The Machine Learning Immunology Company

Seismic Therapeutic is making a major shift in how immunology therapies are discovered and developed, enabled by machine learning.

We are an expert team of drug developers integrating machine learning across the entire discovery process to open new, better and faster ways to make medicines for patients.

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Seismic Therapeutic Announces Presentation of Preclinical Data Demonstrating Advances in Novel Biologics Discovery at the PEGS Boston Summit

OUR WHY

Creating IMPACT on diseases of the adaptive immune system

Seismic Therapeutic is addressing the central challenges in biologics discovery and development to realize new medicines to treat diseases of adaptive immunity that have been difficult to reach. Our IMPACT™ platform seamlessly integrates machine learning with key elements of biologics drug discovery. The result is an accelerated path to the discovery and development of novel biologics to treat adaptive immune system dysregulation, including diseases of humoral and cell-mediated immunity.

The anatomy of our IMPACT™ platform embeds machine learning into the drug discovery process, empowering us with new capabilities for designing, testing and meticulously creating novel biologics.

IMPACT

OUR IMPACT™ PLATFORM

Parallelizing the drug discovery process with the integration of machine learning

Parallelize (par·al·lel·ize)

Parallelize is a term used in computing that describes adapting a program to run systems in parallel. In a similar way, Seismic is using an advanced approach to parallelize the drug discovery process by integrating machine learning across key steps in R&D.

Our IMPACT™ platform integrates machine learning into the drug discovery process with protein engineering, structural biology and translational immunology, and enables the unique capability to analyze, in parallel, vast numbers of proteins and protein modifications. This parallelized process simultaneously optimizes biologic function and developability, including manufacturability, resulting in novel biologics with superior therapeutic properties.

What we do

Use state-of-the-art proprietary machine learning algorithms and statistical models to systematically analyze and modify protein sequences

Where it leads

Generation of novel biologic drug candidates on an unprecedented scale with optimized biologic activity and minimized immunogenicity

What we do

Utilize a variety of analytical techniques, such as x-ray crystallography and cryoEM to view proteins in 3D

Where it leads

3D models to elucidate the assembly, function and interactions of our novel biologic drug candidate

What we do

Create designer biologics using amino acid mutagenesis within protein sequences

Where it leads

Improved functional activity, enhanced drug-like properties and good manufacturing attributes of our novel biologic drug candidates

What we do

Study human disease pathways to identify dysregulated immune mechanisms

Where it leads

Development of designer therapeutics to restore normal immune function in patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases

Using the IMPACT™ platform, our team is able to shift the paradigm for discovery and development of biologics in immunology in the following ways:

TUNABLE ACTIVITY: Optimize therapeutic efficacy by exploring multitudes of changes to protein sequences more rapidly than today’s serial, trial-and-error approach.
INVISIBILIZATION: Design drug candidates that avoid recognition by the immune system while maintaining protein fitness and function.
PARALLELIZE: Use rapid design-test cycles to identify and modify key attributes simultaneously on an unprecedented scale.
DRUG DEVELOPABILITY: Create biologics with exceptional drug-like properties that have been tuned for drug developability at the outset, enabling efficient manufacturing and efficient transition into the clinic.

OUR PATH TO PRODUCTS

A big leap forward in designer biologics to reach untapped biology of the adaptive immune system

The role of adaptive immunity in autoimmunity and transplantation makes it one of the most prolific areas of biopharmaceutical research. Within both arms of the adaptive immune response – the humoral response and the cell-mediated response – aberrant function drives a diverse set of human diseases.

Humoral immune mechanisms result in Ig-production that is directly pathogenic in a wide range of diseases such as myasthenia gravis, IgA nephropathy and alloantibody transplant rejection.

Cell-mediated immunity involving the interactions of immune cells directly causes multiple diseases such as vitiligo, bullous pemphigoid, vasculitis, multiple sclerosis and lupus.

Seismic’s lead pipeline programs include two distinct drug product areas that, separately, address both arms of dysregulated adaptive immunity.

