerate BioPharma . → BriaCell Therapeutics has welcomed Jane Gross to its board of directors. Gross has previously served as CSO and SVP, research and non-clinical development at Aptevo Therapeutics and was VP, applied research and non-clinical development at Emergent BioSolutions . → Acepodia has recruited a couple industry veterans to its board of directors and scientific advisory board. Robin Andrulevich , who currently serves as EVP and chief people officer at Sana Biotechnology , will join the board of directors. For the SAB, Acepodia brings on Eileen Higham , who serves as SVP, head of technical operations at Intergalactic Therapeutics . → Adial Pharmaceuticals is adding former Indivior CFO Cary Claiborne to its board of directors. In addition to his past role at Indivior, Claiborne has served as CFO of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and Osiris Therapeutics . → Kathy LaPorte is tacking on another board appointment to her résumé with her latest addition to 89bio . LaPorte formerly served as CEO of Nodality and currently sits on the boards of Bolt Therapeutics , Precipio and Phoenix Biotech Acquisition Corporation .