Developing best-in-class allosteric inhibitors for RAS-driven cancers
We are developing allosteric small molecules to target previously undruggable RAS mutations in difficult to treat cancers, including lung, colon and pancreatic cancer. KRAS inhibitors have been developed to target the KRAS G12C mutation, but these therapies are limited to only around ten percent of KRAS-driven cancers and are currently only approved for non-small cell lung cancer patients in later lines of therapy.
We are focused on modulation of RAS signaling at the cell membrane to broaden the scope of treatable RAS-driven cancers. We are applying deep biologic insight, unique protein conformation detection technology and sophisticated medicinal chemistry expertise to develop best-in-class oral small molecules with the potential to lead this next wave of innovation in KRAS therapy.
We are led by an experienced team who are leaders in RAS biology and expert medicinal chemists. The Quanta team brings together a scientific foundation based on discovery research from RAS signaling pioneers with extensive oncology-focused small molecule translational and clinical development experience. Collectively, our leadership team has contributed to the discovery, development, approval, and launch of multiple biopharmaceutical medicines.
Perry Nisen, MD PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Cameron Pitt, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
Leonardo Faoro, MD, MBA
Chief Medical Officer
Hong Lin, PhD
SVP of Drug Discovery
Juan Luengo, PhD
SVP of Chemistry
Derek Metzger
SVP Corporate Strategy and Operations
Tina Woo
VP, Head of Development Operations
Mike Kramer
VP, Head of Scientific Operations
Elizabeth Donohue Vo, PhD
Sr Dir. of Biology
David H. Rominger
Sr. Dir. of Nonclinical Drug Development
Chief Executive Officer
Perry became CEO of Quanta Therapeutics in June 2021 after having served as the founding Executive Chairman of the company during formation in his role as Executive Partner at Sofinnova Investments beginning in 2018. He is a physician scientist with extensive experience in drug discovery and development with particular interest in oncology. Perry is the former CEO of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP). As CEO, he was responsible for all aspects of the organization including strategy, operations and performance. Prior to SBP, he held multiple senior leadership positions during his tenure at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) including SVP of Science and Innovation, interim Chief Medical Officer, and Oncology Therapy Area Head. Responsibilities at GSK included all aspects of drug discovery, clinical development, risk/benefit and operations. Before GSK, Perry was the Divisional Vice President, Cancer Research then Oncology Clinical Development at Abbott Laboratories. Prior to industry he was the Lowe Foundation Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Perry holds a BS from Stanford University, and MD/PhD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is also an independent Director of TEVA Pharmaceuticals, and chair of their science and technology committee.
Chief Operating Officer
Cameron joined Quanta Therapeutics in April 2020 as Chief Operating Officer. He leads operational strategy and business transactions. Previously as a Principal at Sofinnova Investments, he led the Series A investment in formation of Quanta. Prior to joining Sofinnova, he was an Investment Professional at Versant Ventures and focused on early stage therapeutics and platform company building, particularly in oncology, immunology and fibrosis. He managed operations of several biotech companies and academic programs associated with Versant’s discovery engines, Highline Therapeutics and Inception Sciences. During his PhD, Cameron worked Dr. Frank McCormick on new strategies targeting Ras in cancer, and also interned in Translational Oncology at Genentech. He received his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at UCSF as an NSF Fellow and inaugural UCSF Discovery Fellow. He earned his BS with Honors in Biology from Stanford University and was awarded the Firestone Medal, Stanford’s top honor for undergraduate research. Cameron is also a past fellow of the NIH Intramural Research Training Award program.
