Isterian Biotech, Inc.

With over 25 years' health policy experience, her focus will be expanding the approval and adoption of Cambrian's products as preventative medicines around the world NEW YORK, March 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cambrian Bio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on treating and preventing chronic diseases of aging, today announces the appointment of Adrienne Hallett as Vice President of Global Policy and Strategic Initiatives. In this new role, Hallett will be working with foundations, government institutions and other groups for investment into Cambrian Bio's pipeline and gaining approval to launch primary prevention trials. Hallett has over 25 years of health policy experience at the highest levels of the US government. She previously served as the Associate Director for Legislative Policy and Analysis for the National Institutes of Health, the world's largest funder of biomedical research, where she garnered congressional support to launch national initiatives including the All of Us Research Program, the Cancer MoonshotSM, and the Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, among others. She briefly served as an advisor to the Biden White House on the establishment of ARPA-H and the launch of a national initiative to eliminate Hepatitis C. Prior to that, she served on the Appropriations Committee of the US Senate as a lead negotiator for funding of public health and research programs. She has drafted dozens of US health laws, including portions of the Affordable Care Act relating to prevention policies and programs. She holds a master's degree in theological studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School with a concentration in ethics. In this role, Hallett will lead Cambrian Bio's efforts to create markets for preventive pharmaceuticals by developing strategic partnerships with key stakeholders and advocate for shifts in global public and private payment policies related to healthy longevity. Hallett will engage across Cambrian Bio's operations and companies to envision and implement product-specific strategies designed to increase the availability of Cambrian Bio's products worldwide. This includes early-stage de-risking approaches and post-approval marketing to third party payers. This role will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer, James Peyer. "Preventing and treating diseases of aging is of paramount importance for the economies of the world, but mostly for the daily struggles of the families affected," said Hallett. "Ensuring government policies keep pace with science gives individuals as well as their families the gift of time. I'm thrilled to be joining the Cambrian Bio team and to help them continue to utilize cutting edge technologies to prove the age-old maxim that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." "I'm honored that Adrienne has chosen to join us at Cambrian Bio in this new role and will be able to provide her valuable insights regarding policy and our strategic initiatives moving forward as an organization," said James Peyer, PhD, CEO of Cambrian Bio. "This is a very important milestone for the company as we continue to evolve and forge our path to successfully treat and prevent the chronic diseases of aging." Cambrian Bio recently unveiled two new pipeline companies: Isterian Biotech and Amplifier Therapeutics, with more announcements to come later in 2023. To learn more, please visit . About Cambrian Bio Cambrian Bio is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on treating and preventing chronic diseases of aging. Cambrian Bio is building therapeutics that increase health span - the period of life spent in good health. As a Distributed Development Company, Cambrian Bio advances multiple scientific breakthroughs, and through this multi-asset approach it attracts top caliber R&D experts as well as experienced business leaders that many single asset early-stage biotech's are unable to access. Cambrian Bio's approach is to develop interventions that treat specific diseases first, then deploy them as preventative medicines to improve the overall quality of life during aging. To date, Cambrian Bio has more than a dozen novel therapeutics in its pipeline. For more information, please visit or follow us on Twitter @CambrianBio and LinkedIn. Media Contact: Rosa Argyropoulos Senior Director, Global Corporate Communications Cambrian BioPharma [email protected] SOURCE Cambrian Biopharma

The associate director of the National Institute of Health’s Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis (OLPA) is leaving her government post to join CEO James Peyer at Cambrian BioPharma. Adrienne Hallett made the announcement via her LinkedIn profile Wednesday morning, linking to a statement from acting NIH director Lawrence Tabak. In her role at OLPA, Hallett oversaw and managed representing biomedical research to Congress and presidential administrations, on top of leading 120 staff in advancing policy goals, coordinating responses to oversight investigations and more. Tabak’s statement noted Hallett’s work in Congress, touting her record improving NIH’s federal appropriations by more than 40% since she started working for the agency in 2015. “I want to thank Adrienne for her dedication to cultivating NIH’s relationship with Congress over the past several years,” Tabak said. Beyond that, Tabak added that Hallett played a critical role as an advisor to NIH brass as the agency implemented sexual harassment reporting requirements, new standards relating to patient confidentiality and addressed structural racism in biomedical research. Before her time at NIH, she worked with the US Senate’s appropriations committee for 14 years, moving up to staff director on the Labor, HHS, and Education subcommittee and later a senior policy advisor before moving to NIH. As for her new gig, she will be leaving for Cambrian on Feb. 25 to become the biotech’s new VP of global policy and strategic initiatives. Cambrian CEO James Peyer told Endpoints News that he first connected with Hallett through a mutual friend. “We started talking about a year ago,” Peyer said, adding that Hallett will be working with foundations, government institutions and other groups for investments into Cambrian’s pipeline, along with long-term objectives such as being able to run more primary prevention trials. “Her job will be to help us figure out how to run trials and how to find great partners,” Peyer added. This announcement is the newest development for the company, less than two weeks after unwrapping Cambrian’s newest pipeline company, Isterian Biotech, which is currently focused on inhibitor drugs for TG2, a hard-to-target protein that could have impact in the extracellular space.

Multi-asset firm Cambrian Biopharma announced Thursday that its latest pipeline company, Isterian Biotech, has emerged from stealth to develop first-in-class medicines to tackle aging. Isterian’s science is focused on a protein called transglutaminase 2 (TG2), a major cross-linking enzyme that connects different molecules across the extracellular matrix. These cross-linked proteins become structurally more complex and are difficult for the body to break down. Eventually, as they accumulate pathologically, cross-linked proteins could lead to organ dysfunction and other aging-related diseases, such as fibrosis. TG2 activity increases pathologically with age, making it a promising therapeutic target in the longevity space. Formed in 2019 under a partnership between Cambrian and Aston University, Isterian’s goal is to advance novel drugs that can arrest and potentially reverse the build-up of cross-linked proteins and extend patients’ healthy lifespans. The company uses a proprietary computer-aided drug design platform to identify novel, new-generation small molecule inhibitors of TG2. These drug candidates are then tested using a robust screening cascade. In a statement, Georg Terstappen, Ph.D., Isterian’s president and chairman of the board, said that this “rational drug design” approach, combined with “efficient multiparametric profiling of synthesized small molecules,” is the core of the company’s development strategy and has been “highly productive.” Isterian currently has two candidates, IST-01 and IST-02, for inhaled administration. The company’s molecules are preclinical studies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and often fatal disease characterized by an overabundance of TG2 cross-linked proteins in the lungs. According to Terstappen, one of the company’s highly selective investigational TG2 inhibitors has shown promising activity in a mouse model of lung fibrosis “for the first time.” Led by Industry Leaders Joining Terstappen at the helm of Isterian is Martin Griffin, Ph.D., the company’s scientific founder. The longevity start-up is founded on more than 35 years of scientific research from Griffin’s lab at Aston University. Griffin’s expertise includes tumor progression, fibrosis, wound healing and angiogenesis. Isterian’s other scientific founders are Vivian Wang, Ph.D., an expert in the physiological and pathological roles of TG2; Dan Rathbone, Ph.D., who has extensive experience in pharmaceutical chemistry and drug design; and Vass Sriram, Ph.D., Cambrian’s director of extracellular matrix research. Wang and Rathbone are also with Aston University, while Sriram was previously a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. Other Isterian leaders include Dennis Yamashita, Ph.D., chemistry lead, Claire O’Brien, senior director of R&D project management, Wenjie Luo, senior business operations manager and Andrew Ratcliffe, Ph.D., medicinal chemistry consultant.