DANVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BryoLogyx, Inc., announced today that Omar Duramad, Ph.D., has joined the company as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). As CSO, Dr. Duramad will lead the preclinical development of bryostatin and bryostatin analogues as the Company prepares to launch in the coming year clinical studies with bryostatin in combination with immuno-oncology agents for the treatment of cancer.
“Omar brings a successful track record of scientific and management accomplishments in over 15 years of immunology and early stage therapeutic development,” said Thomas M. Loarie, co-founder, President and CEO of BryoLogyx. “We are pleased to have Omar join us as CSO, and we anticipate a highly productive collaboration as we enter a new stage in our company’s development.”
Dr. Duramad joins BryoLogyx from Abmuno Therapeutics, a company focused on discovering and developing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases, where he was the founder and CEO. Previously, Dr. Duramad held a variety of positions with increasing responsibility at IGM Biosciences, Neothera Biosciences, and REGiMMUNE, leading immunology research and preclinical teams focused on oncology and autoimmune disease therapeutics.
As a researcher at Dynavax Technologies, Dr. Duramad was part of the Drug Discovery group that identified novel Toll-like Receptor inhibitors for diseases such lupus, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
A trained immunologist, Dr. Duramad has received several major medical awards, e.g., The Schissler Foundation Fellowship in Cancer Research; the American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship for Outstanding Scholarship; and the Vivian L. Smith Award for Outstanding Immunologist. He has been an invited speaker at numerous prominent medical conferences such as Keystone Symposia, the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, and the American Transplant Congress.
Dr. Duramad obtained his B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from University of California, San Diego. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Immunology and Cancer Biology from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston.
About BryoLogyx
BryoLogyx is developing a new class of drugs to enhance the response rates and treatment durability of cancer immunotherapies and anti-HIV agents. The company’s initial focus is on cancer, where it capitalizing on two recent scientific advances: the discovery that a complex natural product, bryostatin, stimulates tumor antigen production to amplify the immune response unleashed by cancer immunotherapy; and the invention of the first practical synthetic production method for bryostatin and analogs, enabling their availability for commercial development. BryoLogyx has exclusive rights from Stanford University to the method’s use in the areas of cancer and HIV; as well as certain additional uses for inflammatory, infectious and autoimmune diseases; and for animal health. Bryostatin, currently in development for use with immuno-oncology agents, has an established safety profile based on clinical studies involving more than 1100 patients. Learn more at www.bryologyx.com.
