Scholar Rock Leader, Gregory Carven, PhD, is Recognized as an “Inventor of the Year” for Discovery of Innovative Cancer Immunotherapy
Dr. Carven and colleagues receive award for invention of Merck’s Keytruda®
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., December 7, 2016 – Scholar Rock, a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing drugs that selectively target supracellular activation of growth factors in the disease microenvironment, today announced that Gregory Carven, PhD, the company’s Vice President of Antibody Discovery and Protein Sciences, has received the “Inventor of the Year” award by the national Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) Foundation. The Inventor of the Year award recognizes the world’s most outstanding recent inventors whose creations have made a significant impact on the economy and quality of life across all industries.
In receiving the 2016 IPO Foundation’s Inventor of the Year award, Dr. Carven was honored for his work on the invention of pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) while he was at Merck and Company. Dr. Carven was recognized for the award along with fellow Keytruda inventors, Hans van Eenennaam and John Dulos, both of whom now work for Aduro Biotech Europe. Keytruda is a life-saving cancer immunotherapy which works by blocking the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) pathway expressed on T-Cells, a type of white blood cells in the immune system.
“We congratulate Greg for being recognized as Inventor of the Year, which reflects his talents and passion for discovering innovative medicines that make an impact for patients,” said Nagesh Mahanthappa, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Scholar Rock. “We see Greg’s dedication to drug discovery innovation every day in his R&D work at Scholar Rock, and we are proud to have such an outstanding scientist and innovator on our leadership team.”
About Scholar Rock
Scholar Rock is a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing a novel class of biologic therapies that target supracellular activation of growth factors in the disease microenvironment. The Company’s initial proprietary and partnered drug discovery programs target specific growth factors which are present in the microenvironments of significant diseases, including fibrosis, musculoskeletal diseases, immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. Scholar Rock was founded upon discoveries made by its scientific founders, Professors Timothy Springer, PhD, and Leonard Zon, MD, of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, related to the molecular mechanisms of supracellular activation. The company is backed by leading investors, including Polaris Partners, Timothy Springer, ARCH Venture Partners, Fidelity Investments, EcoR1 Capital, The Kraft Group, and Cormorant Asset Management.
KEYTRUDA® is a registered trademark of Merck & Company.
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