Nine Square Therapeutics Appoints James B. Summers, Ph.D., to Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board
July 30 2024 - 1:39PM
Business Wire
~ Dr. Summers brings more than three decades of
drug discovery and pharmaceutical research management experience,
including the advancement of more than 20 compounds into clinical
development ~
Nine Square Therapeutics, a biotechnology company uniting
machine-learning enabled image-based cell profiling, chemistry and
computational sciences to discover novel small molecules to treat
severe neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment
of James B. Summers, Ph.D., to the company’s board of directors and
its scientific advisory board.
“Dr. Summers is an accomplished neuroscience leader and
researcher who has successfully led global research organizations
and championed multiple productive licensing deals, biotech
collaborations and venture investments,” said Robert Paul, chief
executive officer of Nine Square Therapeutics. “We are honored to
have him join our board of directors and scientific advisory
council to help advance our diversified portfolio of
first-in-class drug candidates for genetically validated targets
on the autophagy/lysosomal pathway into the clinic.”
During more than 30 years with Abbott and AbbVie, Dr. Summers
held various senior R&D leadership positions, including vice
president of neuroscience research, where he led efforts located in
Ludwigshafen, Germany, Lake County, IL and Cambridge, MA, focused
on the discovery of new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and
Parkinson’s diseases, pain and psychiatric disorders. Under his
leadership, the teams advanced more than 20 compounds into clinical
development. Currently Dr. Summers serves as a board member and
advisor to several biotechnology companies. He is also a venture
partner with the Dementia Discovery Fund. Dr. Summers earned a
Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, summa cum laude, from Denison
University and a Doctorate in Organic Chemistry from Harvard
University.
“Boosting autophagy to address genetically validated but
previously undruggable targets presents an incredibly exciting
opportunity to address the longstanding challenges of treating
severe neurodegenerative diseases,” said Dr. Summers. “I am pleased
to join this esteemed interdisciplinary team of scientists and
biotech leaders at Nine Square. Together, we will advance our
programs towards IND-enabling studies and into clinical
development, offering new hope for patients and the neuroscience
community."
About Nine Square Therapeutics
Nine Square Therapeutics is a biotechnology company integrating
phenotypic cell profiling, chemistry and computational sciences in
a quest to alter the trajectory of neurodegenerative disease.
Founded by life sciences venture capital firm Apple Tree Partners
(ATP) and renowned scientists at the University of California San
Francisco (UCSF), Nine Square’s goal is to discover better drugs,
faster. The company’s platform is currently focused on boosting
autophagy/mitophagy, the body’s own cellular degrading machinery,
with programs initially focused on Parkinson’s disease (PD),
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and lysosomal storage
diseases.
For more information, visit: www.ninesquaretx.com and connect
with us on LinkedIn.
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Tara Cooper The Grace Communication Group tara@gracegroup.us
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