Oxford, UK, 11 February 2022 – Nucleome Therapeutics, a biotechnology company decoding the dark matter of the human genome to uncover novel ways to treat disease with precision medicines, today announces the formation of an Advisory Board comprised of top industry leaders.

Dr Danuta Jeziorska, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Nucleome, said: “I am delighted to have the expertise of Dr Eliot Forster, Dr Rene Russo, Dr Ray Barlow, Dr Craig Fox, Dr Jane Dancer and Prof Chas Bountra at this exciting time. With the support and guidance of this incredible team of advisors we will continue to explore the novel targets we have begun to identify and build a pipeline of assets and collaborative deals that will enable us to maximise the potential of our platform to decode the dark genome so that we can transform the lives of patients.”

Dr Eliot Foster, Nucleome Advisor and CEO of F-Star, commented: “I’m delighted to support Danuta and her team as Nucleome advances its world-leading science to unlock the dark genome in three dimensions. As an advisor to the company since its foundation, I can already see the power of Nucleome’s technology beginning to reveal itself in targeted diseases and cell-types. One day, I believe, we will look at the Nucleome’s leading-edge dark genome technology as we look at Google today. I am very excited to support them on this journey.”

Dr Jonathan Hepple, Non-executive director at Nucleome, added: “I am delighted to welcome such a highly accomplished and experienced Advisory Board, that has been expanding from the company conception. The Board brings drug discovery, strategy and business development expertise, to provide Nucleome valuable support in advancing their world leading technology to discover and develop first in class precision medicine for autoimmune diseases.”

Nucleome Therapeutics’ Advisory Board consists of:

Dr. Eliot Forster, Ph.D, –  Eliot has three decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, having co-founded and lead several companies. He has raised more than $550M in equity financing. He is Chief Executive Officer of F-star Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ FSTX) and is non-executive Chairman of Avacta plc and non-executive Director of Immatics NV (NASDAQ IMTX). He has previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Immunocore Ltd (NASDAQ IMCR), Creabilis Therapeutics & Solace Pharmaceuticals Inc. and was also Head of Development and Operations for the EU and Asia at Pfizer. He is an honorary visiting Professor of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool and an honorary international visiting Professor at the University of Pavia, Italy. He holds a PhD from University of Liverpool and an MBA from Henley Management College.

Dr. Rene Russo, PharmaD, – Rene is an accomplished biotechnology CEO with over 20 years of experience leading R&D and commercialisation in the biopharmaceutical industry. She is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Xilio Therapeutics and previously served as CEO at Arsanis, as well as holding senior positions at Cubist Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers Squibb. She holds a number of Board positions including Celsius Therapeutics, Adagio Therapeutics and Life Science Cares. As an executive leader, Rene has been responsible for early preclinical research through all phases of clinical development, registration, and commercialisation of many successful therapies in the US and EU; as well as taking an early-stage platform company through a successful IPO.

Dr. Raymond Barlow, Ph.D, – Ray is CEO of SynOx Therapeutics. Ray has over 25 years of experience within the biopharmaceutical industry, gained through leadership positions in scientific, clinical, commercial and executive roles at AstraZeneca, J&J, Amgen, Emergent BioSolutions Inc, Crucell NV, e-Therapeutics PLC and Kiadis NV. Ray has extensive corporate development experience, right across the value chain and has led and closed numerous M&A, licensing, commercial, manufacturing, equity-based and IP-based deals collectively worth multiple billions of dollars.

Dr. Craig Fox, Ph.D, – Craig is an experienced biologist and NIH funded Principal Investigator who has managed and worked on numerous drug discovery and development projects over more than 20 years in the industry, from initial target selection right through to investigating clinical efficacy and safety in Phase 2 patient studies. Craig is currently an Operating Partner (Life Sciences) at Oxford Science Enterprises. Previously, Craig was CSO and an Executive Board member at C4X Discovery Limited (C4XD) and helped guide their transition from a technology-based company to a therapeutics business, raised >£35m on the UK public market, forged strategic collaborations and oversaw an emerging drug discovery pipeline that has led to multiple licensing deals with Pharma.  Prior to joining C4XD, he was Director of Respiratory Research at Pulmagen Therapeutics where he managed several of its collaborations and partnerships. Craig has also previously worked for Argenta Discovery, Etiologics Ltd and Bayer plc.  Craig has a PhD in Respiratory Medicine from Birmingham University and a first-class Biochemistry degree from the University of Surrey.

Dr. Jane Dancer, Ph.D, – Jane has 30 years of experience within the life science industry across the fields of biotech, pharma and agrochemicals.  Jane’s previous roles include Chief Business Officer at F-star, VP Business Development at Cellzome and she currently has an active role in advising companies on business development and strategy and is on the Board of several companies including NanoSyrinx, Spirea and PharmEnable.

Dr. Chas Bountra, Ph.D,  – Chas is Pro-Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Professor of Translational Medicine at the University of Oxford, Director of the Centre for Medicines Discovery in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine and Associate Member of the Department of Pharmacology. Chas is the Director of the newly created Centre for Medicines Discovery, an invited expert on several government and charitable research funding bodies, and an advisor for many academic, biotech and pharma drug discovery programmes. Prior to coming back to Oxford, Chas was Vice President and Head of Biology at GSK. He was involved in the identification of >40 clinical candidates for many gastro-intestinal, inflammatory and neuro-psychiatric diseases. More than 20 of these molecules progressed into patient studies and >5 of these delivered successful “Proof of Concept” data and hence progressed into late stage development.

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Nucleome Therapeutics is decoding the dark matter of the human genome to uncover novel ways to treat disease. The dark genome holds more than 95% of disease-linked genetic variants whose value remains untapped, representing a significant opportunity for drug discovery and development. We have the unique ability to link these variants to gene function and map disease pathways. Our cell type-specific platform creates high resolution 3D genome structure maps and enables variant functional validation at scale in primary cell types. This enables us to discover and develop novel, better and safer drugs. The initial focus of the company is on lymphocytes and related autoimmune disease. Our ambition is to build a robust pipeline of drug assets, with corresponding biomarkers. Nucleome Therapeutics was founded by leading experts in gene regulation from the University of Oxford and backed by investment from Oxford Sciences Enterprises. For more information, please visit www.nucleome.com.