LifeMine Therapeutics Appoints Elliot Ehrich, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer and EVP of Translational Science and Lata Jayaraman, Ph.D., as EVP and Head of Biology

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LifeMine Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company refashioning drug discovery by mining genetically-encoded small molecules (GEMs) from the biosphere, today announced the appointment of Elliot Ehrich, M.D., as chief medical officer and executive vice president of translational science, and of Lata Jayaraman, Ph.D., as executive vice president and head of biology.

“Elliot and Lata are truly distinguished and accomplished drug development professionals. We welcome them with great enthusiasm to crucial leadership positions on the LifeMine expeditionary force,” said Gregory Verdine, Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief executive officer of LifeMine. “Their deep expertise, spanning target selection and preclinical discovery through all phases of clinical investigation and on to FDA approval, will be critical as we continue to source mechanistically and structurally novel small molecule leads and drive them toward the clinic with unparalleled speed, predictability and scalability."

Elliot Ehrich, M.D., appointed to CMO and EVP, translational science

Dr. Ehrich most recently served as president of Skyhawk Therapeutics. Before joining Skyhawk as the company’s chief medical officer, Dr. Ehrich served as a venture partner at 5AM Ventures and as chief medical officer at Expansion Therapeutics, a 5AM Ventures portfolio company. Dr. Ehrich previously spent 17 years at Alkermes, leading the development and successful FDA registration of multiple new medicines as chief medical officer and executive vice president of R&D. Prior to Alkermes, Dr. Ehrich held positions of increasing responsibility in clinical pharmacology and clinical research at Merck.

Dr. Ehrich received his M.D. from Columbia University, completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in immunology and rheumatology at Stanford University Medical School followed by postdoctoral training in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He received a B.A. in biochemistry from Princeton University.

Lata Jayaraman, Ph.D., appointed to EVP, head of biology

Dr. Jayaraman most recently served as head of oncology drug discovery at the Mechanisms of Cancer Resistance (MoCR) Thematic Research Center (TRC) at Bristol Myers Squibb, Cambridge. She began her career over 20 years ago as a research investigator at BMS, Lawrenceville leading multiple small and large molecule projects across diverse target classes within oncology and immuno-oncology. Prior to rejoining Bristol Myers Squibb in 2019, she served as senior director and head of tumor immunotherapy at Seres Therapeutics and as director of pharmacology and translational research at Cerulean Pharma. Earlier, Dr. Jayaraman served as director, oncology at Merck.

Dr. Jayaraman earned her Ph.D. in cancer biology at Columbia University and completed her postdoctoral training in cancer biology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

About LifeMine Therapeutics

LifeMine Therapeutics is refashioning drug discovery by mining genetically-encoded small molecules (GEMs) from the biosphere. Through its proprietary, evolutionarily-derived genomic drug discovery platform, LifeMine is bringing unparalleled speed, predictability and scalability to small molecule drug discovery. LifeMine has discovered, in genomic space, hundreds of potentially high-impact drug candidates relevant to targets across all major disease areas, and has an initial focus on advancing highly impactful precision medicines in oncology and immune modulation. The company was founded in 2017 by renowned entrepreneur/scientists Gregory Verdine, Ph.D., and Richard Klausner, M.D., and entrepreneur/company-builder WeiQing Zhou. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., with offices in Gloucester Harbor, Mass. and Basel, Switzerland, LifeMine has raised more than $295 million from leading life science investors. For additional information, please visit www.lifeminetx.com.