Lumen Bioscience Announces Appointment of Marcos Milla, Ph.D. to Board of Directors & Expansion of Leadership Team

SEATTLE, April 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumen Bioscience, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing biologic drugs for highly prevalent diseases, today announced the appointment of Marcos Milla, Ph.D., to the company's board of directors and the expansion of its leadership team

Dr. Milla is an experienced leader in drug discovery efforts spanning a range of disease indications, most recently serving as Chief Scientific Officer of Synthorx, a Sanofi Company. Previously, he served in leadership roles at Adaptive Biotechnologies, Janssen Research & Development and Roche.

"Marcos is one of the most widely respected leaders in the biopharmaceutical industry today, with a towering reputation among investors, business leaders, and scientists alike. We are thrilled that he has agreed to bring his unique blend of scientific acumen and farsighted leadership to our board," said Brian Finrow, Lumen's co-founder and CEO. "We are also pleased to have expanded our Lumen team with an experienced, dedicated group that will help support our expansive research and development efforts."

"Lumen's innovative approach to drug discovery and development offers the potential to finally make headway against many serious, prevalent diseases that have proven impossible for traditional drug development approaches," said Dr. Milla. "I'm pleased to join at this pivotal point in the company's development and help guide the future advancement of Lumen's pioneering drug discovery, development. and production platform."

Dr. Milla joined Synthorx in 2017 and directed research efforts to apply the company's proprietary Expanded Genetic Alphabet technology platform to discover and develop optimized biologics such as THOR-707, a precisely engineered IL-2 for oncology indications. After leading the company's scientific team through a successful IPO in 2018, the lead programs (THOR-707 and THOR-809, a second precision IL-2 for autoimmune indications) anchored a $2.5 billion acquisition by Sanofi in 2019. Prior to Synthorx, Dr. Milla directed discovery efforts focusing on multiple intracellular and extracellular target classes, including cell surface and nuclear receptors, ion channels, kinases and proteinases. Dr. Milla graduated with a B.S. degree from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru and a Ph.D. degree in cell and molecular biology from Saint Louis University. He completed his postdoctoral training at MIT as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow, and at Duke University. As of April 1 of this year, Dr. Milla joined Samsara BioCapital as Venture Partner.

Additions to Lumen's leadership team include: Carl Mason, Senior Medical Director; Cristin Wagner, VP, Head of Legal; and Steven Landas, VP & Controller.

For more information on Lumen's leadership team, please visit the company website at https://www.lumen.bio/about.

About Lumen
Lumen Bioscience discovers, develops, and manufactures biologic drugs for several prevalent, worldwide diseases—many of which currently lack any effective treatments. The company's unique drug development and manufacturing platform offers the potential to transform the biologics industry through increased speed, mass-market scale, and exponentially lower costs than current approaches. Lumen's clinical pipeline includes investigational biologic drugs for C. difficile infection, Covid-19, norovirus, traveler's diarrhea, and inflammatory bowel disease. For more information, visit: www.lumen.bio.

Media Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE Lumen Bioscience

Related Links

https://www.lumen.bio/about