BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Silicon Therapeutics, a privately-held, integrated therapeutics company with a pioneering drug discovery platform based on physics-driven molecular simulations, today announced the members of the Silicon Therapeutics scientific advisory board (SAB), which include Dr. Elliot L. Chaikof, Dr. Timothy P. Heffernan, Dr. Sun Hur, Dr. Pasi A. Jänne and Dr. Lijun Sun.
The Silicon Therapeutics SAB is comprised of experts in biophysics, medicinal chemistry, translational medicine and research and development (R&D) in oncology and immunology. These experts will serve as a strategic resource for Silicon Therapeutics to provide scientific review and high-level advice about the company’s drug discovery strategy as it continues to advance the company’s therapeutic pipeline using its proprietary simulation platform.
“We are honored to officially welcome Drs. Chaikof, Heffernan, Hur, Jänne and Sun as members of our SAB,” said Christopher Winter, Ph.D., chief of research and development. “Each member’s expertise, insights and direction will provide a tremendous knowledge base that will help inform our approach regarding research and clinical development activities, which will be invaluable as we head into the next phase of our growth advancing our in-house research programs developed utilizing our proprietary drug discovery platform.”
The SAB will be involved in strategic discussions related to targets, research and pre-clinical development, as well as the next generation, first-in-class therapeutic pipeline.
Silicon Therapeutics is focused on the discovery and development of first-in-class small molecules targeting key drivers of disease in cancer and inflammation that have proven difficult to treat with prior approaches and thus previously considered undruggable. The company’s unique discovery platform is fully integrated with Silicon Therapeutics’ internal laboratories using cutting edge experimental capabilities in biophysics, biology and chemistry.
ABOUT THE SILICON THERAPEUTICS SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Elliot L. Chaikof, M.D., Ph.D. is a co-founder of Silicon Therapeutics and chair of the Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner department of surgery and surgeon-in-chief at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), as well as the Johnson & Johnson professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Dr. Chaikof is a member of the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering of Harvard University and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, also in Boston.
Dr. Chaikof earned a bachelor of arts degree and medical doctor degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a doctor of philosophy degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, where he focused on the design of artificial organs. Dr. Chaikof completed his training in general surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and in vascular surgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Timothy P. Heffernan, Ph.D. is head of oncology research within the division of therapeutics discovery and development at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Dr. Heffernan also serves as executive director for the Translational Research to Advance Therapeutics and Innovation in Oncology (TRACTION) platform, a translational research unit focused on accelerating the pre-clinical evaluation of novel drugs to inform innovative clinical trials.
Dr. Heffernan earned a doctor of philosophy degree in cell and molecular pathology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, N.C. and performed his postdoctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Sun Hur, Ph.D. is an Oscar M. Schloss professor in the department of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology in the department of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Dr. Hur earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea and a doctor of philosophy degree in physical chemistry with Dr. Thomas C. Bruice at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Hur did her post-doctoral work in x-ray crystallography with Dr. Robert M. Stroud at the University of California, San Francisco. She joined Harvard Medical School in 2008 as an assistant professor and became affiliated with Boston Children’s Hospital in 2010.
Pasi A. Jänne, M.D., Ph.D. is a thoracic medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a professor at Harvard Medical School, director of the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology and director of the Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science in Boston.
Dr. Jänne earned a medical doctor degree and doctor of philosophy degree at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He completed postgraduate training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Lijun Sun, Ph.D. is a co-founder of Silicon Therapeutics and an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Dr. Sun earned a doctor of philosophy degree in organic chemistry from Emory University in Atlanta and completed postdoctoral training in biomaterial research at Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta.
ABOUT SILICON THERAPEUTICS
Silicon Therapeutics is a privately held, fully integrated drug design and development company focused on small molecule therapeutics. The Silicon Therapeutics proprietary physics-driven drug design platform combines quantum physics, statistical thermodynamics, molecular simulations, a dedicated HPC super-computing cluster, purpose-built software, in-house laboratories and clinical development capabilities. The platform was built from the ground up to address difficult targets using physics-based simulations and experiments to pioneer a new path for drug design with the prime goal of delivering novel medicines to improve the lives of patients.
Silicon Therapeutics is currently the only company that owns the entire spectrum of proprietary physics-driven drug discovery from chip-to-clinic. The company’s lead program is a highly differentiated small molecule Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING) agonist for the treatment of cancer, which entered the clinic in November 2020. The company’s headquarters are located in Boston. To learn more about Silicon Therapeutics, please visit our website at www.silicontx.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
