OncoNano Medicine Appoints Kartik Krishnan as Chief Executive Officer and Promotes Melissa Paoloni to Chief Operating Officer

SOUTHLAKE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- OncoNano Medicine, Inc. today announced the appointment of Dr. Kartik Krishnan, MD, PhD to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Krishnan joined OncoNano as Chief Medical Officer in 2022 and ascended to the role of President and Head of Research and Development last year. He succeeds Martin Driscoll, who served as CEO since January 2021, and helped advance the company’s therapeutic pipeline into the clinic.

“Kartik is a highly experienced executive and passionate physician-scientist who has been an essential force for OncoNano’s success in the last two years,“ said Dr. Brett Giroir, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OncoNano. “We are confident as CEO he will champion not only the science, but OncoNano’s continued growth and development as a pioneer in innovative cancer therapies.”

Dr. Krishnan has over two decades of experience dedicated to people suffering from cancer. Prior to joining OncoNano, he served as Chief Medical Officer of Arcus Biosciences, a publicly traded immuno-oncology company, for which he led a portfolio of biologics and small molecules in multiple phases of development. Dr. Krishnan has excelled in both R&D and pharmacovigilance at multiple biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies in roles of increasing responsibility. During his tenure at OncoNano, he has spearheaded the progression of ONM-501, a dual-activating STING agonist, into first in human studies and prioritized the next set of novel pipeline medicines.

“I joined OncoNano almost two years ago on the promise of a technology that could change how cancer is treated and today am even more enthusiastic about its prospects,” said Dr. Krishnan. “Our goal is to accelerate development of OncoNano’s core technology platform and bring transformative medicines to patients. Thanks to Marty’s leadership we have a team focused on executing this mission, and I look forward to charting our progress.”

With Dr. Krishnan’s appointment comes the promotion of Dr. Melissa Paoloni to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Paoloni joined OncoNano in December of 2023 to lead both corporate and strategic development and will work alongside Dr. Krishnan to oversee the management team. Melissa brings long standing expertise in business development, alliance management and portfolio strategy across several organizations, most recently as Vice President of Corporate Development and External Alliances at Arcus Biosciences. Her elevation will support OncoNano’s corporate planning, communications, partnering and stakeholder engagement.

About OncoNano Medicine

OncoNano Medicine is developing a new class of cancer therapeutics that utilize principles of molecular cooperativity in their design to exploit pH to diagnose and treat solid tumors with high specificity. Our polymeric micelles are designed to efficiently deliver oncology payloads to the tumor microenvironment for an enhanced therapeutic index. Our product candidates and interventions are designed to help patients across the continuum of cancer care and include solid tumor therapeutics, a platform of immuno-oncology therapeutics that activate and guide the body’s immune system to target cancer, and agents for real-time image guided surgery.

OncoNano’s ON-BOARD™ platform is generating a robust oncology pipeline to support novel therapeutic development for patients with high unmet medical need. ONM-501, OncoNano’s first therapeutic program is a next generation dual-activating STING (STimulator of INterferon Genes) agonist currently in phase 1 studies. ONM-412, the highly potent pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-12 (IL-12), encapsulated in the ON-BOARD™ polymeric micelle system is currently advancing in preclinical development. Additionally, the ON-BOARD™ platform has been used for pegsitacianine, a novel fluorescent nanoprobe that is being studied as a real-time surgical imaging agent for use in multiple cancer surgeries and is advancing towards a pivotal clinical trial to aid in tumor detection of peritoneal carcinomatosis. OncoNano is the top recipient of grants from CPRIT, which has supported the pegsitacianine and ONM-501 programs. Learn more about OncoNano’s platform and pipeline at www.OncoNano.com.

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