Sensorium Therapeutics Appoints Jeffrey M. Brown as Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Brown brings decades of experience in pharma and biotech drug discovery and platform development as the company advances nature-inspired psychoactive medicines to treat mental health

BOSTON, Jan. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sensorium Therapeutics (Sensorium), a biotechnology company leveraging medicinal chemistry, neuroscience, and machine learning to develop nature-inspired psychoactive medicines for mental health, today announced the appointment of Jeffrey M. Brown, Ph.D., MBA as Chief Scientific Officer.

In addition to leading a team of world-class scientists, Dr. Brown will oversee the progress of Sensorium's initial candidate, SENS-01, which is being developed as a rapid-acting and well-tolerated therapeutic for patients with anxiety and depression, and its Biodynamic Discovery Platform™ (BDP), a drug discovery engine that rapidly identifies, synthesizes, and enhances target molecules as novel therapeutics.

"We are thrilled to strengthen our scientific leadership at this critical phase of development for the company," said Dick Simon, Chief Executive Officer of Sensorium. "Jeffrey's impressive background leading preclinical programs and building drug discovery platforms across large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies will be instrumental as we advance SENS-01 and further leverage the BDP to identify novel drug leads with the potential to address the growing mental health crisis."

Dr. Brown joins Sensorium from Deep Genomics, where he served as Vice President and Head of Preclinical Research, advancing the company's discovery pipeline for antisense oligonucleotide therapeutics. Prior to Deep Genomics, he held leadership positions at Voyager Therapeutics, Wave Life Sciences, and Alexion Pharmaceuticals. He previously spent over two decades at Amgen, Pfizer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Over the course of his career, he has led more than 20 preclinical programs and successfully advanced several into clinical development. He holds a PhD in Pharmacology/Toxicology from the University of Utah and an MBA from Suffolk University. 

"As a devoted drug hunter, I was impressed by Sensorium's unique approach of applying lessons from nature and what has worked in humans for centuries to create scalable small molecules with the power to transform the current treatment paradigm," said Dr. Brown. "This passionate and purposeful team has what it takes to go the distance—leveraging cutting-edge science and probing the vast unexplored chemical space of psychoactive plants and fungi toward improving mental health."

"Building on extensive research from its founders, Sensorium's platform has immense potential to change the treatment paradigm for mental health, and Jeffrey's scientific leadership will be important at this exciting moment for the company," said Kevin Lalande, Founding Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Santé Ventures.

Founded by world-class researchers, clinicians, and drug developers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Sensorium Therapeutics is biotechnology company leveraging cutting-edge chemistry, neuroscience, and machine learning to develop nature-inspired psychoactive medicines for mental health. Beginning with evidence of efficacy and safety based on extensive long-term human use of plants and fungi, Sensorium's groundbreaking Biodynamic Discovery Platform^TM rapidly identifies, reproduces, adapts, and enhances targeted molecules and elevates their utility as modern medicines that can deliver transformational benefits to patients around the world. The company completed a $30M Series A financing in late 2023 led by Santé Ventures, with participation from Route 66 Ventures, CU Healthcare Innovation Fund, and others. Visit sensorium.bio to learn more.

SOURCE Sensorium Therapeutics