SOUTH
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 18,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Initial Therapeutics Inc., a
life sciences company discovering and developing new small-molecule
therapeutics with a novel platform to selectively modulate
translation of pathogenic proteins in the ribosome, has
appointed Peter DiLaura
as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the
company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. Spiros
Liras, Ph.D., a Venture Partner at Apple Tree Partners (ATP)
and founding CEO of Initial, will continue to serve on Initial's
Board of Directors and the company's Scientific Advisory Board.
"Peter has a strong senior leadership track record in
biopharmaceuticals and significant expertise in strategy, funding,
and business development at emerging companies on the leading edges
of science. We are delighted that he is taking the helm at Initial
as our first programs progress," Liras said. "His expertise across
a range of therapeutic modalities and indications and his sharp
instincts about how to move companies forward all match very well
with Initial's talented team, versatile platform, and growth
opportunities."
"For some time, I have been following Initial Therapeutics with
keen interest—the company is doing exciting and original work
focused on protein modulation in the ribosome that is unlike any
other approach I have seen," DiLaura said. "It's an honor to join
Initial and work with the company's scientists, founders, and Board
members to advance the promise of Initial's platform and programs
and ultimately, to introduce new classes of small-molecule
therapeutics to fight cancers and other intractable illnesses."
Peter DiLaura brings to Initial
nearly three decades of experience in life sciences company
creation and building, financing, strategy, and operations. Most
recently, he was Chief Business and Strategy Officer at Sonoma
Biotherapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company
developing engineered regulatory T cell (Treg) therapies to treat
serious autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. At Sonoma Bio, he
drove financing and corporate development efforts and built Sonoma
Bio's finance, legal, intellectual property, investor relations,
program and portfolio management, and human resources functions.
Before joining Sonoma Bio, DiLaura was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence
at Third Rock Ventures involved in company creation activities.
Prior to that, he served as CEO of Second Genome, Inc., a
pioneering microbiome therapeutics company. DiLaura holds a B.A. in
Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves on
the Board of Directors of Character Biosciences and is an advisor
to several biotherapeutic companies and venture groups.
About Initial Therapeutics Inc.
Initial Therapeutics discovers and develops new small molecule
treatments focused on known, rationally selected targets that
play key roles in cancer and other serious illnesses. With its
STOPS (Selective Termination of Protein Synthesis) platform,
Initial selectively modulates translation of pathogenic
proteins in the exit tunnel of the ribosome, when the proteins are
in their linear sequence stage and before they are fully formed.
This approach makes possible a new kind of therapeutic with the
potential to interrupt disease processes in their "initial" or
earliest stages.
Initial, based in South San
Francisco, was created by the life sciences venture capital
firm Apple Tree Partners (ATP) with $75
million in Series A funding and co-founders Jamie H.D. Cate, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry,
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology at the
University of California (UC)
Berkeley; Brian Paegel, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Chemistry, and Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine; and
Kevan Shokat, Ph.D., Professor of
Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UC San Francisco (UCSF) and
Chemistry at UC Berkeley. Initial's proprietary platform brings
together technologies from its founders into uniquely enabling
combinations of capabilities in ribosome biochemistry, proteomics,
medicinal chemistry, DNA-encoded library technology, and chemical
genetics.
For more information, visit initialtx.com.
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SOURCE Initial Therapeutics