Model Medicines Appoints Dr. Launa Aspeslet as Senior Scientific & Clinical Advisor

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Apr 24, 2024, 08:30 ET

Tenured Life Sciences Executive Joins AI-Driven Drug Discovery Company to Provide Strategic Guidance and Support Pipeline Growth

LA JOLLA, Calif., April 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Model Medicines, a leading human health company specializing in generative AI-driven drug discovery, today announced the appointment of Dr. Launa Aspeslet as Senior Scientific & Clinical Advisor. In this role, Dr. Aspeslet will provide strategic guidance and support to the company's executive team as they continue to scale their AI-driven drug discovery platform and advance their pipeline of novel therapeutics.

Dr. Aspeslet brings over 25 years of progressive leadership and management experience in the life sciences industry. She has a proven track record in driving early-stage organizations to scale and long-term maturity, working within multi-stakeholder environments, guiding new product development, and enabling the next generation of leaders through various stages of organizational transformation.

"We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Aspeslet to the Model Medicines team," said Dr. Daniel Haders, CEO and Founder of Model Medicines. "Her deep expertise in the life sciences industry, coupled with her experience in leading and scaling organizations, will be invaluable as we continue to grow and advance our mission to revolutionize drug discovery and development."

Prior to joining Model Medicines, Dr. Aspeslet served as the interim CEO of Edmonton Unlimited, where she was responsible for empowering the organization to move into the next level of scale and integration into the local and global innovation ecosystem. She was also the Chief Operating Officer at Hepion Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-traded biotechnology company, and CEO of TRIO, a global clinical research organization specializing in managing oncology trials worldwide. Additionally, Dr. Aspeslet has provided strategic guidance as a consultant for early-stage drug and medical device companies and served as COO at Isotechnika Pharma Inc.

"I am thrilled to join Model Medicines at such a pivotal time in the company's growth," said Dr. Aspeslet. "Throughout my career, I have witnessed the immense challenges and opportunities in bringing novel therapeutics to patients in need. Model Medicines is in a rare space of companies that have achieved the 'The AI Pharma Code': identified novel biology and new chemical entities, zero-shot hit rates above 30% at concentrations below 20μM, Tanimoto scores below 0.5, a diverse pipeline across biology and disease, and a validated AI-generated compound in preclinical animal models.

Dr. Aspeslet holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Lethbridge and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Alberta. She has a Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) and is a graduate of the Ivey Business School Executive Program at Western University. She also serves as Board Chair at Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation, an Edmonton-based industry-led not-for-profit organization that supports the development of life science products and companies in Canada.

PAPERS:
"Discovery of RdRp Thumb-1 as a novel broad-spectrum antiviral family of targets and MDL-001 as a potent broad-spectrum inhibitor thereof - Part I: A Bioinformatics and Deep Learning Approach"
"ChemPrint: An AI-Driven Framework for Enhanced Drug Discovery"

ABOUT MODEL MEDICINES:
Model Medicines is a generative AI-driven human health company that uses AI to model all of chemistry and human biology to accelerate the creation of life-changing drugs. The company was founded in 2019 to deliver on the promise of AI drug discovery. With more than 192 compounds for 26 targets, they are delivering on the promise of AI drug discovery. The company has developed a robust pipeline of patent-pending therapeutics for oncology, infectious diseases, gastric disorders, neurological disorders, and weight disorders. The company is based in La Jolla, CA. To learn more, visit www.modelmedicines.com

SOURCE Model Medicines