Chief Medical Officer
Leo joined Quanta Therapeutics as Chief Medical Officer in November 2022. Leo previously served as Senior Vice President and early clinical development lead at Exelixis, a commercial oncology-focused biotechnology company, where he was responsible for providing strategic leadership to expand the company’s early clinical pipeline and advancing its development candidates into the clinic. In his prior role as vice president of clinical development (late-stage) at Exelixis, Leo led the development of the company’s GI/Thyroid franchise for cabozantinib (Cabometyx®), including pivotal and post-marketing studies across oncology indications and regulatory approval filings, and achieving FDA approval of cabozantinib (Cabometyx®) in metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer under Breakthrough Designation. Prior to Exelixis, Leo served as Vice President of clinical development at OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, an oncology-focused biotechnology company, where he led the early clinical development of the company’s pipeline, including two first-in-human studies, through to its reverse merger with Mereo BioPharma. Leo began his clinical development career in positions of increasing responsibility at Genentech where he had global clinical development responsibility for bevacizumab (Avastin®), including in lung, prostate, breast and renal cell cancers. Leo earned a medical doctorate from the Universidade Federal do Parana in Brazil. He trained in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and completed a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago. Additionally, Leo holds a Master's in Business Administration from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley.
SVP of Drug Discovery
Hong is Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at Quanta Therapeutics. Before joining Quanta, Hong was Executive Director, Head of Early Discovery at Prelude Therapeutics, where she led the PRMT5 program that delivered clinical candidates PRT543 and PRT811 within a two-year period. Prior to Prelude, Hong held multiple leadership roles in medicinal chemistry and virtual drug discovery groups within the therapeutic areas of oncology, neuroscience and regenerative medicine during her 15-year tenure at GlaxoSmithKline. Hong holds a Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the Brandeis University and did her postdoctoral training under an NIH fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
SVP of Chemistry
Juan is Senior Vice President of Chemistry at Quanta Therapeutics. Juan leads chemistry strategy and structural modeling for drug discovery. Before joining Quanta, Juan was Founding Scientist and VP of Drug Discovery at Prelude Therapeutics, an oncology start-up company in Delaware. Prior to Prelude, Juan worked for 27 years at GSK, where he was Head of Chemistry in the Cancer Epigenetics group. During his 30+ years in pharmaceutical research, Juan has managed the progression of several compounds into clinical studies in different therapeutic areas. Most notably Juan was one of the inventors of Promacta (eltrombopag), and he successfully led this first-in-class TPO Receptor agonist agent to the clinic. Juan holds a Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan and did postdoctoral research at Stanford University.
SVP Corporate Strategy and Operations
Derek Metzger is the SVP Corporate Strategy and Operations at Quanta. Derek has worked in oncology drug development for 15 years, most recently as the Executive Director of Strategy at Tempest Therapeutics. Prior to Quanta and Tempest, Derek worked at Aduro Biotech, and Onyx Pharmaceuticals and has held roles spanning many different functions, including finance, business development, strategic planning, program leadership, and commercial. Derek graduated from Brown University with a degree in Economics.
VP, Head of Development Operations
Tina is the Vice President and Head of Development Operations at Quanta. Tina was most recently with Calithera Biosciences, an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, where she was Head of Clinical Operations and instrumental in building the company’s infrastructure to allow the initiation and execution of Phase 1 to Phase 3 clinical studies. While with Calithera, Tina was also involved in establishing and providing oversight to multiple functions, including Pharmacovigilance and Data Management. Tina brings over 20 years of industry experience across roles with both large and small biotechnology companies and with increasing levels of responsibility. Prior to Calithera, she was at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Cell Biosciences, Celera Diagnostics, Exelixis, and Rigel. Tina holds a B.S. in Biology from San Francisco State University.
VP, Head of Scientific Operations
Mike Kramer, Vice President, Head of Scientific Operations at Quanta Therapeutics, has over 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development, overseeing nonclinical development, CMC, regulatory, and project management activities. Prior to joining Quanta, Mike spent 10 years at Trevena Inc., most recently as Vice President of Scientific Operations, Regulatory and Alliance Management, developing novel drugs targeting G protein-coupled receptors for the treatment of cardiovascular and CNS diseases. Prior to joining Trevena, Mike served as Director of Nonclinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at Synergy Pharmaceuticals, where he worked on the development of novel small molecules/peptides for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. Prior to that role, Mike held roles of increasing responsibility within Nonclinical Development and Safety at Neuron Therapeutics, Palatin Technologies and Promedior, developing drugs in multiple therapeutic areas ranging from fibrotic disease to CNS conditions. Mike received his M.S. degree in Molecular Biology from Drexel University.