Humoral immunity

discovering and developing designer therapeutics to modulate Ig-mediated autoimmunity

Cell-mediated immunity

designing biologics to target multiple pathways simultaneously to address diseases of cell-mediated autoimmunity

OUR TEAM

Together, making an impact for patients

We are expert drug hunters, technology integrators and company builders. Within companies small and large, we have successfully taken many drugs across multiple modalities into and through the clinic to become approved drugs for autoimmune diseases.

Adding to our deep experience are the insights and discoveries of our academic founders, leaders in their own right, to establish Seismic Therapeutic as the machine learning immunology company to bring innovative new medicines to patients.

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Alan Crane
Founder & Chairman

Alan Crane

Founder & Chairman

Alan joined Polaris Partners in 2002 and serves as an entrepreneur partner. In this role, he focuses on building and investing in healthcare companies.

He has served as founder, chairman and/or CEO in building ten Polaris companies. Prior to founding Seismic, Alan co-founded Dyno Therapeutics along with Harvard Professor George Church and scientist Eric Kelsic. Dyno is using insights from computer science and biology to design better viruses for delivery of gene therapies. Prior to Dyno, Alan founded Pandion Therapeutics to focus on tissue-specific immunomodulation for autoimmune disorders and transplantation. In four years from the Polaris seed funding, Pandion became a clinical-stage, public company and was acquired by Merck for $1.85B. Alan’s past portfolio companies have collectively been involved in 12 IPOs and M&A exits.

His current and past portfolio includes: Momenta Pharmaceuticals (acquired by J&J), Pandion Therapeutics (acquired by Merck), Visterra (acquired by Otsuka), Dyno Therapeutics, KSQ Therapeutics, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GSK), Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), Ocular Therapeutix, T2 Biosystems, Arsia Therapeutics (acquired by Eagle Pharmaceuticals), and Navitor Pharmaceuticals. From 2002 to 2006, Alan was president and CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals. He joined Momenta as the fifth employee and built it into a public company, creating an advanced and diversified pipeline. Momenta was acquired by J&J for $6.5B.

Prior to Polaris, Alan was senior vice president of global corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for leading Millennium’s strategic partnering, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing activities, generating over $2B in partner funding to help fuel the company’s growth and acquiring 19 development stage products. Among these products was Velcade®, which became the main basis of the company’s $9B acquisition by Takeda.

Alan received Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for New England while serving as CEO of Momenta. His current and former non-profit positions include: selection committee for the Harvard Life Lab, expert-in-residence at the Harvard School of Engineering, board member of the Boston Children’s Hospital Trust, founder of the Autism Consortium, and president of the board of Gann Academy.

Alan earned a BA in biology, summa cum laude, from Harvard College, an MA in biology from Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also spent two years studying towards an MD at Harvard Medical School.

Edward Freedman, JD
Consulting Chief Financial Officer

Edward Freedman, JD

Consulting Chief Financial Officer

Ed has more than 25 years of leadership experience directing finance, legal and operations activities in companies across multiple industries. Ed has served as COO of Pandion Therapeutics as well as in CFO roles at Dyno Therapeutics, Faze Medicines, Kymera Therapeutics, Mana Therapeutics, KSQ Therapeutics, XTuit Pharmaceuticals, Oasys Water and Ensemble Therapeutics. Ed also served as General Counsel of Flagship Ventures (now Flagship Pioneering) and started his legal career at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP. Before going to law school, Ed was an accountant at Arthur Andersen & Co.

Ed earned his JD from Boston College Law School and his BSBA in Accounting from Boston University.

Nathan Higginson-Scott, PhD
Chief Technology Officer and Senior VP Drug Creation

Nathan Higginson-Scott, PhD

Chief Technology Officer and Senior VP Drug Creation

Nathan has been creating innovative biologics drugs and drug technologies for over 15 years in both academia and industry. Prior to joining Seismic as the Chief Technology Officer and SVP of drug creation, he served as VP of Biotherapeutics at Pandion Therapeutics where he played a pivotal role in growing Pandion to 60+ employees from its earliest days in 2017 through several successful large financing rounds, an upsized IPO and the companies ultimate acquisition by Merck in 2021 for $1.85bn. Under Nathan’s leadership, Pandion’s Biotherapeutics department integrated diverse discovery, engineering, and analytics technologies, and seamlessly collaborated with Immunology colleagues, to develop Pandion’s tissue targeting TALON platform and create PT101, a now clinical stage systemic TReg agonist.

