SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IconOVir Bio, Inc. (IconOVir), a preclinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the next generation of oncolytic virus therapy to improve the treatment of patients with cancer, today announced the appointment of William G. Kaelin Jr., M.D., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Kaelin will continue to serve as a member of IconOVir’s Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Kaelin is the Sidney Farber Professor in the Department of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School, as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. In 2019, Dr. Kaelin won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries related to the mechanisms by which cells sense and respond to oxygen levels.
“Bill is a world-renowned scientist and extraordinary researcher who has contributed tremendously to advancing our collective understanding of cancer biology in addition to pioneering novel approaches to treat and conquer this complex disease,” said Mark McCamish, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of IconOVir. “Over the past year, we have benefited greatly from Bill’s insights as a member of our Scientific Advisory Board. We look forward to deeper engagement as he joins our Board of Directors, where he will be able to combine his wealth of scientific and entrepreneurial experience to help drive our clinical and corporate strategies forward.”
Dr. Kaelin is a prominent cancer cell biologist and accomplished entrepreneur. His research seeks to understand how, mechanistically, mutations affecting tumor-suppressor genes cause cancer and to lay the foundation for new anticancer therapies. Over the course of his career, Dr. Kaelin has received numerous recognitions for his work, including the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, as well as the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the Princess Takamatsu Award, the Science of Oncology Award, and the Canada Gairdner International Award. He has also served as scientific co-founder of two biotechnology companies, Cedilla Therapeutics and Tango Therapeutics.
Dr. Kaelin is currently a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Art and Sciences. He is a trustee of Duke University and a member of the Board of Directors for the Damon-Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, Eli Lilly and Company, and LifeMine Therapeutics. He previously served on the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors. Dr. Kaelin obtained his undergraduate and M.D. degrees from Duke University and completed his training in internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he served as chief medical resident. He was a clinical fellow in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, during which time he was a McDonnell Scholar.
“I am excited to join the IconOVir Board of Directors and eager to work more closely with the team in their efforts to transform the clinical landscape for patients with solid tumors,” said Dr. Kaelin. “IconOVir’s high-content, high-throughput AdSembly screening platform has the potential to deliver optimized product candidates, which directly address the limitations of earlier approaches to make real the promise of oncolytic virus therapy for many more patients. I am encouraged by the Company’s progress to-date and look forward to supporting the advancement of ICVB-1042, as well as IconOVir’s robust discovery pipeline, toward the clinic.”
About IconOVir
IconOVir is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the next generation of oncolytic virus therapy to improve the treatment of patients with cancer. IconOVir’s proprietary oncolytic virus platform is based on technology developed by scientific founder Clodagh O’Shea, Ph.D., of the Salk Institute. It is designed to address key limitations of first- and second-generation oncolytic viruses and provide a personalized therapy for cancer patients. For more information, please visit www.iconovir.com and follow IconOVir on LinkedIn.
