VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Zymeworks Inc., a privately held biotherapeutics company focused on the development of best-in-class antibody and next generation protein-based therapeutics, today announced the formation of its therapeutics advisory team and the appointment of a new Vice-President, Preclinical Research and Development.
Zymeworks is pleased to announce that Tom Boone, formerly Vice-President, Protein Sciences at Amgen, Inc., will be joining Dr. Michael Gresser in steering Zymeworks’ strategic therapeutics initiative. Dr. Gresser, who currently serves as the chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, will be increasing the scope of his involvement with Zymeworks.
“We are truly privileged to have Mike and Tom spearheading the development of our therapeutics pipeline,” says Dr. Ali Tehrani, President and CEO of Zymeworks. “Their track record of bringing innovative new therapeutics to market is unparalleled, and given their commitment to this initiative, we are confident that as Zymeworks enters this new phase of growth, it does so with world-class scientists and drug developers at the helm. Moreover, given the demands on both Mike and Tom’s time, I’m honored that they have chosen to contribute their time and talents to our programs.”
Zymeworks is also pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gordon Ng to the position of Vice-President, Preclinical Research and Development. Dr. Ng joins Zymeworks with over fifteen years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical drug discovery experience from the Myelin Repair Foundation, Amgen, and the Merck Frosst Center for Therapeutic Research. During his nine years at Amgen he served as a Scientific Director and was instrumental in advancing multiple preclinical candidates towards the clinic, as well as managing multiple internal and partnered research initiatives.
“I’m pleased to welcome Gordon to the Zymeworks team,” says Dr. Ali Tehrani, President and CEO of Zymeworks. “Gordon will be working hand in hand with Mike and Tom, as well as our protein sciences group, to advance our therapeutics pipeline. Gordon will also be contributing his years of experience and expertise in preclinical drug development to the advancement of our Azymetric™, AlbuCORE™ and EFECT™ platforms as well as our continuing strategic collaboration with Merck.”
About Zymeworks Inc.
Zymeworks is a privately held biotechnology company that is developing best-in-class antibody therapeutics for the treatment of oncology, autoimmunity and inflammatory diseases. The company’s proprietary ZymeCAD™ structure-guided protein engineering technology and its novel Azymetric™ and AlbuCORE™ platforms enable the development of highly potent bi-specific antibodies and multivalent protein therapeutics targeted across a range of indications. Zymeworks is focused on growing its preclinical biotherapeutics pipeline through in-house research and development programs and strategic collaborations. More information on Zymeworks can be found at www.zymeworks.com.
About Dr. Michael Gresser
Mike Gresser received his Ph.D in Biochemistry in 1976 from Brandeis University, and completed postdoctoral studies at the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA on the mitochondrial and chloroplast proton translocating ATP synthases. In 1980 Mike joined the Department of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where he served as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Chemistry. In 1988 Mike joined Merck & Co., Inc. as Director of Biochemistry at the Merck Frosst Center for Therapeutic Research, and was eventually promoted Executive Director of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In 2000 Mike joined Amgen, where he remained until 2006. While at Amgen he served as VP, Research for Inflammation and later as Head of Neuroscience Research and Inflammation Research. Subsequently, Mike also served as the Interim Chief Scientific Officer at Oxford BioTherapeutics between 2009 and 2010, and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA.
About Tom Boone
Tom Boone is an experienced bench scientist and manager having served a 28 year career with Amgen. Tom received his graduate degrees from UC Davis and UCLA and joined Amgen as a research associate cloning and sequencing genes including G-CSF (Neupogen). During the late 80’s and throughout the 1990’s Tom worked in process development as a scientist and director and developed or oversaw the development of many of the processes implemented at Amgen including the Neupogen process. Tom then headed the expression, purification, and characterization groups within Amgen's research group which went on to become the Protein Science group. Tom retired from Amgen in 2009 as VP, Protein Sciences overseeing a biologics R&D team of over 300 researchers across five sites. Tom currently serves as Senior VP, Protein Sciences at Oxford BioTherapeutics.
CONTACT:
Zymeworks Inc.
Ali Tehrani, Ph.D., 604-678-1388
President & CEO
[email protected]
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INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Health Biotechnology Oncology Pharmaceutical Other Health Research Science
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