Nathan has also held various positions at Pfizer over an 8 year period where he co-invented a proprietary bispecific platform, led an antibody optimization group, and led numerous technology development and drug discovery projects spanning ideation to drug candidate nomination and IND filing across a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas including inflammation and immunology. Nathan also worked at Google[x] to help launch Verily Life Sciences where he played a key role in the development of antibody-based capabilities designed to support a diagnostic nanoparticle platform. Nathan began his career in antibody technology and molecular immunology at Imperial College London on a prestigious Wellcome Trust grant, where Nathan’s Ph.D focused on innovative methods for developing bi-paratopic antibodies using phage display.

Nathan believes that organizations can only truly succeed when people feel safe in bringing all of who they are to work. He co-founded the MA chapter of a Pfizer Colleague Resource Group for LGBTQ+ employees and allies. And drove Pandion’s participation in Boston Pride. Most recently Nathan volunteers time every week as a suicide and crisis intervention counsellor for The Trevor Project supporting LGBTQ+ youth in crisis.

Eric Larson
Senior Vice President of Finance

Eric Larson

Senior Vice President of Finance

Eric Larson brings nearly 30 years of financial leadership experience with private and public companies across multiple industries. His expertise extends across accounting and controls, financial planning, tax and treasury. Prior to joining Seismic, Eric was Vice President of Finance at Pandion Therapeutics, where he built the finance and accounting infrastructure in support of its transition to a Nasdaq-listed public company. Previously, he was the Corporate Controller for Proteostasis Therapeutics and the Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer for Northern Power Systems. Earlier in his career, he held financial leadership roles at Biogen Idec, CMGI, Inc., and Ernst & Young. Eric is a CPA and earned his BA from Grove City College.

Melanie Manning
Chief People Officer

Melanie Manning

Chief People Officer

Melanie Manning is an experienced and versatile human resources leader with more than 18 years of experience supporting business plans and developing programs to fully engage talent in multiple industries, including at biopharmaceutical companies Novartis and Biogen.

Before joining Seismic, Manning held leadership positions at Enspira HR Consulting, where she served as Vice President, Human Capital, acting as primary contact for HR advisory client engagements. Prior to Enspira, she was Chief Human Resources Officer for non-profit organization Upstream USA. Previously, she served as Head of Human Resources for the Infectious Diseases division of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). Before her tenure at Novartis, Manning served as Associate Director, Human Resources at Biogen. Earlier in her career, she held several human resources positions for divisions of Fidelity Investments, which included HR business partner and Center of Excellence program office roles.

She has a Masters degree in Human Relations and a BA from the University of Oklahoma and completed Intensive Studies in French Literature and Civilization at Université de Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Kevin Otipoby, PhD
Senior VP Immunology

Kevin Otipoby, PhD

Senior VP Immunology

Kevin has more than 25 years of industry and academia experience in immunology. His work has largely focused on understanding lymphocyte activation and discovering and developing therapeutics to modulate lymphocyte activity. Kevin graduated magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. He then received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Washington in Seattle where he studied the role of the BCR co-receptor CD22 in B cell development and activation. Kevin did his post-doctoral training in Klaus Rajewsky’s lab at Harvard University in Boston, where he helped establish the critical role of the BCR in mature B cell survival, proliferation, and lineage commitment. Kevin then joined the Immunology Research department at Biogen where he led the biology efforts to discover and develop small molecule inhibitors of BTK to treat multiple autoimmune diseases and a biologics program targeting long-lived plasma cells. Kevin then joined the Immunology Pharmacology group at AbbVie where, among other responsibilities, he led the biology efforts to discover a small molecule GPCR agonist with colon-restricted activity to treat IBD. Kevin left Large Pharma to help start Pandion Therapeutics as the second employee, where he led the Immunology and Biomarker groups. At Pandion, Kevin built a successful interdisciplinary team to discover and develop a pipeline of biologics-based therapies to treat autoimmunity by either activating regulatory T cells or inhibiting effector T cells to reestablish immune homeostasis. After Pandion was acquired by Merck, Kevin joined Seismic Therapeutic as the Senior Vice President of Immunology. Kevin brings his knowledge of molecular and cellular immunology and experience in advancing projects from early discovery, through IND and to the clinic.

