SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Meliora Therapeutics (“Meliora”), a machine learning therapeutics company developing novel and transformative cancer drugs, today announced the promotion of Claudio Chuaqui, Ph.D., to Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), and the appointment of Anand Selvaraj, Ph.D. as Vice President and Head of Cancer Biology.
“These leadership updates mark the beginning of a new phase for Meliora. Claudio’s promotion to CSO is a testament to his pivotal contributions to our pipeline and platform. We are also excited to welcome Anand, whose experience in cancer biology will be critical in advancing the company’s mission,” said David Li, co-founder and CEO of Meliora Therapeutics.
Dr. Claudio Chuaqui’s promotion to CSO comes as Meliora rapidly progresses multiple projects in its internal pipeline under his leadership and expertise. Bringing over 20 years of experience in drug discovery, Claudio is a leader with a strong record of delivering drug programs from the exploratory phase to the clinic specifically in oncology. His extensive tenure includes senior positions at Syros, Astrazeneca, Celgene and Biogen, during which he has led projects resulting in the approval of Tagrisso (osimertinib), which is now a mainstay in the treatment paradigm for non small cell lung cancer, as well as numerous other programs that have reached the clinic. He is a computational chemist by training, holding a B.Sc in Chemistry from the University of Manitoba and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Waterloo.
Anand Selvaraj joins Meliora from Novartis, where he served as a Director within the Precision Oncology group and led scientific teams in drug discovery. Prior to Novartis, Anand was instrumental in advancing several cancer drug discovery programs at H3 Biomedicine which led to clinical assets. With 12 years of experience in biotech and pharma, Anand’s experience will be critical in setting and executing against Meliora’s cancer biology scientific strategy.
About Meliora Therapeutics
Meliora Therapeutics is discovering and developing small molecule oncology therapies for high value cancer targets with its proprietary machine learning powered platform, AnchorOmics. Pairing the first multimodal, mechanism-of-action machine learning algorithm and a world-class team of scientists and engineers, Meliora is pioneering a novel approach to create life-changing therapies for cancer patients.
San Francisco and Cambridge-based Meliora Therapeutics has raised $11 million to date and is building an interdisciplinary and highly entrepreneurial team, combining leaders from the fields of AI and biotechnology. Its drug discovery operations are based in Bayer’s Co.Lab incubation space in Kendall Square. The company is supported by high quality international investors including Village Global, American Cancer Society BrightEdge, HOF Capital, Pebblebed, and others. For more information, please visit: www.melioratx.com.
