Second Genome Appoints Joseph Dal Porto, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer

BRISBANE, Calif., Jan. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Second Genome, a biotechnology company that leverages its proprietary platform to discover and develop precision therapies and biomarkers from public and proprietary microbiome data, today announced the appointment of Joseph Dal Porto, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer. He brings more than 25 years of experience, including at Pfizer and Roche, where he led drug discovery and development, translational sciences and collaboration programs for cancer, autoimmune disease and other therapeutic areas. He has been extensively involved in the development of small and large molecule medicines, guiding their advancement into the clinical and commercial stages.

"Joe holds an impressive depth of expertise and track record leading the discovery and development of novel therapeutics and biomarkers," said Karim Dabbagh, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Second Genome. "We are delighted to welcome him to the Second Genome team at this pivotal time, as our lead IBD mucosal healing and CXCR3 oncology programs move closer to the clinic this year."

Before coming to Second Genome, Dr. Dal Porto served as a Vice President in Pfizer's Emerging Science & Innovation division and Site Head for Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) – West Coast, where his research focused on rapid translational drug development through academic-industry collaborations. At CTI, Dr. Dal Porto directed the application of biopharmaceutical know-how and technology to bring ground-breaking scientific innovations to the clinic in multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to Pfizer, he was a cofounder and Director of Preclinical Research and Development at Modus BioMedicine, a biotherapeutics company exploring therapeutic modulation of immune cells in disease. The company was a spin-out from his previous position with Roche Palo Alto, where he led discovery activities in support of small and large molecule immunology programs and was part of the Translational Clinical Biomarker team for Roche/Genentech's CD20 franchise (Rituxan®, Ocrevus®, and Gazyva®).

"I am thrilled to join the Second Genome team as they continue to make critical progress in their lead programs, and I am eager to apply the experience that I have gained throughout my career to assist in bringing these assets to the clinic in 2022 and beyond," said Dr. Dal Porto. "Additionally, I look forward to further leveraging the novel drug discovery and data insights platform Second Genome has established to uncover new potential medicines for cancer, gastrointestinal and other diseases."

Dr. Dal Porto received his B.S. in Biochemistry from The Johns Hopkins University and Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and he completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the National Jewish Medical Research Center in Denver.

About Second Genome

Second Genome is a biotechnology company that leverages its proprietary tech platform sg-4sight to discover and develop transformational precision therapies and biomarkers through clinical development and commercialization based on novel microbial genetic insights. We built a proprietary microbiome-based drug discovery and development platform with machine-learning analytics, customized protein engineering techniques, phage library screening, mass spec analysis and CRISPR, that we couple with traditional drug development approaches to progress the development of therapies and diagnostics for wide-ranging diseases. Second Genome is advancing a deep drug discovery and biomarker pipeline with precision therapeutics and biomarker programs in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and cancer, with the lead programs IBD and cancer expected to enter clinical development in 2022. We also collaborate with industry, academic and governmental partners to leverage our microbiome platform and data science. We hold a strategic collaboration with Gilead Sciences, Inc., utilizing our proprietary platform and comprehensive data sets to identify novel biomarkers associated with clinical response to Gilead's investigational medicines. We also hold a strategic collaboration with Arena Pharmaceuticals to identify microbiome biomarkers associated with clinical response for their lead program in gastroenterology, etrasimod. For more information, please visit www.secondgenome.com. 

Investor Contact:
Argot Partners
212-600-1902
[email protected] 

Media Contact:
Argot Partners
212-600-1902
[email protected]

SOURCE Second Genome