Sutro Biopharma Expands Senior Management Team

Jeremy Bender, Ph.D., Joins as Chief Business Officer; Aaron K. Sato, Ph.D., Named Vice President, Research

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sutro Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical company developing a new generation of antibody drug conjugate therapeutics and bifunctional antibody-based therapeutics for targeted cancer therapies, today announced the expansion of its senior management team with the appointments of Jeremy Bender, Ph.D., as chief business officer and Aaron K. Sato, Ph.D., as vice president, research.

"These appointments reflect an important step in the growth of our company as we continue to advance our novel, cell-free approach to designing, developing and manufacturing next-generation cancer therapeutics," said William Newell, chief executive officer of Sutro Biopharma. "Dr. Bender's broad skill set in corporate business development and strategic collaborations will help us maximize the select business opportunities we are actively pursuing. Dr. Sato's expertise in antibody and protein engineering and phage display driven discovery is important to Sutro's design and development of next-generation antibody drug conjugates and bifunctional antibody-based therapeutics."

Dr. Bender has an established track record of global and regional collaborations as well as mergers and acquisitions in the life sciences industry. Most recently, he was vice president, corporate development, of Allos Therapeutics, where he was responsible for mergers and acquisitions as well as financing transactions, product in-and out-licensing as well as corporate and strategic planning. While at the company, he established a collaboration with Mundipharma for the co-development and commercialization of Folotyn® outside the United States and Canada. In addition, he played a leadership role in the acquisition of the firm by Spectrum Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Allos Therapeutics, he was a project leader at The Boston Consulting Group. Dr. Bender received a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, a master's degree in business administration from MIT Sloan School of Management and a bachelor's degree in biology from Stanford University.

Dr. Sato has more than 10 years of industrial research experience in antibody, protein and peptide engineering. Prior to joining Sutro, he was senior director of antibody engineering at OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, where his team discovered several antibodies for its clinical pipeline. Before this, he held director positions at Dyax Corp., where he oversaw multiple external collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Sato holds many patents and is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications. He received a doctorate in chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Puget Sound.

About Sutro Biopharma

Sutro Biopharma, located in South San Francisco, is developing a new generation of antibody drug conjugate therapeutics and bifunctional antibody-based therapeutics for targeted cancer therapies. These therapeutics will significantly extend the clinical impact of current oncology therapeutic approaches and are beyond what can be envisioned with current cell-based expression technologies. Sutro's biochemical synthesis technology, which underpins these therapeutics, allows the rapid and systematic exploration of many protein drug variants to identify drug candidates. Once these product candidates are identified, production can be rapidly and predictably scaled up to commercial levels. Sutro has established a Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) facility for the production of clinical supplies of materials using its biochemical protein synthesis platform.  Sutro Biopharma is collaborating with pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the discovery and development of novel protein therapeutics. For more information, visit www.sutrobio.com.

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SOURCE Sutro Biopharma