John Sundy, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D

John Sundy, MD, PhD

Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D

John is a rheumatologist and immunologist with over 25 years of experience in academic medicine and the biotechnology industry. His research career has focused on developing novel therapies for patients with inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. Prior to joining Seismic John was the Chief Medical Officer of Pandion Therapeutics, which was acquired by Merck in 2021 for $1.85 billion. He previously was Senior Vice President and Inflammation Therapeutic Area Head at Gilead Sciences. John led Gilead’s entry into inflammation and immunology and oversaw the clinical development of over a dozen new drug programs including Jyselica, which is approved in Europe and Japan for rheumatoid arthritis and/or ulcerative colitis.

Before moving to industry, John was a tenured Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University and Associate Professor at the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School. While at Duke he was instrumental in the Phase 1-3 development of Krystexxa which is approved for patients with refractory gout. In addition, he served as Associate Director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Director of Duke’s Global Proof of Concept Research Unit Network in the US, Singapore and India.

An undergraduate from Bucknell University, John received his medical and scientific education at Drexel University, and residency and fellowship training at Duke. He is a fellow of the American College of Rheumatology, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, and the American College of Physicians. John is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Duke University and has clinical privileges in rheumatology at the Duke-affiliated Durham VA Medical Center. He has authored over 100 scientific publications, and also serves on the board of directors of CARRA, the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance.

Maude Tessier, PhD
Chief Business Officer

Maude Tessier, PhD

Chief Business Officer

Maude Tessier has over 16 years of company building experience with a multi-disciplinary background in business development, corporate strategy, corporate communications, IP management, and portfolio and program management in public and private biotechnology, pharmaceutical and academic organizations.

Prior to joining Seismic, she served as Chief Business Officer of Ikena Oncology (Nasdaq: IKNA), a clinical-stage biotech company, where she built and managed the business development, legal and corporate strategy functions. At Ikena, she led key company building initiatives, including the negotiation and execution of a $1B+ strategic partnership with BMS, the strategy and execution of the company rebranding and pipeline expansion into targeted oncology, the acquisition of Amplify Medicines, and as part of the executive team, drove core elements of financing activities resulting in over $260M in private and public capital.

Previously, Dr. Tessier was Executive Director, Business Development and Licensing at Merck & Co, leading oncology partnering in the Boston innovation hub. She served as Assistant Director, Business Development and Strategic Initiatives at Boston Children’s Hospital. She began her career at Xanthus Pharmaceuticals, a venture-backed oncology biotech company in Cambridge, Mass., where she had key roles in business development and program management of a Phase 3 drug candidate leading to its eventual FDA approval. She holds a BSc in Biochemistry from McGill University and a PhD from the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto.

Jo Viney, PhD
Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer

Jo Viney, PhD

Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer

Jo Viney is an experienced biotech executive and entrepreneurial scientist who has taken 13 drugs to clinic.

Dr Viney is Founder, President and CEO of Seismic Therapeutic, the machine learning immunology company. Prior to founding Seismic, she founded Pandion Therapeutics in 2017 and served as President and CSO until the acquisition by Merck for $1.85B in 2021. Prior to founding Pandion, she worked at Biogen, Amgen, and Immunex.

Jo is an independent board director for Finch Therapeutics, Harpoon Therapeutics, Graphite Bio and Lab Central. Jo was featured in Endpoints’ 2019 Special Report on 20 Extraordinary Women, and in FiercePharma’s 2020 Fiercest Women in Life Sciences.

Jo is an advocate for workplace inclusiveness. She has served on the board of WEST, a non-profit organization supporting early to mid-career women, including as President 2017-18.

