BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alloy Therapeutics, a biotechnology ecosystem company, announced expanded leadership to strengthen its portfolio of drug discovery capabilities and technologies for the global scientific community. Michael Schmidt, PhD has joined the company as its Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), where he will oversee technical innovation and ensure high scientific quality for Alloy’s broad portfolio of platforms, services, and venture studio company creation. Alloy has promoted Martin Leach, PhD, MBA to Chief Operating Officer (COO), from his previous position of Alloy Senior Vice President of Global Informatics and COO of its Daedamab research facility.
Dr. Schmidt was most recently CSO at Ankyra Therapeutics, where he oversaw optimization of a novel intratumoral drug retention platform and development of Ankyra’s differentiated IL-12 cytokine therapy. Previously, he worked at Eleven Biotherapeutics (now Carisma Therapeutics, NASDAQ: CARM) and Compass Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CMPX) leading discovery and development of monoclonal and bispecific antibody drugs in the areas of immuno-oncology and ocular diseases. He received his PhD from MIT, where he focused on the engineering of antibodies for improved targeting of solid tumors.
“I have seen firsthand how time-consuming and expensive it is to build the technology platforms and teams needed to discover and advance a great clinical candidate, and I am drawn to Alloy’s model of centralizing this expertise to help the best assets advance more quickly,” said Schmidt. “I am proud to support this talented team in their impressive pace of new technology development, while engaging with the venture studio around efficiently advancing new medicines discovered from Alloy’s core platform technologies.”
Piotr Bobrowicz, PhD, formerly Alloy’s CSO and President, will now collaborate with Schmidt in his role as President to oversee Alloy’s expansive roadmap for new technology innovations and engage with Alloy’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for ongoing innovation. They will also lead the scientific diligence process for the new companies that ultimately advance through 82VS, Alloy’s affiliated venture studio, which efficiently launches multi-asset startups leveraging the expertise and technology from the Alloy ecosystem at large.
Dr. Leach has been instrumental in strengthening Alloy’s Antibody Discovery Services business, through launching its Athens, GA site—which pioneered Alloy’s sequence-first antibody discovery workflow SeqImmune—and expanding Alloy’s global informatics function to support all partner campaigns. He previously held leadership roles in R&D operations and technology for organizations such as Alexion Pharmaceuticals (as VP R&D, Global Operations and Global Quality IT), Biogen (as VP, Head of Global Data Office), The Broad Institute (as Chief Information Officer), Merck, and CuraGen. He received his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and his PhD from Boston University School of Medicine in molecular pharmacology.
“I am eager to apply my expertise in scaling discovery operations and high-performing technical teams to the breadth of Alloy’s capabilities across six modalities and five research sites—all in service of accelerating the quality and speed with which we support drug developers,” said Leach.
“We are thrilled to have Mike’s world-class expertise in antibody discovery and engineering and deep biotech startup experience collaborating with Piotr in steering the Alloy scientific team and roadmap,” said Alloy CEO and Founder, Errik Anderson, who previously worked with Dr. Schmidt during his time as COO and co-founder of Compass Therapeutics. “Additionally, Martin’s experience in rapidly scaling our informatics function and our Daedamab operation is an incredible asset as we grow our capacity in helping our ecosystem partners discover new therapeutics more efficiently.”
About Alloy Therapeutics
Alloy Therapeutics is a biotechnology ecosystem company empowering the global scientific community to make better medicines together. Through a community of partners across academia, biotech, and the largest biopharma, Alloy democratizes access to pre-competitive tools, technologies, services, and company creation capabilities that are foundational for discovering and developing therapeutic biologics across six modalities: antibodies, TCRs, genetic medicines, peptides, cell therapies, and drug delivery. Partners may access all current and future technologies through a discovery service relationship or for a flat annual fee through Alloy’s Innovation Subscriptions offering. As a reflection of Alloy’s relentless commitment to the scientific community, Alloy reinvests 100% of its revenue in innovation and access to innovation.
Join the Alloy Therapeutics community by visiting alloytx.com, following Alloy on LinkedIn, scheduling a 15-minute introductory call with our team at alloytx.com/bd, or a 15-minute chat with Alloy’s Founder and CEO at alloytx.com/ceo.
