Scholar Rock Appoints Two Industry Leaders to Board of Directors

Katrine Bosley and Michael Gilman Bring Expertise in Building Biotech Companies with Pioneering Science

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 2, 2014 – Scholar Rock, LLC, a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel therapeutics for targeting the disease microenvironment, announced today that Katrine Bosley and Michael Gilman, Ph.D., have joined the company’s Board of Directors. Each of these new board members brings more than 25 years of strategic, operational and management experience in the biotechnology industry, particularly in building biotechnology companies with novel science and managing these companies to create significant value.

“We welcome the deep experience that Katrine and Michael bring to Scholar Rock, and are excited to have these highly experienced biotech leaders join our Board of Directors as we develop a new class of biologic medicines, called niche activators, that will act fundamentally at the source of many human diseases,” said Nagesh Mahanthappa, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and President of Scholar Rock.

The new appointments to the Board of Directors occur at a time when Scholar Rock is rapidly advancing its drug programs and proprietary technology platform that build upon recent discoveries related to molecular mechanisms of growth factor activation in tissue microenvironments.

“I am excited to join Scholar Rock’s board as the company establishes itself as an innovative new leader in biotech,” said Katrine Bosley, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Broad Institute. “The organization has the foundation to build a great company, with outstanding founders and leaders who know how to transform cutting-edge science into important new medicines.”

“Scholar Rock has the potential to tap into powerful biology through a new class of therapeutics that offer innovative treatment options for many diseases by acting locally in the microenvironment,” said Michael Gilman, Venture Partner at Atlas Venture. “I look forward to sharing my insights and experiences to helping advance Scholar Rock’s niche activator therapeutics in areas where I’ve worked for many years and the need remains profound, such as fibrosis and autoimmune diseases.”

Scholar Rock’s therapeutic programs build upon intellectual property related to modulation of niche activators of growth factors that was developed, in part, by Timothy Springer, Ph.D., and Leonard Zon, M.D., distinguished researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and co-founders of Scholar Rock, and which has been exclusively licensed to Scholar Rock. The founding investors in Scholar Rock are Timothy Springer and Polaris Partners. The new board members, Katrine Bosley and Michael Gilman, join the existing members of the Scholar Rock Board of Directors which include Timothy Springer, Ph.D., Latham Family Professor at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital; Amir Nashat, Ph.D., General Partner at Polaris Partners and Chairman of Scholar Rock; and Nagesh Mahanthappa.

Katrine Bosley is currently the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Broad Institute. In addition to joining the Scholar Rock Board of Directors, Ms. Bosley also currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Genocea Biosciences and is a Board member of Galapagos NV and Coco Therapeutics, and a review committee member for the Translation Fund at the Wellcome Trust. She is the former CEO of Avila Therapeutics (acquired by Celgene, 2012) and prior to that was VP, Business Development at Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by BMS, 2007). Earlier, she led multiple business development transactions at Biogen Idec and was part of the healthcare team at the venture firm Highland Capital Partners. Ms. Bosley is a graduate of Cornell University where she was a College Scholar.

Michael Gilman is an experienced leader in drug development, as an executive in the biotechnology industry as well as an academic investigator at the Whitehead Institute and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Dr. Gilman is currently a Venture Partner at Atlas Venture and serves on the Board of Via Science, Inc. He was most recently the founder and CEO of Stromedix, a start-up focused on novel therapies for fibrosis, and which commenced first human dosing of its clinical candidate within nine months of in-licensing the asset. Stromedix was acquired by Biogen Idec in March 2012 for total value of over $560 million, and Dr. Gilman stayed on with Biogen Idec for slightly over one year as SVP of the Early Stage Pipeline. Prior to Stromedix, Dr. Gilman was the EVP of Research at Biogen Idec for over six years, and was previously CSO at Ariad Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Gilman received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute.

About Scholar Rock
Scholar Rock is a biotechnology company discovering and developing a new class of biologic medicines, called niche activators, which target disease-causing proteins in the tissue microenvironment to achieve therapeutic effects fundamentally at the source of disease. The company’s proprietary technology has a unique capability for discovering and developing niche activators to be highly selective in targeting specific protein growth factors and opens a new therapeutic approach to address challenging diseases. Scholar Rock’s founders and scientific advisors are leaders in elucidating new insights related to molecular mechanisms of growth factor signaling. The company’s niche activators have a wide range of disease applications including autoimmune diseases, fibrosis, and diseases of musculoskeletal systems.

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