Category: Press Release

MADISON, Wis.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nimble Therapeutics today announced the formation of the Nimble Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to support the company’s mission to create orally delivered peptide therapeutics to treat immune-mediated diseases. The SAB is composed of leading experts from multiple disciplines including drug discovery, translational immunology, oral peptide delivery and dermatology, and will work closely with the leadership team at Nimble to progress the company’s pipeline into clinical development.

“We are honored to have these extraordinary scientific leaders join Nimble in its mission to create oral therapeutics to treat patients with immune-mediated diseases,” said Pete Gough, CSO of Nimble Therapeutics. “Each SAB member brings their unique experience and deep expertise to the table, and their collective input and advice will be invaluable in shaping the future scientific direction of the company.”

“Nimble’s unique platform to rapidly generate oral peptides that can be applied to previously challenging-to-drug targets is incredibly impressive and positions Nimble to be the premier organization in the field,” said Joel Barrish, Ph.D., President & CEO at Avilar Therapeutics. “I am excited to be working with the Nimble team to continue building their science and pipeline to bring these next-generation therapeutics to patients in need.”

Nimble Scientific Advisory Board Members

Joel Barrish, Ph.D., is a Venture Partner at RA Capital focusing on new company creation in addition to his role at Avilar Therapeutics. Prior to his current roles, Joel was co-founder, President & CSO at Jnana Therapeutics and EVP & CSO at Achillion Pharmaceuticals, where he led research efforts on Factor D inhibitors leading to the discovery of vemircopan in hematology and nephrology. Most of Joel’s career was spent as a medicinal chemist in pharma, primarily at BMS where he was VP & Global Head of Discovery Chemistry. During his time there, Joel led teams responsible for advancing more than 50 compounds into clinical development including SPRYCEL® (dasatinib) in CML which he co-invented, as well as SOTYKTU® (deucravacitinib) for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Joel was also instrumental in developing the dual-acting endothelin angiotensin receptor antagonist (DARA) concept which resulted in FILSPARI® (sparsentan) for the treatment of IgA Nephropathy. He is a co- author on over 140 publications and co-inventor on 40 issued U.S. patents.

David Brayden, Ph.D. is Professor of Advanced Drug Delivery at University College Dublin (UCD) School of Veterinary Medicine and a Senior Fellow of the UCD Conway Institute. David is a Co-Principal Investigator of the Science Foundation Ireland Centre Medical Devices and is the coordinator of BUCCAL-PEP, an EU Horizon Consortium working on buccal peptide delivery. David is the author or co-author of more than three hundred research publications and patents in peptide and protein delivery. In 2021 he was appointed the first Chief Editor of Frontiers in Drug Delivery. David was elected as a Fellow of the CRS (2012) and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (2017), and as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (2024). He was appointed by the Minister of Health as Chairperson of Ireland’s National Research Ethics Clinical Trials Committee D in 2024.

Joel Gelfand, M.D. M.S.C.E. is the James J. Leyden Professor of Dermatology and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He is a globally recognized expert in psoriasis, clinical epidemiology, drug safety, and clinical trials. Dr. Gelfand is the author of over 330 scientific publications, editorials, reviews, and textbook chapters. He is a past Associate Editor of Pharmaco-epidemiology and Drug Safety and is currently Deputy Editor for Clinical Research of the Journal Investigative Dermatology. He is the recipient of many awards and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. His research redefined psoriasis as a systemic inflammatory disease that enhances the risk of cardiovascular events and premature mortality resulting in changes in standard of care guidelines. The overarching goal of his research and clinical practice is to improve psoriasis patient outcomes in the skin and joints, while lowering the risk of diabetes, CV disease and mortality.

Luisa Salter-Cid, Ph.D. is the Chief Scientific officer (CSO) at Pioneering Medicines, where she is responsible for spearheading a portfolio of groundbreaking treatments. Dr. Salter-Cid is a highly respected scientist, and drug discovery and development leader, with more than 20 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Luisa was previously the CSO at Gossamer Bio, and spent more than a decade at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), where she most recently served as Vice President and Head of Immunology, Small Molecule Immuno-Oncology and Genomics Discovery. At BMS she oversaw the development of several therapeutics for autoimmune diseases and cancer. Luisa is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Anaptys, GPCR, Imimidomics and Attovia, and was previously on the SAB of Prometheus, Ambrx and Ventyx Bio and on the Board of Directors of Jounce Therapeutics. She has authored over 90 publications and patents.

Tomi Sawyer, Ph.D. is Founding Chief Drug Hunter and President of Maestro Therapeutics. Previously, Tomi was a Distinguished Scientist at Merck & Company, Founding Chief Scientific Officer at Aileron Therapeutics and Senior Vice-President of Drug Discovery at Ariad Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda). He is a peptide, peptidomimetic, de novo nonpeptide, small molecule and natural product drug hunter and has contributed to the discovery of three marketed drugs (Scenesse®, Iclusig® and Ridaforolimus), a Phase II clinical candidate (ALRN-6924) and past preclinical development of renin inhibitors, HIV protease inhibitors, Src SH2 antagonists and dual Src/Bcr-Abl kinase inhibitors. Tomi is credited with >600 scientific publications, patents, and presentations.

