CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warp Drive Bio, a biotechnology company using the molecules and mechanisms of nature to discover and develop transformative medicines, today announced the appointment of 12 world-leading experts to its newly formed RAS Advisory Board (RAB).
Mutations in RAS are among the most frequent mutations observed in human cancer, occurring in approximately 30 percent of all tumors. Despite the critical role of mutant RAS in driving many forms of cancer and promoting the aggressiveness of the disease, the protein is considered to be “undruggable”, and therefore no approved therapeutics exist to inactivate mutant RAS. Warp Drive Bio has evidence indicating that RAS will be druggable using the company’s proprietary targeting platform -- Small Molecule-Assisted Receptor Targeting (SMART™). The newly formed RAB will work with the Warp Drive Bio team to chart a course toward the clinic for the company’s breakthrough RAS inhibitors.
“We are thrilled to have attracted some of the world’s leading experts in cancer research as we grow our understanding of our SMART modality and its potential application for novel RAS therapy,” said Laurence Reid, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Warp Drive Bio. “The experience that each of our RAB members brings to the company will be invaluable in the breakthrough work we are doing in targeting RAS, among the most recalcitrant of human oncogenes.”
The inaugural members of Warp Drive Bio’s RAS advisory board include:
- Barbara Weber, M.D., is co-chair of the RAS advisory board and is currently an entrepreneur-in-residence at Third Rock Ventures. Dr. Weber is an industry veteran whose oncology research career spans more than 25 years. She focused on inherited susceptibility to breast cancer and cancer genomics as a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania until moving to industry, where she was most recently senior vice president and global head of early development for Novartis Oncology. Dr. Weber received her B.S. in chemistry and her M.D. from the University of Washington.
- Dafna Bar-Sagi, Ph.D., is the senior vice president, vice dean for science, chief scientific officer and a professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology at New York University. Her laboratory focuses on the role of RAS protein in cell proliferation and oncogenic transformation in pancreatic cancer. Dr. Bar-Sagi received her undergraduate and master’s degree in biochemistry from Bar-llan University in Israel. She received her Ph.D. in cell biology from the State University of New York, Stony Brook.
- Channing Der, Ph.D., is a Kenan distinguished professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member. His laboratory centers on developing RAS and Rho inhibitors for cancer treatment. Dr. Der received his B.A. in biology from the University of California, Los Angeles and his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of California, Irvine.
- Keith Flaherty, M.D., is an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and is the director of the Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center where he holds the Richard Salton Stall Endowed Chair in oncology. Dr. Flaherty’s research focuses on the understanding of molecularly targeted therapies in melanoma. Dr. Flaherty received his B.S. from Yale University and his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
- Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor of medicine in the department of medical oncology at the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Garraway is also a faculty member of Dana-Faber’s Center for Cancer Genome Discovery, a senior associate member of the Broad Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His research focuses on melanoma and prostate cancer. Dr. Garraway received his A.B. in biochemical sciences from Harvard College and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School.
- Jay Groves, Ph.D., is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the role of spatial organization in biochemical reaction systems. Dr. Groves received his B.S. degree in physics and chemistry from Tufts University and his Ph.D. in biophysics from Stanford University.
- Mark Philips, M.D., is a professor of medicine, cell biology and pharmacology at New York University. His research laboratory focuses on the processing and membrane targeting of GTPases. Dr. Philips received his B.A. from Harvard University and his M.D. from Columbia College of Physician’s and Surgeons.
- Julien Sage, Ph.D., is an associate professor for pediatrics and genetics at Stanford University. Dr. Sage’s research interest surrounds the mechanisms that drive the proliferation of cells under physiological and pathological conditions. Dr. Sage holds a B.S. in biology from Ecole Normale Superieure in France and a Ph.D. in biology from Nice University in France.
- David Tuveson, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor and the deputy director of the Cancer Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He is also the director of research for the Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Research Foundation. Dr. Tuveson’s laboratory generated the first mouse models of ductal pancreatic cancer and concentrates on finding a cure by focusing efforts on early detection. Dr. Tuveson received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
- Gregory L. Verdine, Ph.D., is the founder, president and chief scientific officer of Warp Drive Bio. Dr. Verdine is the Erving professor of chemistry at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Verdine holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University, a B.S. in chemistry from St. Joseph’s University, and served as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at MIT and Harvard Medical School.
About Warp Drive Bio
Warp Drive Bio is exploiting the molecules and mechanisms of nature to create transformative medicines. The company operates on the core principle that nature is the world’s most powerful inventor of new drugs, unconstrained by the mechanistic and synthetic limitations of traditional medicinal chemistry. Warp Drive Bio is deploying its proprietary Genomic Mining and SMARTTM (Small Molecule Assisted Receptor Targeting) platforms, to discover novel medicines that have the potential to make a significant difference in patients’ lives. The company was launched in 2012 through a strategic partnership with Sanofi and with financing from Third Rock Ventures and Greylock Partners. For more information, please visit www.warpdrivebio.com.
