CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tilos Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing anti-LAP antibodies for the treatment of cancer, fibrosis and autoimmune diseases, today announced the appointment of Jessie English, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer.
“Jessie brings to our team significant oncology leadership experience, having held a number of senior scientific positions within the biopharmaceutical industry over the past 20 years,” said Barbara Fox, Ph.D., founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tilos. “Her energy and experience in leading discovery efforts from target identification to clinical candidate and conducting preclinical translational studies for clinical programs will be a significant asset to Tilos.”
“Having spent many years in oncology drug discovery, I was drawn to Tilos’s groundbreaking approach to modulating the tumor microenvironment through LAP, the latency-associated peptide of TGFβ. These novel anti-LAP antibodies have the potential to deliver enhanced potency and specificity to the emerging field of TGFβ-directed therapeutics. I am excited to join the dynamic and experienced Tilos team, who are now completing preclinical studies to advance lead antibody, TLS-01, into the clinic and look forward to investigating several unique classes of anti-LAP antibodies with therapeutic potential beyond oncology in the areas of fibrosis and autoimmune diseases,” said Dr. English.
Prior to joining Tilos, Dr. English served as Vice President and Head of Discovery Research ImmunoOncology Translational Innovation Platform at EMD Serono, Merck KGaA. Previously, she was Head of Research at the Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School where she led multidisciplinary teams with both industry and academic collaborators in oncology drug discovery, translational programs, and development of novel translational platforms. From 2010-2011, Dr. English served as Vice President of Kinase Biology at ArQule. In 2008 she became Senior Director and External Discovery Oncology Lead at Merck Research Laboratories, where she was responsible for driving drug discovery programs through external scientific collaborations. In 2004, she joined Pfizer where she established and led Pfizer's Kinase Center of Emphasis. Dr. English began her career in the biopharmaceutical industry in 1998 at Schering-Plough Research Institute, where she led a cross-functional team focusing on kinase targets for cancer therapy. Dr. English holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.S. in biochemistry from Kansas State University. She was a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Melanie Cobb's laboratory at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
About Tilos Therapeutics
Tilos Therapeutics is developing
anti-LAP antibodies, an innovative approach that targets the central
control point for TGFβ activation for the treatment of cancer, fibrosis
and autoimmune diseases. Anti-LAP antibodies have the potential to
transform the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and mitigate
resistance to checkpoint inhibitors with a novel mechanism of action
that inhibits TGFβ release and reduces immunosuppressive cell
populations. The Company’s approach builds on decades of work by its
scientific founders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in understanding the
role of LAP-expressing cells in immune regulation. Tilos was founded in
2016 with funding from Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Partners
Innovation Fund and ShangPharma Innovation Fund. www.tilostherapeutics.com
