Mirna Therapeutics, Inc. Appoints Three External Directors to its Board
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mirna Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of microRNA (miRNA) therapeutics, today announced the appointment of Chris Earl, Ph.D., an experienced entrepreneur and investor, Corey S. Goodman, Ph.D., Managing Director and co-founder of venBio, and Evan Melrose, M.D., founder and Managing Director of PTV Sciences, as outside Directors to its Board. These outside directors join Paul Lammers, M.D., President and CEO, and Matt Winkler, Ph.D., Mirna's Founder and Chairman of the Board.
"We are excited about the depth and breadth of the scientific, entrepreneurial, and investor expertise these new members bring to the Board, and they will truly help guide Mirna in the years ahead in its efforts to further the development of microRNA-based therapeutics," said Dr. Paul Lammers. "Drs. Earl and Melrose have ample experience in starting and growing small biotechnology companies and have built an invaluable network in the industry and investment community. Dr. Goodman's drug discovery and development expertise will truly be beneficial as we move our lead compounds through pre-clinical development and into the clinic."
Christopher D. Earl, Ph.D.
Most recently, Dr. Earl was the first President and CEO of BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), a not-for-profit organization harnessing biotechnology industry R&D to create new medicines to treat infectious diseases of the developing world. Previously, Dr. Earl served as Managing Director of Perseus Capital, L.P., and the Perseus-Soros BioPharmaceutical Fund, L.P. Earlier in his career Dr. Earl was President and CEO of Avitech Diagnostics, Inc., and a General Partner of Plant Resources Venture Funds. Dr. Earl serves on the Board of Directors of the Infectious Disease Research Institute, Asuragen, Inc., and the Nature Conservancy of Maryland/DC. Dr. Earl received a B.A. in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Harvard University.
Corey S. Goodman, Ph.D.
For over two decades Dr. Goodman was a professor at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently an adjunct professor at the University of California, San Francisco, in the Department of Anatomy and Biochemistry. While at Berkeley, he was an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Evan Rauch Professor of Neuroscience, co-founder of the Wills Neuroscience Institute, and Head of the Division of Neurobiology. Dr. Goodman was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society. He is a former Chair of the National Research Council's Board on Life Sciences. Between 2007 and 2009, Dr. Goodman served as President of Pfizer's Biotherapeutics & Bioinnovation Center and member of the company's Executive Leadership Team. Dr. Goodman has advised and is on the board of several biotechnology companies, and co-founder of Exelixis and Renovis. Dr. Goodman attended Stanford University as a Searle Scholar and earned a B.S. in Biology. He received his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and conducted post-doctoral work at University of California, San Diego.
Evan Melrose, M.D.
Prior to founding PTV Sciences, Dr. Melrose was a Director with Burrill & Company, a leading San Francisco life sciences venture firm. Dr. Melrose has held faculty appointments at the University of California San Francisco, the University of Pennsylvania, and currently Baylor College of Medicine. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.D. from Indiana University and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School. Dr. Melrose currently sits on the boards of Orthokinematics, Asuragen, InSite Vision and Sinexus, Inc.
About Mirna Therapeutics
Mirna Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of microRNA (miRNA) therapeutics. Mirna has a substantial body of pending intellectual property around miRNAs developed by its own scientists as well as in-licensed from other institutions. Mirna scientists, while at Ambion, filed two very broad patent applications in 2004 naming more than 200 miRNAs and their functional roles in a number of different diseases. Mirna owns more than 30 pending patent applications as well as exclusive rights to pending patents submitted by Yale University. Mirna's IP portfolio contains numerous miRNAs with applications in oncology including those that are key tumor suppressors in cancer. For more information on Mirna Therapeutics and its technologies, please visit www.mirnarx.com.