CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KSQ Therapeutics today announced the appointment of Beni B. Wolf, MD, PhD, as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Wolf brings nearly 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry as a senior clinical leader in oncology drug development, with expertise advancing new oncology programs in the clinic and optimizing patient selection to enable rapid proof of concept and registration. He joins KSQ at a time when the company prepares to advance its first therapeutic program into the clinic in 2020, followed by additional oncology programs that address optimal therapeutic targets based on its CRISPRomics™ technology.
Most recently, Dr. Wolf was Senior Vice President, Clinical Development at Blueprint Medicines, where he advanced three oncology programs for novel kinase inhibitors from investigational new drug (IND) applications to clinical proof-of-concept. During his four-year tenure, the clinical progress on Blueprint’s pipeline of oncology programs resulted in three breakthrough designations, plenary presentations for three different clinical programs at major oncology meetings, multiple publications in high-impact peer-reviewed cancer journals, and a range of other data presentations to the oncology and biotechnology communities. Dr. Wolf also played a leadership role in the global registration strategies for these kinase inhibitor programs, including preparation of the regulatory submission for the most advanced kinase inhibitor as a treatment for advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors.
"Ben has an impressive track record of driving the clinical development of innovative oncology medicines, and his expertise is ideally suited to KSQ as we prepare to advance our oncology product candidates towards clinical testing in cancer patients,” said David Meeker, MD, Chief Executive Officer of KSQ. “We are delighted to bring Ben’s exceptional experience across all aspects of drug development to help us realize the potential of KSQ’s emerging pipeline of cancer medicines that we believe can advance cancer treatment based on the insights from our CRISPRomics technology.”
Previously, Dr. Wolf served as Senior Medical Director for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals where he advanced preclinical, translational and clinical development of a novel cancer antibody, leading all aspects of drug development, biomarker/companion diagnostic development, clinical planning, publications and patent submissions. Prior to working at Merrimack, he served in clinical and medical director roles at ImmunoGen, Amgen and Genentech. Dr. Wolf started his industry career as a discovery scientist at Genentech. He earned a BS from Union College. Dr. Wolf received his MD and PhD (Biochemistry) from the University of Virginia, and board certification in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology after completing medical training at the University of California at San Diego. He has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and multiple patents related to drug discoveries.
"I believe that KSQ’s CRISPRomics approach holds tremendous potential for developing high-impact cancer medicines that can set new standards in the field of oncology,” said Dr. Wolf. “I share the passion of the KSQ team to rapidly advance new cancer treatments that make a meaningful impact on the lives of cancer patients.”
About KSQ Therapeutics
KSQ Therapeutics is using CRISPR technology within a powerful drug discovery engine to enable high-confidence drug development. The company is advancing a pipeline of tumor- and immune-focused drug candidates for the treatment of cancer, across multiple drug modalities including targeted therapies, adoptive cell therapies and immuno-therapies. KSQ’s proprietary CRISPRomics™ drug discovery engine enables genome-scale, in vivo validated, unbiased drug discovery across broad therapeutic areas. KSQ was founded by thought leaders in the field of functional genomics and pioneers of CRISPR screening technologies, and the company is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.ksqtx.com.