Heather Vital
Vice President of R&D Strategy

Heather Vital

Vice President of R&D Strategy

Heather Vital joins Seismic with more than 15 years of experience across strategic and operational functions, including program and alliance management, portfolio planning and R&D strategy and commercialization. She most recently was Senior Director, Portfolio Strategy and Operations for Relay Therapeutics, where she contributed to portfolio strategies for pipeline programs and was responsible for alliance management with a large biopharma partnership and a research collaboration. She served as Senior Director of Program Leadership at Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, where she was the program lead for two oncology drug programs including one through product approval. Previously, Heather had a tenure at Biogen, culminating in the role of Director, R&D Strategy and Portfolio Leadership and for several disease areas. Her earlier roles at Biogen included portfolio strategy for spinal muscular atrophy, launching SPINRAZA as part of the global brand team and new product commercialization for the immunology therapeutic area. Heather has a BS from Babson College, MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a Master of Science (SM) from the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program.

ACADEMIC FOUNDERS

Timothy A. Springer, PhD
Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital

Timothy A. Springer, PhD

Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital

Timothy A. Springer, Ph.D. is the Latham Family Professor at the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and Senior Investigator at the Program of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a world leader in structural biology and immunology. He discovered many of the adhesion receptors in the immune system with monoclonal antibodies, then cloned and functionally and structurally characterized, them. He was the first to demonstrate that lymphocytes and leukocytes had adhesion molecules. His work on these receptors has advanced to characterizing their interactions and allosteric transitions by x-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, and laser tweezers force spectroscopy. In recognition of this work, he received the Canada Gairdner International Award in 2019, and was recently awarded the Biophysical Society’s Founder’s Award in 2021. He is a founder and private investor in biopharmaceutical ventures, including LeukoSite, Scholar Rock, Morphic Therapeutic, Moderna Therapeutic, Editas Medicine, Selecta Biosciences, and Ab Initio Biotherapeutics. His research and company formation has led to six FDA-approved drugs, including antibodies for treating cancer and immune diseases. Notably, he also co-founded the Institute for Protein Innovation: a non-profit to advance entrepreneurship and innovation in protein therapeutics and open-source antibodies and small molecules.

Debora Marks, PhD
Harvard Medical School

Debora Marks, PhD

Harvard Medical School

Debora Marks, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. As a mathematician and computational biologist, Marks develops novel algorithms, statistical methods and machine learning to successfully address unsolved biological problems. Her passion is to understand, predict and design biomolecular systems in a way that impacts biomedical applications and synthetic biology at many scales, with a focus on developing new methods in probabilistic modeling that exploit the huge and increasing corpus of natural and synthetic sequence diversity. Over the past five years, her lab has developed methods that accelerate structural biology with applications to cryoEM, crystallography, protein design and computed 3D structures of thousands of proteins with unknown folds, protein complexes and RNA interactions, as well as flexible, dynamic and even disordered protein ensembles. To address new challenges in protein design, Marks has adapted and developed NLP-inspired deep neural methods for (i) designing libraries of high affinity, specific nanobodies, antibodies that bypass the need for expensive rounds of selection or labor-intensive specificity assays and (ii) design and prediction of proteins that induce membranes compartmentalization and potentially biostasis in human cells and (iii) predicting the effect of genetic variation on disease and drug response. In 2016, Marks received the ICSB Overton Award for outstanding accomplishment in the early-to-mid career with significant contribution to the field of computational biology, and in 2018 the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Award in the Neurodegeneration Challenge.

