Circle Pharma Appoints Alan Ashworth, PhD, FRS and Bruce Stillman, PhD, FRS to Its SAB

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Circle Pharma, Inc., a macrocycle drug discovery and development company focused on intractable cancer targets, has appointed Prof. Alan Ashworth, PhD, FRS and Bruce Stillman, PhD, FRS to its Scientific Advisory Board.

Prof. Ashworth is the President of the University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology / Oncology at UCSF and Sr. Vice President for Cancer Services with USCF Health. He previously served as the Chief Executive of the Institute of Cancer Research in London.

Dr. Stillman is the President and CEO of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York. He previously served as the Director of the NCI-designated CSHL Cancer Center.

Prof. Ashworth and Dr. Stillman join 2019 Nobel Laureate William G. Kaelin Jr. , MD, of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, on the Circle Scientific Advisory Board.

Prof. Ashworth is a translational biologist whose research is focused on understanding tumor genetics to develop improvements in the treatment and care of cancer patients. He contributed to the identification of the BRCA2 breast cancer susceptibility gene and the development of PARP inhibitors for cancer treatment. Prof. Ashworth is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and a Fellow of the Royal Society. His work has been recognized with awards including the European Society of Medical Oncology Lifetime Achievement Award, the Drexel Prize in Cancer Biology, the Basser Global Prize, the Meyenburg Foundation Cancer Research Award, the David T. Workman Memorial Award of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Center and the Genetics Society Medal.

Dr. Stillman is a biochemist and cancer researcher who has made seminal discoveries related to the eukaryotic DNA replication cycle, including the discovery of the Origin Recognition Complex (ORC), a key protein that initiates the process of making chromosomes competent for duplication. His work has provided insights into the complexity of cell replication and has implications for understanding genomic instability and tumor heterogeneity in cancer. Dr. Stillman is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Australian Academy of Science, a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has received multiple awards including the Alfred P Sloan Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, the Basic Science Award from the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Herbert Tabor Research Award, the Canada Gairdner International Award, the Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics and the Order of Australia.

“We are delighted that Alan and Bruce are joining our growing SAB. Their expertise brings a deep understanding of complex cancer biology and the Circle team is very much looking forward to their guidance as we pursue our goals to develop new cancer therapeutics” said David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., Circle’s President and CEO.

About Circle Pharma, Inc.

Circle is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery based on rational design and synthetic chemistry. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell-permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer. Its lead programs target cyclins A and E, which are part of the regulatory machinery that controls the progression of cells through the cell growth and division cycle. Inhibition of Cyclin A has been shown to be synthetically lethal in cancers driven by mutations in the Rb pathway. Cyclin E upregulation is associated with resistance to drugs that target cdk4/6 activity and is also found across several cancer types.

More information: www.circlepharma.com