Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award Honors HAYA Therapeutics Co-founders as Inaugural Winners
July 01 2024 - 1:00AM
Business Wire
- The award jury selected Samir Ounzain, PhD and Daniel Blessing,
PhD, the two co-founders of HAYA Therapeutics, as the winners from
an outstanding finalist group of life science entrepreneurs
- Representatives from the award committee presented the award
and the €100,000 cash prize at the Festival of the Future at the
Deutsches Museum in Munich last Friday, June 28, 2024
The committee of the newly established Andreas & Thomas
Struengmann Award today announced that Samir Ounzain and Daniel
Blessing, the two co-founders of HAYA Therapeutics, are the
inaugural winners of the Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award.
Established to support and recognize entrepreneurial vision in the
life science arena, the award recognizes the co-founder’s progress
in building a company developing an RNA therapeutic approach
targeting long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in multiple disease areas,
in advance of the start of a HAYA’s first-in-human clinical study
in nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
“Together with the award committee and this year’s jury, we
congratulate Samir and Daniel and hope that this award provides an
additional validation as HAYA’s begins the next stage of
development as a company. They have proven their ability to
translate their findings from the lab into a differentiated
cell-state-modifying platform that has significant potential to
provide novel, disease-modifying therapeutics for the heart and a
range of other disease areas,” Andreas and Thomas Struengmann said
in a joint statement. “Throughout our selection process, it has
been a tremendous privilege to view the outstanding companies
nominated from across the DACH region and, in particular, get to
know the finalists whose successes made the final decision a
difficult one to make.”
The company teams shortlisted in May represent established and
emerging biotech entrepreneurs in the DACH area who made
significant achievements over the past years. These entrepreneurs
turned unique scientific approaches into companies focused on
bringing solutions to patients through modalities ranging from cell
and RNA therapies to ADCs. Following the nomination, a group of
finalist innovators had the opportunity to present their companies
and their respective scientific approaches to an expert jury of
leading personalities from the DACH life sciences sector, who then
selected the winners announced last Friday, June 28 at the Festival
of the Future at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. As part of the
award, Samir Ounzain and Daniel Blessing received a cash prize of
€100,000, which they will share.
“We created HAYA to translate our knowledge of lncRNAs into
tangible therapeutic candidates, with the upcoming first-in-human
study with HTX-001 in nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as
the next opportunity to demonstrate the potential. To be recognized
by the Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award for our achievements
to date and contributions to the DACH life science ecosystem is a
true honor. It fuels our ambition of providing patients with
disease-modifying therapeutics with the potential for greater
efficacy, safety, and accessibility,” said Samir Ounzain, CEO of
HAYA Therapeutics.
Daniel Blessing, CTO of HAYA Therapeutics, added: “We are
confident that this prestigious award will become one of the most
important recognitions for emerging companies and their founders.
Being nominated alongside other inspiring entrepreneurs and
selected as the first winners is truly exciting for us, but also
the entire HAYA team who is working with great commitment to make
our shared vision a reality.”
As a molecular biologist, Samir Ounzain has over 15 years of
experience exploring the non-coding portion of the human genome,
known as "dark matter", and his research efforts directly led to
the discovery of hundreds of novel heart-enriched lncRNAs. Daniel
Blessing is a biotechnology scientist with 10 years of experience
working in the field of pharmaceutical biotech including various
translational aspects of drug development and production.
HAYA Therapeutics is a precision medicine company developing
programmable therapeutics that target lncRNAs, a new class of
regulating molecules. The company is using its innovative cell
state modifying platform to gain new insights into the biology of
disease cell states and the lncRNAs that regulate them to address
fibrotic diseases. Its first program, HTX-001, is targeting Wisp2
super-enhancer-associated RNA (Wisper), a cardiac
fibroblast-specific lncRNA, which shows increased cardiac
expression after myocardial infarction (MI) and in hypertension
models. Inhibition of Wisper after MI is thought to inhibit the
development of fibrosis and improve cardiac function. HAYA
Therapeutics is nearing clinical readiness for HTX-001 in
non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Additionally, the
company is developing a pipeline of lncRNA-targeting therapies for
the cell-specific treatment of diseases in other tissues and
disease areas, including the lung and the tumor
microenvironment.
About the Andreas & Thomas Struengmann Award
The award was established in 2024 to recognize outstanding
entrepreneurs realizing revolutionary ideas in the DACH life
science sector. The goal is to reward exceptional achievements with
a prestigious prize and to further the development of the next
generation of leaders in this space. The award was named to honor
twin brothers Andreas Struengmann, M.D., and Thomas Struengmann,
Ph.D., who are among the important entrepreneurs, visionaries and
investors in the life science sector. As the founders of Hexal,
they achieved extraordinary entrepreneurial success and as
investors, they have continued to repeat that success for more than
20 years by building and developing leading companies across the
industry, including Mainz-based BioNTech. Learn more at
https://struengmannaward.de/.
About HAYA Therapeutics
HAYA Therapeutics is a precision medicines company developing
programmable therapeutics targeting regulatory RNAs derived from
the dark genome, a cell information processing unit, to reprogram
pathological cell states for a broad range of diseases, including
cardiovascular disease and cancer. The company is using its
innovative platform to gain novel insights into the biology of
disease cell states and the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that
regulate them. HAYA’s lead therapeutic candidate is HTX-001, an
antisense oligonucleotide targeting Wisper that is a heart-specific
lncRNA known to be a fundamental regulator of pathological cardiac
fibrosis in the context of heart failure. The company is also
developing a pipeline of lncRNA-targeting precision therapies for
the cell-specific treatment of diseases in other tissues and
disease areas, including the lungs and the tumor
microenvironment.
Headquartered at the life sciences park Biopôle in Lausanne,
Switzerland with laboratory facilities at JLABS @ San Diego, HAYA
is led by a world-class team of experts in programmable and
precision RNA-targeted therapeutics and is supported by a strong
investor consortium. HAYA’s mission is to identify and develop
breakthrough disease-modifying therapeutics with the potential for
greater efficacy, safety, and accessibility than existing
treatments. For more information on the company, please visit our
website at www.hayatx.com. Follow us on X and LinkedIn.
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Trophic Communications Stephanie
May, PhD Phone: +49 (0) 171 185 56 82 Email: athos@trophic.eu