Jeffrey V. Ravetch, MD, PhD
Rockefeller University

Jeffrey V. Ravetch, MD, PhD

Rockefeller University

Jeffrey V. Ravetch, M.D., Ph.D. is the Theresa and Eugene Lang Professor at the Rockefeller University and Head of the Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology. His research has focused on synthetic oligoribonucleotides, the genetics of viral replication and gene expression for the single stranded DNA bacteriophage f1, and gene characterization for human antibodies and DNA elements involved in switch recombination. From 1982 to 1996 Dr. Ravetch was a member of the faculty of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell Medical College. His laboratory has focused on the Fc domain of antibodies and the receptors it engages, determining the mechanisms by which this domain enables antibodies to mediate their diverse biological activities in vivo. His work established the novel structural basis for Fc domain functional diversity and the pre-eminence of FcR pathways in host defense, inflammation and tolerance, describing novel inhibitory signaling pathways to account for the paradoxical roles of antibodies as promoting and suppressing inflammation. His work has been widely extended into clinical applications for the treatment of neoplastic, inflammatory and infectious diseases. Dr. Ravetch has received numerous awards including the Burroughs-Wellcome Scholar Award, the Pew Scholar Award, the Boyer Award, the NIH Merit Award, the Lee C. Howley, Sr. Prize (2004), the AAI-Huang Foundation Meritorious Career Award (2005), the William B. Coley Award (2007), the Sanofi-Pasteur Award (2012), the Gairdner International Prize (2012), the Wolf Prize in Medicine (2015), the Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine (2017) and the Robert Koch award (2018). He has also presented numerous named lectures. Ravetch has contributed extensively to the scientific community by serving as a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Cancer Research Institute, the Irvington Institute for Medical Research, the Damon Runyon Foundation, the medical advisory board of Gairdner Foundation, the Sanofi-Pasteur Award Jury and the L’Oreal Women in Science Jury. He has been active in biotechnology for the last two decades, and currently serves as a consultant or member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Asylia, Biohaven, Harpoon, IgGenix, Jasper, Palleon, Vir and Xencor.

Eric J. Sundberg, PhD
Emory University School of Medicine

Eric J. Sundberg, PhD

Emory University School of Medicine

Eric J. Sundberg, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of Biochemistry at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. His research has focused on emulsion polymerization, structure and function of bacterial superantigens, and the interactions of bacterial superantigens with T cell receptors and major histocompatibility complexes. In 2002, he was promoted to non-tenure track assistant professor at the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology, an institute of the University of Maryland, and was awarded his first NIH grant, which he leveraged to obtain an independent faculty position at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI), in Watertown, Massachusetts. At BBRI, he broadened his research program to include studies of additional immune receptors and antibodies. In 2011, he returned to Maryland, this time to the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) and the Departments of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. At IHV, his lab was next door to that of Lai-Xi Wang; together they began a collaboration on the structure and function of EndoS, the IgG-specific endoglycosidase, that continues to this day. He moved again in 2019 to become Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the Emory University School of Medicine, where he continues to broaden his research program in glycobiology and infectious diseases. Dr. Sundberg has received numerous awards throughout his career, including an Arthritis Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, an Elsa U. Pardee Foundation Cancer Research Award, a Simeon J. Fortin Charitable Foundation Cancer Research Award, an Experienced Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, an American Asthma Foundation Scholar Award, and a National Psoriasis Foundation Discovery Award. He serves the scientific community in myriad ways, most notably as Chair of the Public Affairs Committee of the Biophysical Society.

Andrew Kruse, PhD
Harvard Medical School

Andrew Kruse, PhD

Harvard Medical School

Andrew Kruse, Ph.D. is a Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the structure and function of transmembrane receptors, with an emphasis on poorly understood transmembrane proteins. He began his independent career as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School in 2014. Key research accomplishments include defining the structural basis for agonist action at the angiotensin II type 1 receptor and other G protein-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), cloning the sigma-2 receptor, and determining the first structure of a tetraspanin protein and showing how it regulates B cell activation. The Kruse lab also developed a single-domain antibody fragment discovery platform that has now been distributed to more than 400 academic labs and has been licensed to four pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Kruse is a co-founder of Tectonic Therapeutic, a biotechnology company, and the Institute for Protein Innovation, a non-profit research organization. He has received awards including an Amgen Young Investigator Award (2019), an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2017), a Vallee Scholars Award (2016), and an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (2015). He received B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota in 2009, and completed a Ph.D. in Structural Biology at Stanford University in 2014, where he trained with Dr. Brian Kobilka.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Alan Crane Founder & Chairman of Seismic Therapeutic; Polaris Partners

Alan joined Polaris Partners in 2002 and serves as an entrepreneur partner. In this role, he focuses on building and investing in healthcare companies.