Sr Dir. of Biology
Elizabeth leads the biology team at Quanta Therapeutics. Prior to Quanta, Elizabeth worked at Biodesy where she developed conformation-based assays (SHG) using second-harmonic generation on a variety of protein targets. Elizabeth has deep experience in small molecule screening and cancer biology. She completed postdoctoral training at UCSF with Frank McCormick, where she designed and carried out a number of RAS-targeted small molecule campaigns using emergent technologies including SHG. Elizabeth has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Science Honors degree in biochemistry from McGill University.
Sr. Dir. of Nonclinical Development
Dave Rominger, Senior Director of Nonclinical Drug Development, has over 35 years of experience in drug discovery and development at both large pharmaceutical and small biotech companies with a focus on leading IND-enabling activities. Prior to joining Quanta, he was Director of Drug Metabolism and Analytical Sciences at Prelude Therapeutics, where he member of the discovery and non-clinical development teams responsible for leading strategy and conduct of DMPK, safety pharmacology and general toxicology studies. Prior to Prelude, Dave was Associate Director of Non-clinical Development at Trevena, where he was responsible for support of G protein-biased ligand drug discovery screening, assay development and leading external non-clinical development activities, including DMPK and safety pharmacology, and he was an Investigator in the Enzymology and Mechanistic Pharmacology Department, Oncology Center of Excellence in Drug Discovery at GlaxoSmithKline. Before joining GSK, Dave was a Senior Research Scientist in the CNS Diseases department for 17 years at DuPont, where he supported drug discovery programs related to several therapeutic areas in neuroscience. Dave received his B.S. in Biology from The Catholic University of America.
Samuel Saks, MD
Chairperson
Perry Nisen, MD PhD
CEO, Director
Cameron Pitt, PhD
COO, Director
Maha Katabi, PhD
Director
Arjun Goyal, MD
Director
Maria Fardis, PhD MBA
Director
Ying Huang, PhD
Director
Frank McCormick, PhD FRS
UCSF
Andrej Sali, PhD
UCSF
Ben Cravatt, PhD
Scripps
Phil Baran, PhD
Scripps
Despite the approval of KRAS G12C inhibitors, there remains a large patient population that may benefit from inhibition of other RAS mutations, particularly KRAS G12D which is highly prevalent in cancers of the colon, pancreas and lung.
Our pipeline includes two KRAS inhibitor programs from distinct chemical series: a multi-KRAS candidate (QTX3034) and a G12D-selective candidate (QTX3046). In preclinical studies, these lead development candidates have demonstrated potent, selective, oral, CNS-penetrant properties. The data supports the potential for QTX3034 and QTX3046 to significantly expand the scope of treatable KRAS-mutated cancers with direct, oral therapies.
Our unique conformation-sensitive Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) assays enable direct allosteric modulation of the active RAS-RAF1 membrane signaling complex to selectively target a broad spectrum of RAS-driven tumors with the potential for kinase-independent synthetic lethality. Quanta’s oral small molecule lead candidates have displayed in vivo proof-of-concept.
May 22, 2023
Quanta Therapeutics Raises Over $50 Million in Series D Financing to Advance its Pipeline of KRAS Inhibitors
April 14, 2023
Quanta Therapeutics Presents Data from KRAS Inhibitor Pipeline at Annual AACR Meeting in Late-Breaking Research Session
March 14, 2023
Quanta Therapeutics Announces Two Late-Breaking Preclinical Presentations from KRAS Inhibitor Pipeline at Annual AACR Meeting
December 13, 2022
Quanta Therapeutics Appoints Leonardo Faoro, MD, MBA, as Chief Medical Officer
October 26, 2021
Quanta Therapeutics Announces Oversubscribed $60 Million Series C Financing to Advance Novel RAS-targeting Programs
October 21, 2021
Quanta Therapeutics announces late-breaking presentation of novel platform data at AACR-NCI-EORTC
When we set out to make a superior class of medicines to address RAS-driven cancers, we intentionally created a work environment that was designed to foster that mission. A place where incredibly talented individuals are empowered to do their best work. As Quanta continues to grow, we will be guided by the principles that define us and we hope that they will serve each new employee who joins our team.
We are seeking highly motivated drug-hunters to join our passionate and experienced scientific team.
There are no positions available at this time.