Jan 5 2009
Ensysce Biosciences Inc. announced today the appointment of Dr. Lynn Kirkpatrick as President and CEO. Dr. Kirkpatrick has an extensive background in targeted small molecule cancer drug development, and has brought three agents from bench to bedside. Co-founder of ProlX Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Kirkpatrick was CEO from 1999 until its acquisition by Biomira Inc. in 2006. From 2006 through 2008 she was CSO of the merged company, which changed its name to Oncothyreon Inc. in 2007.
“Dr. Kirkpatrick is a tremendous addition to our company,” said Bob Gower, Chairman of Ensysce. “Lynn brings a vast array of skills that will help move Ensysce technology rapidly forward building value in the company and moving new technologies to the forefront of cancer treatment.”
Ensysce Biosciences, a Houston, TX based nanotechnology company, is focused on the use of carbon nanotubes for therapeutics in the area of cancer treatment. The company has an extensive carbon nanotube-related, worldwide intellectual property portfolio, including IP developed at Rice University by the late Nobel Prize winner Dr Rick Smalley.
Carbon nanotubes provide a means to deliver large active molecular agents without modification through natural barriers within the body and specifically into cancer cells. “This use of carbon nanotubes has been demonstrated in animal studies by our group of collaborators,” said Dr. Kirkpatrick. “We have been able to form stable complexes with numerous active entities including short interfering RNA (siRNA) and we believe our current research efforts to tailor their transport and release will ensure a therapeutic benefit as well as eliminating off target effects. Beside delivery, we are exploring other applications of carbon nanotubes to enhance cancer therapies and believe we will enter clinical trials in the next 12 to 18 months.”
Ensysce currently has research collaborations with leaders in both the carbon nanotube technology field as well as cancer drug development at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Stanford University and Rice University. “siRNA, the most intriguing recent development for cancer treatment has issues with adequate cellular delivery,” said Dr. Garth Powis. “Our efforts to use carbon nanotubes to deliver these macromolecules have demonstrated that we can readily transport siRNA into cancer cells with subsequent biological activity. Those are important steps.”
Collaborations with Dr. Hongie Dai from Stanford University have also shown that carbon nanotubes can be used to deliver established cancer drugs resulting in tumor regression in animal studies. The complexes provided a significant therapeutic benefit for agents such as taxol and doxorubicin, demonstrating excellent proof of principle of this exciting novel technology.