Shelley Chu, MD, PhD Lightspeed Venture Partners

Shelley Chu has two decades of venture investing and operating experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Her passion is working closely with entrepreneurs to navigate scientific, clinical, regulatory, business development and commercial hurdles to bring innovative new medicines to market that address significant unmet medical needs. To date, her investments across all stages, from seed to growth, have led to seven New Drug Approvals by the FDA, nine drug candidates in ongoing clinical development, and 16 exits through mergers and acquisitions, IPOs or partnerships. During her time at Gilead, where Shelley led R&D strategy across all therapeutic areas and business development in immuno-oncology and HBV, three NDAs were approved and launched.

At Lightspeed, Shelley leads the firm’s biotech investments from seed to late stage. In addition to Seismic, she is on the board of directors at Enlaza Therapeutics, 3T Biosciences, Medikine, Hillevax, Triana Biomedicines, Protego Biopharma, as well as an independent director for Scorpion Therapeutics. Shelley previously served on the Boards of Tizona Therapeutics (acquired by Gilead), Trishula Therapeutics (partnered with Abbvie), SFJ Pharmaceuticals, Phathom (Nasdaq: PHAT), Q32 Bio, IFM (acquired by BMS), IFM Tre (acquired by Novartis), IFM Due, IFM Quattro, and Venatorx. Shelley also invested in and worked closely with the management teams of Stromedix (acquired by Biogen), Rempex (acquired by The Medicines Company), Tobira (acquired by Allergan), Anaptys, Marcadia (acquired by Roche), Calixa (acquired by Cubist) and Cerexa (acquired by Forest). Shelley serves on the scientific advisory board for BioCentury.

Shelley holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and a B.A. in molecular biology from Princeton University, where she is a co-chair for Princeton ASC.

Tim Springer, PhD Founder of Seismic Therapeutic; Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital

Jo Viney, PhD Founder, President & CEO of Seismic Therapeutic

Jo Viney is an experienced biotech executive and entrepreneurial scientist who has taken 13 drugs to clinic.

Jo is an independent board director for Finch Therapeutics, Harpoon Therapeutics, Graphite Bio and Lab Central, and is an advisory board member for HotSpot Therapeutics. Jo was featured in Endpoints’ 2019 Special Report on 20 Extraordinary Women, and in FiercePharma’s 2020 Fiercest Women in Life Sciences.

Jo is an advocate for workplace inclusiveness. She has served on the board of WEST, a non-profit organization supporting early to mid-career women, including as President 2017-18.

INVESTORS

SOAR WITH THE SEISMONAUTS!

Join a team and atmosphere where you can take your career to new heights. We inspire each other to make an impact on the world through our work in our drug discovery and through volunteering in our community.

Hear what it means to be a Seismonaut.

What do you like (or love!) about working at Seismic?

I love working with an incredibly passionate bunch of Seismonauts. Everyone here (and I mean everyone) works really hard, but they also know how to play hard, and have FUN!

What does it mean to be a Seismonaut?

To be a Seismonaut means to be ready to learn and to adapt while working with an incredibly driven and creative team in order to create therapeutics very much needed by patients as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Emily

What drew you to Seismic?

Firstly, my leadership team and their phenomenal mentoring skills, secondly, the science.

Minasri

What do you like (or love!) about working at Seismic?

I really like the highly collaborative setting. The different teams are always open to ideas and talking to each other. This has been a really great learning experience. I also love how little ego is involved with the teams, at all levels people are willing to help or simply take time to further discuss ideas.

Jordan

What drew you to Seismic?

It is definitely the people, the science and the core values of the company in combination which drew me to Seismic.

Soumya

What would you say to someone considering joining Seismic?

The place to be if you want to play critical roles in biotherapeutic development, exemplified not only by having the opportunity to work with experts in the field, but also a nurturing environment where opportunities are abound to lead, to learn as well as to have our ideas heard

Andre

What would you say to someone considering joining Seismic?

