Leidos Health Group has announced its new Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) within the Explorations in Global Health (ExGloH) division to develop pre-clinical pipeline of peptide-based immune modulators, the company announced on Tuesday.
“We are excited and privileged to have the opportunity to work with this group of oncology and infectious disease thought leaders on drug development initiatives from discovery through drug commercialization,” said James Pannucci, Ph.D., vice president and director of ExGloH. “Their insights will help advance our pipeline of peptide-based checkpoint inhibitors, beginning with LD10 clinical development.”
The ExGloH SAB consists of experts in oncology and drug development, including Dr. Philip Hinds, Dr. Jose Conejo-Garcia and Patrick Lucy.
Hinds currently serves as professor and chair of the Department of Developmental, Molecular, and Chemical Biology (DMCB) at Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM). He specializes in oncology, cell and developmental biology and molecular biology. He was the first to demonstrate that P53 possesses tumor suppressor activity and is subject to inactivating point mutations in human cancers.
Conejo-Garcia is the chair of the Department of Immunology at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Research Institute, and co-leader of the Immunology Program at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center. He has continuously been recognized for his contributions to elucidate many of the mechanisms driving protective immunity against gynecologic cancers and is an expert in Tumor Immunology.
Lucy brings over 26 years of bio-pharmaceutical experience to Leidos’ SAB. He is a founder and current chief business officer (CBO) of Pfenex Inc, where he is responsible for the overall portfolio strategy and business development for the company.
He also has experience in alliance management, product and technology licensing, intellectual property, and bio-pharmaceutical processing, operations, facility design, construction and validation.
“I look forward to serving as an advisor to the team of entrepreneurs that will work together as part of the Leidos ExGloH Scientific Advisory Board,” said Patrick Lucy, ExGloH SAB member. “The peptide-based immunomodulator platform, Microtide, that ExGloH has developed presents a compelling opportunity to advance the science in the active checkpoint inhibitor space.”
About Leidos
Leidos is a Fortune 500® information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world’s toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company’s 36,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $10.19 billion for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2018.
