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Kezar co-founder Christopher Kirk, Ph.D. began his work on the unique function of the immunoproteasome at Proteolix in 2005, while working on the compound that would become the successful multiple myeloma drug KYPROLIS™ (carfilzomib). As VP of Research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, which acquired Proteolix in 2009, Christopher led the efforts to develop the first selective inhibitors of the immunoproteasome and designed multiple studies demonstrating their profound immunomodulatory effects. In parallel with this work, Christopher and Kezar co-founder Jack Taunton, Ph.D. collaborated on several research projects involving protein secretion. This collaboration inspired a belief in the strong synergies between protein degradation and protein secretion, two fertile areas for drug discovery with platform potential. In 2014, Christopher and Kezar co-founder John Fowler began developing the business plan for Kezar, acting on a longstanding desire to work together and build a world-class company. In 2015, John and Christopher raised $23M and negotiated a worldwide, exclusive license agreement with Amgen for the Onyx immunoproteasome inhibitor patent estate. Now underway, John and Christopher are excited to leverage their complementary skill sets to build Kezar into a leader in small molecule drug development.
NextCure is a fully integrated biotechnology company discovering and developing first-in-class immunotherapy-based biologics for cancer and other diseases. The company is focused on understanding biological pathways and leveraging our FIND-IOTM technology to discover, validate and build a proprietary pipeline. We believe identifying and targeting immune pathways will promote identification of effective targets for mediating sustained immunity leading to improved outcomes for cancer patients.
Mindstrong was founded by some of the world`s leading authorities in neuroscience, oncology, and technology. It is based on their shared vision to redefine neuropsychiatric healthcare, transforming diagnosis and delivering precision therapy. Mindstrong builds on one of the founder`s patented biomarker platform developed over years of extensive clinical R&D.
Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics is a focused on the modulation of functional non-coding RNA (ncRNA) to treat cancer and other human diseases.
GenSpera, Inc. is a San Antonio, TX-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.