No better place to either start or continue developing your career in drug discovery with colleagues and a leadership team who truly care about your growth and development. A chance to work with people who have their focus on the ultimate goal of getting next generation pharmaceuticals to the patients who need them as fast as possible

Nathan

SEISMIC CAREERS

Principal Scientist Antibody Discovery and Production

Seismic Therapeutic, a biotechnology startup focused on the intersection of structure, protein engineering, machine learning and immunology, is seeking an experienced and motivated Principal Scientist to help drive novel immunotherapy programs.

About Seismic: Seismic is determined to help patients with unmet need by integrating machine learning, structural biology, protein engineering, and translational immunology to generate clinic-ready drugs. At our core, we are focused on phenomenal science, supportive culture, a superstar team, meritocracy, and patient-centric goals. Seismic has the tools, skills, ideas and people to make this a reality. Success will be the discovery and development of effective therapies for patients in need, and we invite you to become a part of that.

What You Will Do:

Design constructs for gene synthesis
Design, optimize and execute protein expression and purification workflows of various antibody formats.
Characterize antibodies to assess biochemical/biophysical properties and developability characteristics.
Manage and mentor research associates.
Co-lead programs and collaborate with diverse teams of scientists.
Document, research and communicate results to relevant team members.

Who You Are:

A rigorous scientist with extensive experience in antibody expression, purification, and analytics
Intellectually curious with a passion for exploring new approaches to accelerate the pace of research without compromising quality.
Enthusiastic and innovative and bold in proposing creative experimental designs and ideas, relentless in pursuing successful outcomes.
Driven and conscientious, thrives in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
Passionate about improving patients’ lives.

Qualifications:

PhD with 5+ years’ experience in chemistry, biology, biochemistry, biomedical engineering, or related field
Expertise in construct designs for gene synthesis, variety of chromatography techniques for proteins purification and protein-protein interactions using Carterra SPR or BIAcore, Octet or other SPR/BLI platforms.
Experience leading programs
Experience directing Research Associates, Technicians and CRO’s
This is an on-site, lab based role

As a member of our diverse and growing team, you’ll help shape Seismic into a company that takes its scientific mission seriously while providing a positive and supportive workplace environment and culture. With your insights, passion and talent – we’ll bring novel therapeutics to the patients who need them the most.

APPLY HERE

Seismic Therapeutics is an equal opportunity employer. We will not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, disability, veteran’s status, pregnancy, genetic information or on any basis prohibited by federal, state or local law.

Senior Scientist in Structural Biology

Seismic Therapeutic, a biotechnology startup focused on the intersection of structural biology, protein engineering, machine learning and immunology, is seeking an experienced and motivated Scientist to build the cryoEM capability in protein science/structural biology group. This is a rare opportunity to work across functions in collaboration with our machine learning group to buildout our core platform for drug candidate generation.

Who You Are:

A team focused scientist that can both independently execute and collaboratively drive a project.
A scientist strikes a good balance of scientific curiosity and rigorous delivery.

An effective communicator with the ability to present data in various context to different levels of audiences.
Enjoy a scientifically diverse, fast-paced start-up environment.
Passionate about therapeutic discovery and development to improve patients’ lives.

What You’ll Do:

Initiate and drive structural biology projects using CryoEM technology to fulfill therapeutic project needs for hit-to-lead optimization and MOA study.
Continue to build the structural biology platform at Seismic by leveraging internal and external resources, experimental and computational modeling for a timely delivery of structural insights.
Engage and collaborate with cross functional teams to lead arising therapeutic programs, providing expertise in protein science and structure biology to support screening, hit discovery and optimization towards IND filing.

Qualifications:

PhD plus 3+ year postdoc training in protein biochemistry and structural biology, with a demonstrated track record.
Proficient in CryoEM technology from protein production, grid preparation, data collection and analysis to structure.
Prior experience of applying structure and computational models to support drug discovery and therapeutic development is preferred.
Project leadership in either academic or industrial setting, and immunology background is a plus.

APPLY HERE

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