BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Enveda Biosciences, a leading biotechnology company harnessing the power of nature’s chemistry to develop next-gen small molecule therapeutics, today announced two key hires to accelerate its translational drug development efforts. It follows the closing of an oversubscribed $51M Series A financing round in June. Narayanan (Hari) Hariharan, MSc, Ph.D., has joined as Senior Vice President of Discovery Biology and Translational Sciences, alongside Indranil Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D., who now serves as Director of Drug Discovery Biology.
“Over the past two years, Enveda has built a one-of-a-kind platform for drug discovery that is now yielding a diverse range of de-risked therapeutic candidates,” says Viswa Colluru, Founder & CEO of Enveda Biosciences. “It’s the perfect time to expand our translational research team and to channel this momentum into maturing our preclinical pipeline. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have two proven industry pioneers, Hari and Indranil, lead this effort from within.”
Enveda is systematically isolating, mapping, and characterizing novel therapeutic molecules derived from the natural world. With this core platform in place, the company is advancing multiple clinical programs, including potential treatments for Wilson’s disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and Parkinson’s disease, among others.
Narayanan (Hari) Hariharan, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Discovery Biology and Translational Sciences
Hari is a recognized industry expert with 30 years of biopharma experience in companies ranging from Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb to startups such as Lynkogen, where he served as Chief Scientific Officer. He is also uniquely suited to lead Enveda’s growing hybrid organization, having previously served as Vice President and Head of Drug Discovery-Biology at Advinus Therapeutics. During his tenure there, he helped to secure a successful multi-year collaboration with Takeda.
“This position at Enveda allows me to draw on years of biopharma experience and to be challenged to develop new skills as we pioneer a novel approach to small molecule drug discovery and development,” says Hari. “I’m excited to be a part of a company that is redefining what drug hunting looks like and how we use technology and science to tackle some of humankind’s most complex diseases.”
Hari’s core competencies include translating investigational compounds for both rare and prevalent diseases driven by mitochondrial dysfunction, dysmetabolism, inflammation, and more. Along with drug discovery and translational sciences, he has extensive experience managing research and development alliances.
Indranil Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D., Director of Drug Discovery Biology
Indranil brings two decades of industry and academic research experience, with an emphasis on preclinical pharmacology, cell biology, and signal transduction. He most recently headed up translational pharmacology at Insilico Medicine, which uses artificial intelligence to generate novel molecular structures with therapeutic potential. During his tenure at Insilico, he played a key role in advancing a pulmonary fibrosis program through preclinical validation.
“For me, Enveda represents both a return to the most fundamental principles of drug discovery and chemistry, as well as a leap ahead to the science of the future guided by machine learning, metabolomics, and more,” says Indranil. “We are at the center of it all.”
In addition to these new hires, Enveda is aggressively expanding its team across biology, chemistry, data science, engineering and data, and business development with plans to rapidly grow its employee base in the coming year. Enveda is expected to fill multiple new positions remotely, in its Boulder office, and overseas in regions such as Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, India. More information on open positions can be found at https://www.envedabio.com/careers/
About Enveda Biosciences
Enveda Biosciences is a biotechnology company building the first high-resolution chemical map of the natural world to tackle the toughest problems in drug discovery. Enveda’s platform is the world’s most advanced drug discovery search engine for dark chemical space, building on years of cutting-edge advancements at the intersection of metabolomics and machine learning. Complementing its breakthrough technology, Enveda’s team includes seasoned drug hunters with decades of experience in the pharmaceutical industry working alongside world-leading data scientists. For more information on Enveda, visit envedabio.com.
