CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- GV20 Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company using cutting-edge genomics and artificial intelligence approaches to discover next-generation cancer therapeutics, announced three key executive appointments to accelerate its growth and transition into a clinical-stage company. Pioneering cancer researcher and co-founder Shirley Liu, Ph.D. was named the Chief Executive Officer; former executive at Shape Pharmaceuticals and Tensha Therapeutics, Steven Landau, M.D., became the Chief Medical Officer; and Genentech veteran Ying Gong, Ph.D. was appointed Chief Business Officer.

Shirley Liu is an innovative and prolific computational cancer biologist. Having been on the faculty at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for almost 20 years, she has made significant contributions to the understanding of gene regulation and drug response in cancer. Dr. Liu and Ted Xiao, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, co-founded GV20 Therapeutics in 2016 with the goal of applying high-throughput genomics and computational approaches to the discovery and development of novel cancer drugs. The company’s efforts have led to the identification of novel targets and drug candidates including its first candidate, XBH25, a novel NK checkpoint inhibitor targeting solid tumors. GV20 expects to file an IND for XBH25 in the second half of 2022.

“We are excited to welcome Steve and Ying and their expertise to the GV20 team,” said CEO Shirley Liu. “Ying and Steve both bring a wealth of experience advancing innovative oncology pipelines and building high-performing teams. That Ying and Steve have chosen to help lead GV20 at this crucial inflection point speaks to the power of our drug discovery capabilities and the potential of our pipeline. With their leadership, we are excited to advance XBH25 toward the clinic, and to discover more promising candidates at speed and scale with our integrated STEAD genomics and AI platform. We are well-positioned to bring next-generation immunotherapies to cancer patients.”

ABOUT SHIRLEY LIU, PH.D.

Shirley Liu, Ph.D., co-founded GV20 Therapeutics in 2016 and joined the company full-time as the CEO in 2022. A highly cited cancer researcher, Dr. Liu was previously a Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the co-director of the Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics at Dana-Farber. With more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, her research has refined the understanding of hormone receptor therapies, epigenetic inhibitors, gamma-secretase inhibitors, receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and immune checkpoint inhibitors in different cancers. She is a fellow of the International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and was a Breast Cancer Research Foundation Investigator (2017-2021). Liu is a recipient of the Sloan Research Fellowship (2008), Weitzman Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award from the Endocrine Society (2016), ISCB Innovator Award (2020), and the Benjamin Franklin Award for Open Access in the Life Sciences (2020). Dr. Liu received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics and Ph.D. minor in Computer Science from Stanford.

ABOUT STEVEN LANDAU, M.D.

Steven Landau, M.D., has more than 25 years of experience developing products for the treatment of cancers and inflammatory diseases, including the FDA-approved monoclonal antibody Entyvio^®. He has previously served as Chief Medical Officer at oncology-focused companies including Shape Pharmaceuticals and Tensha Therapeutics. Dr. Landau has also supported product development at OraVax, LeukoSite, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Praecis Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Landau earned his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University, and completed his post-graduate training at the Beth Israel Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

ABOUT YING GONG, PH.D.

Ying Gong, Ph.D., is an experienced strategist, drug developer and team leader. Most recently, she served as Project Team Leader for oncology at Genentech, where she led drug development programs and business development projects from late-stage research to clinical proof-of-concept. Dr. Gong also served as Senior Director of Portfolio Strategy and Planning, shaping Genentech’s industry-leading R&D strategy. Prior to that, she held roles in medical affairs, market access, global product strategy, and market planning at Genentech and Roche, and worked on a broad range of projects including new indication launches of Perjeta^® and Avastin^®. She began her career as a management consultant at Bain & Company. Dr. Gong earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the California Institute of Technology, and an M.A. in Molecular Genetics from Smith College.

ABOUT GV20 THERAPEUTICS

GV20 Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company with 50 employees and sites in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Shanghai, China. The company closed a series B financing led by Coatue Management in October 2021. GV20 uses high-throughput functional genomics and artificial intelligence to identify novel cancer immunology drug targets and antibody therapeutics. The company’s pipeline includes XBH25, a novel NK checkpoint inhibitor targeting solid tumors, which is currently progressing toward the clinic. “GV20” references one of the most important acupoints for the human body, symbolizing the company’s mission to find and exploit vulnerabilities in cancer biology.

To learn more about GV20, please visit https://gv20tx.com/ and follow the company on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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