Mr Jesse Smith

CSO at NextRNA Therapeutics

Speaker

Jesse is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at NextRNA Therapeutics, a company developing transformative small molecule therapeutics with a primary focus upon oncology and neuroscience. NextRNA’s differentiated therapeutic approach centers on inhibiting the function of pathological lncRNAs by disrupting the interaction between lncRNAs and RBPs with small molecules. Prior to NextRNA, Jesse was the CSO at Civetta Therapeutics, a Deerfield-backed start-up, focused upon drugging Beta Propeller proteins for therapeutic intervention in oncology and other diseases. Previously, Jesse was SVP of Translational Biology at Remix Therapeutics, a Cambridge biotech focused on drugging RNA processing to target drivers of human disease. Jesse helped initiate first-in-class MYB mRNA degrader program, which is currently in early oncology clinical trials. Jesse spent a decade in epigenetic drug discovery, most notably as VP of Biology at Epizyme Pharmaceuticals, where he made important contributions to the first-in-class EZH2 inhibitor, Tazverik® and to the first two arginine methyltransferase inhibitors to enter clinical development. He has spent over two decades pioneering in biopharma with a heavy focus upon first-in-class, targeted therapies