Attovia Enhances Clinical and Development Expertise with Appointment of Chief Medical Officer and Clinical and Scientific Advisory Boards
-- Hubert Chen, accomplished drug developer and pharma executive, joins as Chief Medical Officer
-- Industry veterans and leading academic experts joined Attovia's Clinical and Scientific Advisory Boards: Jonathan Silverberg, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., Lawrence Eichenfield, M.D., Brian Kim, M.D., MTR, Sonja Ständer, M.D., Dedee Murrell, M.D., D.Sc., Richard Heyman, Ph.D., Luisa Salter-Cid, Ph.D., and David King, Ph.D.
FREMONT, Calif., March 26, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Attovia Therapeutics today announced the appointment of Hubert Chen, M.D., MPH, as Chief Medical Officer, effective March 21, 2024. Dr. Chen brings extensive clinical and industry leadership experience in drug development and joins Attovia from Krystal Biotech (NASDAQ:KRYS), where he was Senior Vice President of Clinical Development. At Attovia, Dr. Chen will lead the company's clinical development and regulatory functions and will serve on the Executive Committee.
"Hubert's leadership experience, deep expertise in immunology drug development, and successful track record of bringing novel medicines to patients will be invaluable as we continue to advance our portfolio of innovative biotherapeutics and transition to a clinical stage company," said Tao Fu, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Attovia. "He will play an integral role in shaping our clinical development strategy as we move our lead product candidates, ATTO-1310 and ATTO-002, toward the clinic, and in building and strengthening our research and development organization."
"I am delighted to join Attovia's leadership team and help unlock the potential of our innovative Attobodies for patients in need of new therapeutic options," said Dr. Chen. "The potential of the Company's Attobody platform combined with its broad and growing pipeline creates a tremendous opportunity to develop novel and potentially transformative therapies across immune-mediated diseases."
At Krystal Biotech, Dr. Chen played an instrumental role in the approval of the first topical gene therapy, Vyjuvek®, for the treatment of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. Prior to Krystal, Dr. Chen was at Genentech/Roche where he held clinical leadership positions across both early and late-stage development. As the global development lead for Xolair®, he successfully led the sBLA filing for chronic spontaneous urticaria. During his tenure at Genentech, he also expanded the immunology portfolio by leading the entry of three novel molecules into first-in-human/proof-of-concept trials, including an anti-IL-13 bispecific, and the acquisition of two early-stage clinical assets, which subsequently advanced to later stage trials. Dr. Chen started his career as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at UCSF, where he served as a clinical faculty member for over a decade. He received a medical degree from Stanford and a master of public health degree from Harvard. He completed his post-doctoral residency/fellowship training at Stanford and UCSF. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, and Critical Care Medicine.
Clinical and Scientific Advisory Boards
To support the ongoing strategic development of the Attobody platform and advancement of the Company's emerging pipeline candidates, Attovia has established Clinical and Scientific Advisory Boards comprised of biopharmaceutical industry veterans and academic experts. Jonathan Silverberg, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, a thought leader in atopic dermatitis and pruritic disease, with 20+ years' experience in immune-mediated dermatologic disorders, will serve as Chairperson of Attovia's Clinical Advisory Board. The members of the Boards include:
Clinical Advisory Board:
- Jonathan Silverberg, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. (Chair), Professor of Dermatology and the Director of Clinical Research and Contact Dermatitis at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC.
- Lawrence Eichenfield, M.D., Chief of Pediatric and Adolescent Dermatology at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and Vice Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Professor of Dermatology and Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
- Brian Kim, M.D., MTR, Vice Chair of Research, Department of Dermatology, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director of the Mark Lebwohl Center for Neuroinflammation and Sensation.
- Sonja Ständer, M.D., Professor for Dermatology and Neurodermatology at the Department of Dermatology, and Head of the Interdisciplinary Competence Center Chronic Pruritus (KCP) of the University Hospital Münster, Germany.
- Dedee Murrell, M.D., D.Sc., F.A.C.D., F.R.C.P., Professor & Department Head of Dermatology, St George Hospital, University of NSW, Sydney, Australia.
Scientific Advisory Board:
- Richard Heyman, Ph.D., Board Chairman, ORIC Pharmaceuticals and RayzeBio.