About Nimble Therapeutics

Nimble is a biotechnology company dedicated to delivering on the promise of oral peptide therapeutics. Leveraging a paradigm-shifting peptide drug discovery and development engine, Nimble is advancing its internal pipeline and continues to support several partnered programs. The Nimble platform combines massively parallel solid-phase synthesis, unrivaled chemical and structural diversity, sophisticated assays, and powerful machine learning and computational methods. Nimble is located in Madison, WI and Philadelphia, PA.

Contacts
Nimble Therapeutics, Inc.
Bradley Garcia II, Ph.D.
Vice President, Corporate Development info@nimbletherapeutics.com

Company Announces Opening of a Second R&D site in Philadelphia, PA, and the Appointments of Shelley Allen as Head of Drug Discovery, and Munir Mosaheb as Head of Biology

Philadelphia, PA (April 3rd, 2024)/BusinessWire/ — Nimble Therapeutics today announced the opening of a second R&D site in Philadelphia, PA. The new site, located in B+Labs, a hub for scientific innovation in University City Philadelphia, will focus on progressing Nimble’s growing pipeline of orally-delivered peptide therapeutics into clinical development. The Philadelphia site will synergize with activities at Nimble’s main R&D site in Madison, WI, which is focused on leveraging its proprietary platform to optimize oral peptide therapeutics at unprecedented scale and speed.

In addition to the new site, Nimble also announced the appointment of two senior leaders to spearhead the drug discovery efforts and catalyze the build out of the Philadelphia site and team. Shelley Allen will join as Head of Drug Discovery and will lead the advanced optimization and characterization of clinical candidate peptides and their progression into the clinic. Munir Mosaheb will join as Head of Biology and will lead the pharmacological, immunological and translational aspects of Nimble’s drug discovery programs.

Shelley has over 25 years of experience in the discovery and development of high-impact medicines. She joined Nimble from Think Bioscience where she was VP, Medicinal Chemistry, and responsible for establishing drug discovery teams and capabilities to develop their internal programs. Previously, Shelley spent 22 years with Array Biopharma / Pfizer in roles of increasing responsibility, contributing to the discovery of several clinical candidates including oncology therapeutics Vitrakvi ® and Tukysa ® . As director of medicinal chemistry at Pfizer, she led teams and programs from lead discovery to IND in the kinase space. Shelley began her career at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer after completing undergraduate studies at DeMontfort University of Leicester. She has published > 40 scientific papers and patents and is active in the American Chemical Society community.

Munir has over 15 years of experience in developing and applying novel immunological insights in academic and biotech settings. Most recently Munir was the Head of Translational Biology and Immunology at Senda Biosciences (now Sail Biomedicines), where he built a Translational Biology team and led platform and program development, and IND-enabling preclinical data generation. Prior to Senda, Munir received broad training across diverse aspects of immunology. He explored molecular vaccinology during his time at Merck & Co. and the Wetzler lab at BU, studied T cell biology while at the Flavell lab at Yale, and immuno-oncology and cell trafficking as a post-doctoral fellow in the von Andrian lab at Harvard.

“We are pleased to open our second R&D site in the Philadelphia area,” said Jigar Patel, founder & CEO of Nimble Therapeutics. “This is a reflection of the growing maturity of our internal pipeline of orally-delivered peptide therapeutics, and the need to build additional capabilities as we progress candidates into the clinic.”

“I’m thrilled to have Shelley and Munir join us at this exciting stage in the journey of Nimble,” said Pete Gough, CSO of Nimble Therapeutics. “They both bring a wealth of experience in the key areas of immunology, drug discovery and pre-clinical development and will be instrumental in building and leading the teams that will take our programs into the clinic.”

“As a medicinal chemist of 25 years, I am incredibly impressed by the power and unprecedented speed of the Nimble platform to identify and optimize oral therapeutic peptides. I’m very much looking forward to partnering with our team in Madison to deliver a robust pipeline of clinical candidates to patients”, said Shelley.

“Despite the progress we’ve made with parenteral biological therapies for the treatment of immune-mediated diseases over the past couple of decades, patients want oral medicines. Because of our platform, Nimble is uniquely placed to become a leader in developing oral peptide therapeutics as next-generation treatments for these patients and I’m excited to be part of the team to help this vision become reality”, said Munir.

About Nimble Therapeutics

Nimble is a biotechnology company dedicated to delivering on the promise of oral peptide therapeutics. Leveraging a paradigm-shifting peptide drug discovery and development engine, Nimble is advancing its internal pipeline and continues to support several partnered programs. The Nimble platform combines massively parallel solid-phase synthesis, unrivaled chemical and structural diversity, sophisticated assays, and powerful machine learning and computational methods. Nimble is located in Madison, WI and Philadelphia, PA.

Media Contact
Nimble Therapeutics, Inc.
Bradley Garcia II, Ph.D.
Vice President, Corporate Development
info@nimbletherapeutics.com