SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Switch Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new way to use RNA science to treat disease, utilizing its proprietary CASi (Conditionally Activated siRNA) platform, today announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board. These founding members are established leaders from the biotech industry, each bringing a unique expertise in RNA sciences and CNS research and development.
“I’m honored to welcome Drs. Marc Abrams, David Bredt and James Treanor to our company’s Scientific Advisory Board,” said Dee Datta, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Switch Therapeutics. “Together, they bring decades of experience in CNS and RNA therapies and we’re thrilled for them to join the Switch Therapeutics team. I look forward to their valuable input as we collectively work to further establish the CASi platform and build our pipeline to provide novel treatments to patients.”
The founding members of the Switch Therapeutics Advisory Board are:
Marc Abrams, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer – Carbon Biosciences
Dr. Abrams brings more than 25 years of discovery and early development expertise spanning multiple therapeutic areas, drug modalities and platform technologies. As CSO of Carbon Biosciences, Dr. Abrams is leading a research team to develop a novel gene therapy platform with unique and differentiated pharmacological attributes. Until recently, he served as the Senior Vice President of Discovery Research at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (now a subsidiary of Novo Nordisk), where he led RNAi platform technology development with a focus in targeted delivery of oligonucleotides to specific tissues and cell types. During almost a decade at Dicerna, he helped to advance numerous RNAi candidates into the clinic and contributed to corporate partnerships with several large pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Abrams spent the first 17 years of his career at Merck and Co., Inc in scientific positions of increasing responsibility. He holds a Ph.D. from Thomas Jefferson University, an M.S. in Biology from the University of Rochester and an undergraduate degree from Drexel University. Dr. Abrams is passionate about building research organizations, mentoring early-career scientists, advancing novel genetic medicine platforms and impacting underserved patient populations.
David Bredt, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer – Rapport Therapeutics
Dr. Bredt has produced groundbreaking innovation as an academic scientist and industry executive. After receiving his A.B. in Chemistry from Princeton University, and his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, he was professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco for ten years. His research on nitric oxide, glutamate receptor signaling and synaptic plasticity has yielded >230 papers, which have been cited ~80,000 times in the scientific literature. In industry, he was VP of Neuroscience and Clinical Investigation at Lilly from 2004-2011 and then at Janssen, he served as Global Head of Neuroscience Discovery from 2011 through 2021. His team’s research at Janssen helped establish Rapport Therapeutics in 2022, which leverages receptor-associated proteins to precisely direct medicines to the neural circuits underlying disease pathophysiology. He has received numerous awards from international societies as well as an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, Western University of Health Sciences.
James Treanor, Ph.D.
Board Member – ADRx, Inc.
Dr. Treanor is an experienced biotech industry C-suite officer. He was the President and Chief Executive Officer for ADRx Inc., where he focused on neurodegeneration and remains an active Board Member today. He was also the Chief Scientific Officer for Neuron23. Dr. Treanor brings 30 years of neuroscience drug discovery, translational and clinical development experience including roles at Amgen and Genentech. He has developed drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, pain and migraine. To date this has resulted in the approval of Aimovig for episodic and chronic migraine. He has developed both small molecules and large molecules and has deep experience in ion channel, enzyme and membrane bound receptor systems. Dr. Treanor received his Ph.D. in Molecular Neurobiology from the University of Bristol and his B.S. in Applied Biology from the University of East London.
About Switch Therapeutics
Switch Therapeutics is an emerging biotechnology company pioneering a new type of medicine that integrates nucleic acid nanotechnology and RNA interference (RNAi) science, with the goal of treating a range of diseases – affecting the central nervous system and systemic indications – with significant unmet need. The CASi (Conditionally Activated siRNA) platform, the company’s novel gene knockdown approach, is based on technology developed by renowned researchers in the field of RNA and drug development from Caltech, Harvard Medical School and City of Hope. CASi combines advantageous properties of both single and double-stranded RNAs in a single molecule, allowing for cell selective RNAi activity. Switch is based in South San Francisco, California. For more information, connect with Switch on LinkedIn or visit www.switchthera.com.