- Luisa Salter-Cid, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Flagship Pioneering Medicines.
- David King, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Lassen Therapeutics.
"The members of the Attovia Clinical Advisory Board are leaders in the field that provide significant global expertise in developing and executing clinical trials for immune-mediated dermatologic diseases, which is the focus of our lead programs," added Mr. Fu. "Similarly, our Scientific Advisory Board brings a strong track record developing innovative clinical candidates and platforms that will contribute to the longer-term advancement of the Attobody platform and our pipeline."
Biographies of Members of Clinical and Scientific Advisory Boards (in alphabetical order)
About Lawrence Eichenfield, M.D.
Lawrence Eichenfield is Chief of Pediatric and Adolescent Dermatology at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, as well as Vice Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Professor of Dermatology and Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Dr. Eichenfield earned his medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, was a pediatric resident and chief resident at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and completed dermatology training at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
About Richard Heyman, Ph.D.
Richard Heyman is the Chairman of the Board of ORIC Pharmaceuticals and former Chairman of RayzeBio Inc. He founded Seragon Pharmaceuticals, Aragon Pharmaceuticals and X-Ceptor Therapeutics, which were all later acquired. He serves on multiple Boards, including the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Organovo, and BIOCOM. Dr. Heyman received his PhD in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.
About Brian Kim, M.D., MTR
Brian Kim is Vice Chair of Research, Department of Dermatology, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director of the Mark Lebwohl Center for Neuroinflammation and Sensation. He earned his BS at Haverford College, his MD at University of Washington School of Medicine (AOA), his MTR at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and did his postdoctoral studies at the Laboratory of David Artis at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
About David King, Ph.D.
David King is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Lassen. Before Lassen, Dr. King served as the Chief Scientific Officer of aTyr Pharma, and as CSO of AnaptysBio. Dr. King received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Surrey and a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Warwick.
About Luisa Salter-Cid, Ph.D.
Luisa Salter-Cid is the Chief Scientific Officer of Pioneering Medicines. Prior to her role at Pioneering Medicines, Luisa was Chief Scientific Officer at Gossamer Bio, and spent 13 years at Bristol Myers Squibb where she was most recently Vice President and Head of Immunology, Small Molecule Immuno-Oncology, and Genomics Discovery. She earned her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Miami.
About Dedee Murrell, M.D., D.Sc., F.A.C.D., F.R.C.P.
Dedee Murrell is the Head of the Department of Dermatology and St George Hospital, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and Professorial Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health. She graduated in Medicine from the University of Cambridge (pre-clinical) and Oxford (clinical medicine), and subsequently completed general medical training at Oxford, Cambridge and Duke Universities.
About Jonathan Silverberg, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Jonathan Silverberg is Professor of Dermatology at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC, and Director of Clinical Research and Contact Dermatitis. He earned his medical degree, doctorate in neuroimmunology and Master of Public Health degree in biostatistics and epidemiology from State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. He completed his residency training in dermatology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center and Beth Israel Medical Centers in New York.
About Sonja Ständer, M.D.
Sonja Ständer is a professor of Dermatology and Neurodermatology at the University of Münster and head of the interdisciplinary Center for Chronic Pruritus (KCP) at the University Hospital Münster. She earned her medical degree from Münster University in Germany and was a clinical clerk at the Dept. of Dermatology, Vienna.
About Attovia
Attovia is creating a pipeline of biotherapeutics with an initial focus on immune-mediated diseases. The company leverages Attobody™, a novel biologics platform, to generate small format biparatopic binders that offer stronger efficacy and a broader universe of druggable epitopes compared to traditional approaches. Learn more at attovia.com.
About Attobody™
Attobodies are small format biparatopic biologics that utilize a proprietary spatial positioning technology to unlock a new dimension of target engagement. The biparatopic binding mode of Attobodies translates to picomolar affinity with glue-like off-rates, which drives strong potency in biologic activity, and functionalizes biologically inactive epitopes. Attobodies are modular, can be engineered into multispecifics, and offer tunable half-life from hours to weeks. The high-throughput, evolution-based Attobody discovery platform significantly accelerates development and offers a high degree of diversity in lead candidates, expanding target biology coverage and derisking development.
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