Pneumagen Appoints New Head of Research to Expand its Anti-Viral Pipeline leveraging its Proprietary GlycoTarge™ Platform
St Andrews, UK – 1 November 2021 – Pneumagen, a clinical stage biotech company developing Neumifil, a novel intranasal spray which is designed to provide patients at risk with an easy to use, pan-anti-viral treatment to reduce, prevent and manage respiratory disease exacerbations caused by viral infections, announces the appointment of Mingkui Zhou Ph.D. as Head of Research.
Dr. Zhou will be responsible for providing scientific leadership, developing, managing and implementing its preclinical and research programmes with a focus on enhancing the Company’s innovative GlycoTarge™ platform and building a pipeline of novel anti-viral therapies.
Neumifil was generated using Pneumagen’s proprietary GlycoTarge™ platform that develops first in class multivalent Carbohydrate Binding Molecules (mCBM’s). It acts by preventing the nasal passages from acting as an entry point for respiratory viruses. Pneumagen is leveraging its GlycoTarge™ platform through an active research programme to extend its use to other viruses e.g., AdV and HSV as well as different glycans.
Douglas Thomson, CEO of Pneumagen, commented “I am delighted to welcome Mingkui to Pneumagen as our Head of Research. He brings impressive drug discovery experience in the areas of virology and immunology. Dr. Zhou’s extensive technical and therapeutic expertise in infectious diseases enhances our proprietary GlycoTarge™ platform and development capabilities which have significant potential to generate a broader portfolio of candidates targeting other anti-viral diseases. His leadership will be crucial as we progress our development of anti-viral therapeutic programmes.”
“I am excited to join Pneumagen at such a dynamic time as the company continues to advance Neumifil,” said Dr. Zhou. “I look forward to working with the Pneumagen team and developing the GlycoTarge™ platform to bring meaningful therapies to patients where there is an unmet medical need.”
Dr. Zhou joins Pneumagen from Ossianix, a private preclinical biotechnology company. Previously, he was at Immunocore, a late-stage biotechnology Nasdaq listed company where he was a Senior Scientist and lead in key projects involving antibody discovery, bispecific engineering, in vitro and in vivo screening and lead molecule characterisation and development.
Dr. Zhou completed post-doctoral work in infectious diseases at Harvard Medical School & Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences (magna cum laude) from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, an M.Sc. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Tongji University, Shanghai, China and a B.Eng. in Bioengineering East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
For further information, please contact:
Pneumagen
Douglas Thomson, CEO
Email: info@pneumagen.com
MEDiSTRAVA Consulting (Financial PR)
Frazer Hall, David Dible, Sandi Greenwood
Email: Pneumagen@medistrava.com