Capitalizing on more than 35 years of TG2 research and drug development expertise

Georg C. Terstappen is the Executive Vice President of Drug Discovery at Cambrian Bio. He has 30 years of experience in big pharma/biotech, holding R&D leadership positions at Bayer, GW/GSK, and Abbott/AbbVie –most recently as Head of Preclinical CNS Drug Development with GSK. Georg was also Co-Founder/CSO of Siena Biotech and CSO of OxStem (a University of Oxford spin-out company). In addition, Georg has led EU R&D framework organizations as Vice-Chair of the Innovative Medicines Strategy group in the context of EFPIA and IMI. He was also adjunct professor/visiting scientist at several universities, including the University of Oxford, and leader of European-wide research programs funded by the EC. Georg has published 90 scientific articles and is inventor/co-inventor of 15 patents. He has a first-class honors degree in Biology and conducted research at the Max-Planck-Institute and the Federal Research Centre Juelich, for which he has received a PhD in natural sciences.

Professor Martin Griffin is a Professor in Biochemistry at Aston University. He was previously the Executive Dean of the School of Life and Health Sciences, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Director of Aston Graduate School, a Visiting scientist at Northwestern University (USA) and he also undertook a short sabbatical at The University of Houston, Texas. Martin’s research is targeted towards understanding the cellular functions of the protein crosslinking enzyme Transglutaminase 2 (TG2) in normal and pathological conditions which he has been undertaking for over 40 years which has led to the development of highly efficient selective inhibitors of TG2 that have been used in proof-of-concept pre-clinical trials for different forms of fibrosis. Martin’s work on understanding the function of TG2 has focused on the role of the enzyme at the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix (ECM) in various physiological and pathological conditions including fibrosis. His expertise also involves angiogenesis, wound healing, fibrosis and tumor progression. He has published over 190 research articles.

Dr Zhuo (Vivian) Wang is a Lecturer in Cell Biology at Aston University. Vivian’s research focuses on investigating the role(s) Transglutaminase 2 (TG2) in various physiological (cell survival and cell migration) and pathological conditions (cancer, fibrotic diseases and pathological angiogenesis) and the development of TG2 antagonists as therapeutic reagents for these diseases. Previously, Vivian was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Aston University.

Dan Rathbone is a senior lecturer in the College of Life & Health Sciences at Aston University with undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research activity in the areas of pharmaceutical chemistry, drug design, protein modelling and chemical synthesis. Prior to joining Aston he was a senior chemist at Aston Molecules Ltd, a contract research company, which followed on from postdoctoral studies at Warwick University and the Institute fur Organische Chemie und Biochemie in Bonn, Germany. He received his PhD in synthetic chemistry from Warwick University after completing undergraduate studies in chemistry at Oxford University.​

Sriniwas "Vass" Sriram is the Director of Extracellular Matrix Research at Cambrian Bio. Prior to joining Cambrian, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, where his research focused on understanding the instructive role of ECM in age-related diseases. He has worked for Apollo Ventures performing investment diligence and company formation, as well as at Genentech, Cultivation Capital, and Sofinnova Ventures. Vass received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Florida and holds a mini-MBA certificate from Harvard Business School.

Dennis Yamashita is the Executive Vice President of Chemistry at Cambrian Bio. He is an exceptional drug hunter and medicinal chemist with 30 years in pharmaceutical and biotech drug discovery. Dennis was VP, Medicinal Chemistry at Axial Therapeutics; VP, Drug Discovery at ORIC; and VP, Chemistry at Trevena, a startup founded by Nobel laureate Robert Lefkowitz. At Trevena, he co-invented OLINVYK (oliceridine), an FDA-approved analgesic for the treatment of post surgical pain. Dennis spent 20 years at GSK, most recently leading drug discovery research collaborations with premier academic institutions, as well as internal drug discovery projects in oncology, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and immunology disease areas. Dennis has a B.S. in Chemistry from MIT and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Yale. He mentors MIT postdoc scientists and volunteers at the MIT Sandbox, an entrepreneurship program for MIT students that aims to move ideas from concept to societal impacts.

Claire O’Brien is a Senior Director of Research & Development Project Management at Cambrian Bio. She has 30 years of experience in developing medicines at Ipsen, GlaxoSmithKline (including Glaxo Wellcome and Glaxo Group Research), and in biotech, an in-depth knowledge of medicine development, and a track record in leading global, matrixed teams to advance programs through discovery, development, and launch. After earning a degree in chemistry at Kingston University London, she spent ten years in formulation and analytical development, then moved into cross-functional project leadership, working in multiple disease areas and with teams across US, EU, China, and Japan. Her deep interest in the development and growth of talent has been a theme throughout her career, and she has been coaching for 15 years with a particular interest in coaching scientists to lead.

Wenjie Luo serves as Business Operations Manager at Cambrian Bio. Prior to joining Cambrian, she was the Senior Business Development Associate at Cresilon, a biotechnology startup, where she led numerous initiatives to better the company's business development and operations, including securing a $3M non-dilutive capital grant to expand the company's regional footprint. She has also served as a researcher at academic laboratories at Columbia and Cornell Universities. Luo earned her Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University and Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering from Cornell University.

Andrew is a medical chemist with over 30 years’ drug discovery experience across large pharma and biotechnology. He joined Domainex as a group leader in November 2019 before attaining director of medicinal chemistry in 2022. Prior to joining the Domainex team Andrew had worked at Rhone Poulenc Rorer, Celltech, UCB, Cellzome, Redx Anti-infectives and Novintum Bioscience. During this time he has strongly contributed and taken a leadership role in delivering research projects from hit identification to candidate nomination, cumulating in the nomination of multiple small molecule candidates in the areas of MS (2 VLA4 integrin antagonists), RA (2 JAK kinase inhibitors) and Oncology (Mitochondrial disruptor). CDP323 (VLA4 integrin antagonist) progressed to phase II trials in MS. Other key areas of research have focused on PDEIV inhibitors, IMPDH inhibitors, JNK and PI3Kdelta kinase inhibitors [which ultimately led to identification and progression of UCB5857 into clinical trials], and DNA Gyrase inhibitors as anti-bacterials [which led to European funding through the ENABLE initiative]. Andrew has also experience in IP management and played a proactive committee role as vice chair & chairman of the Society of Medicines, a multi-disciplinary society engaged in promoting drug research.