LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sixfold Bioscience, a leading AI-enabled RNA delivery company that leverages the body’s evolved delivery pathways, is pleased to announce the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board. The board comprises world-renowned industry experts who will provide strategic guidance and scientific advice as the company advances its development pipeline.
The Scientific Advisory Board members are:
- Professor Jonathan Watts, RNA Therapeutics Institute, UMass Medical School
- Dr Sjef De Kimpe, former VP Product Development at Biomarin
- Professor Roger Strömberg, Karolinska Institute
- Dr Mike Webb, former VP of Development Chemistry and Analysis for GSK
"We are thrilled to welcome this esteemed group of experts to our Scientific Advisory Board," said Dr. Anna Perdrix Rosell, co-founder and co-CEO of Sixfold Bioscience. "Their collective expertise and exceptional contributions have and will continue to be invaluable as we continue to develop our innovative RNA delivery technologies to improve patient outcomes."
The board members, who have been formally working with the company on their research and development efforts for the past 10 months, bring a wealth of experience in various fields including medicinal chemistry, regulatory engagement, therapeutic optimisation and oligonucleotide manufacture. Professor Jonathan Watts is a renowned expert in therapeutic oligonucleotides and works on new approaches to study oligonucleotide design and preclinical evaluation. Dr Sjef De Kimpe has a strong track record of leading oligonucleotide companies through the regulatory process, having led Prosensa's engagements with the FDA in early development and serving as VP Product Development at Biomarin. Professor Roger Strömberg advises many pharmaceutical companies on oligonucleotide and medicinal chemistry and has been instrumental in advancing the field. Dr Mike Webb led the development of GSK's oligonucleotide pipeline and manufacturing capabilities and brings a wealth of experience in development chemistry, analysis and manufacture of therapeutic oligonucleotides.
“RNA Therapeutics have the potential to transform medicine – but only in the cell types where therapeutic RNA molecules can be delivered. Sixfold has built a great team and is thinking creatively to address this bottleneck with the power of evolution, of AI and most importantly, of a lot of data. Their approach is opening opportunities in new cell types and therefore in new diseases,” said Prof Watts.
“Sixfold has brought together a highly capable and diverse team that develops organ and cell-specific delivery solutions to unlock the full potential of RNA-therapeutics. It's been a pleasure to see the progress made thus far and I'm excited to join the team on this journey,” said Dr De Kimpe.
“There is no doubt that to further enhance nucleic acid therapies, irrespective of mode of action, improvement of delivery to the site of action is the most important area to solve now. This requires innovative solutions and ways of thinking about delivery, such as those being pioneered by Sixfold,” said Prof Strömberg.
“Oligonucleotides have the potential to transform the lives of patients whose lives are decimated by disease. The Sixfold approach is breaking down and solving the biggest issue faced by this modality, access to organs, tissue and cells that hitherto were not accessible to these kinds of molecules. This approach has the potential to be transformational. This has been achieved by bringing together an inspiring team with cutting edge science and technology. Working with the team to understand how we scale and manufacture for the future is inspiring,” said Dr Webb.
The formation of the Scientific Advisory Board is a significant milestone for Sixfold Bioscience as it continues to develop cutting-edge RNA delivery technology. The board will provide essential guidance and input as the company expands its research and development efforts and accelerates its mission to catalyze the shift from potential to reality for RNA medicines by solving targeted delivery for the 99% of cells that lack an effective delivery system.
About
Scientific Advisory Board
Prof Jonathan Watts
Professor Watts is a leader in the development of therapeutic oligonucleotides. Jon’s doctoral work with Professor Masad Damha at McGill University included the development of two new oligonucleotide analogues, an exploration of why 2'-fluorinated oligonucleotides show such high binding affinity, and studies on the chemical modification of ASOs and siRNAs. He then moved to Professor David Corey's lab at UT Southwestern for postdoctoral studies, where his work included the chemical modification of promoter-targeted duplex RNAs and the use of oligonucleotide-oligospermine conjugates as antisense and antigene oligonucleotides. In 2012 Jon started his independent group at the University of Southampton, UK, where he received the 2013 Young Investigator Award from the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society and the 2015 Vice Chancellor’s Award for teaching. In summer 2015 he was recruited to the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Medical School. He serves on the Editorial Boards of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics and Nucleic Acids Research in addition to the Scientific Advisory Council of the OTS. The Watts Group is developing new approaches in the medicinal chemistry of several classes of oligonucleotides engaging mechanisms from gene silencing and gene editing, and their delivery to the brain, lung and beyond.
Dr Sjef De Kimpe
Pharma/Biotech R&D expert with proven success from research to development in complex translational projects, including therapeutic oligonucleotides. Formerly VP product development at Biomarin (CA) and VP Early Drug Development at Prosensa. Experience with regulatory strategies for FDA and EMA from pre-IND to regulatory approval (7 IND, 3 MAA/NDA). Key contributor to raising >100m$ private capital. He was assistant professor of pharmacology and worked as a senior scientist with Nobel laureate Sir John Vane. Sjef studied pharmacy, holds a Ph.D in pharmacology and obtained an MBA at the NIMBAS University.
Prof Roger Strömberg
Roger Strömberg is a Professor of Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry at Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Sweden, since 1995. He has nearly four decades of experience in nucleic acid chemistry, and also spent over three years at the University of Cambridge, first as a postdoctoral fellow and later as a visiting Professor. He was one of the inventors of the H-phosphonate chemistry for oligonucleotide synthesis and has worked with many aspects of nucleic acid chemistry, which includes studies on reaction mechanisms, enzymes and enzyme models, synthesis methodology, protecting group strategies, peptides etc, but also with development of other pharmaceutically active compounds. The current focus is on design and synthesis methods for modified oligonucleotides, oligonucleotide based artificial nucleases and oligonucleotide conjugates (with other bioactive molecules), largely to achieve and enable synthesis of potential oligonucleotide therapeutics. He has, and has had, many collaborations both in academia and with major companies in the field and has in general a substantial network of contacts.
Dr Mike Webb
Former VP of Development Chemistry and Analysis for GSK in the UK and was heavily involved in developing GSK’s oligonucleotide pipeline. Dr Webb is a leader in therapeutic oligonucleotide manufacture and has over 30 years of experience of CMC development of API from late discovery to file and launch and beyond. Closely involved in 8 world-wide marketing submissions and budget and line leadership experience of a department of up to 150 scientists.
Sixfold Bioscience
Sixfold Biosciences is a biotechnology company solving one of the most critical challenges preventing the greater utilization of powerful RNA medicines: delivery. Sixfold’s solution takes evolution as inspiration, learning and mimicking how RNA is naturally delivered to different cell types in the body. Using advanced AI and Bayesian Optimization, Sixfold is learning the language that encodes RNA-shuttle interactions and destination selection, unlocking new cell types for treatment.
