SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Accelerator Corporation, a privately–held, venture capital backed biotechnology investment and development company, announced that it has named David McElligott, Ph.D. to the position of Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. McElligott replaces Patrick Gray, Ph.D. who recently joined Omeros Corporation (NASDAQ:OMER) as Scientific Fellow.
Dr. McElligott was previously the Chief Scientific Officer at Groove Biopharma, a company founded by Accelerator in 2008 and that remains under Accelerator management as a tenant company in its Seattle facility. In his new position, Dr. McElligott will play an integral role on the Accelerator management team and will have day-to-day operational responsibilities of overseeing all of the R&D efforts at Accelerator tenant companies. Prior to Groove, Dr. McElligott was Senior Director of Biological Sciences at ICOS Corp where he led preclinical drug discovery projects. Before joining ICOS in 1997, he held academic appointments in the Department of Immunology at The Scripps Research Institute and prior to that at The Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. Dr. McElligott received his Ph. D. and B.S degrees from the University of Iowa.
“I have worked with David McElligott for 9 years both at ICOS and Accelerator and could not think of a better person to whom to hand off the scientific reins at Accelerator,” stated Patrick Gray. “I have very much enjoyed my years as the CSO of Accelerator and look forward to their continued success in investing in and creating innovative technologies.”
“David has spent several years working closely with the Accelerator team in his capacity of Chief Scientific Officer in Groove Biopharma,” stated Carl Weissman, Chairman and CEO of Accelerator. “David has consistently impressed the team and our investors with his professional, steady and thoughtful approach, his broad scientific and drug development expertise, his agility and his innovative instincts. He will remain very involved in the R&D efforts at Groove, but this will expand the reach of his expertise, experience, and leadership to include Acylin, Oncofactor, and future Accelerator companies. Thus we believe this is a big win for Groove, Accelerator, and all Accelerator companies and a very natural promotion for us and the team is thrilled to have David join Accelerator.”
About Accelerator Corporation
Accelerator Corporation, founded in 2003, is a privately–held biotechnology investment and development company located in Seattle, Washington, USA. The company is building the next generation of life-enhancing biotechnology companies by providing the resources critical to accelerating the development of nascent leading-edge biotechnologies. These key resources, provided by global life science leaders –Amgen Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, OVP Venture Partners, PPD, Inc., Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., WRF Capital, and the Institute for Systems Biology - include committed capital from top-tier venture capital firms, state-of-the-art facilities, world-class scientific and technical expertise and support, and experienced biotechnology start-up business management and support. For more information, please go to: www.acceleratorcorp.com.