Management

Keith M. Olivia, J.D., LL.M.
General Counsel, Senior
Vice President of Corporate
Affairs & Secretary
Keith M. Olivia, J.D., LL.M.
Kevin S. Litwiler, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President
of DMPK and Clinical
Pharmacology
Kevin S. Litwiler, Ph.D.Scientific Advisors
Susan Bates, M.D.
Susan Bates, M.D.Keith Flaherty, M.D.
Keith Flaherty, M.D.Lia Gore, M.D.
Lia Gore, M.D.Kevin Koch, Ph.D.
Kevin Koch, Ph.D.Xuedong Liu, Ph.D.
Xuedong Liu, Ph.D.Pamela Munster, M.D.
Pamela Munster, M.D.Investors







Collaborators



Anthony D. Piscopio, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
& President
Tony Piscopio is the co-founder and has served as Chief Executive Officer and President of OnKure, Inc. since 2011. He is a serial entrepreneur with executive leadership experience spanning more than two decades in the life sciences industry. Most recently, Dr. Piscopio served as Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Chemizon, Inc., a global drug discovery organization where he was responsible for managing operations in the U.S., Seoul, Korea, and Beijing, China, and oversaw the acquisition of the company to Taihan Electric Wire Co. after two years of operation. Previously, Dr. Piscopio co-founded Array BioPharma (ARRY;NASDAQ), where he served as Vice President of Chemistry and was responsible for strategy, new product development, GMP manufacturing, process research, parallel synthesis on an industrial scale and oncology drug discovery. Prior to Array, Dr. Piscopio was a founding member of Amgen’s small molecule drug discovery division in Boulder, Colorado, and served as a research scientist at Pfizer. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute and received a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jim Winkler, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Jim Winkler is Chief Scientific Officer at OnKure, Inc., where he leads a team of experienced drug discovery and development scientists, with a focus on creating a pipeline of novel, best-in-class oncology drugs. Together this team matches the company’s unique drugs to the right patient populations and moves those drugs into clinical development. He has spent 40 years in the field of drug discovery and development, working at companies of varying size including Johnson & Johnson, SmithKline Beecham, GlaxoSmithKline, Array BioPharma, Arvinas and FORMA Therapeutics. While working for these companies, he gained extensive experience building and leading teams through target validation, early drug discovery, preclinical and clinical development.
Dr. Winkler joined Arvinas as Chief Scientific Officer, helping the new company focus on a novel technology, validating and further advancing this technology and building a preclinical pipeline, which enabled Arvinas to go public. At Array, Dr. Winkler served as Vice President of Biology and led the discovery and early development division, advancing 16 drugs into the clinic, several of which are in Phase 3 or approved. Dr. Winkler has significant experience in oncology and inflammatory diseases, as well as proficiency in business development and collaboration management. He did his postdoctoral training with Dr. Stanley Crooke at SmithKline Beecham and received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Keith M. Olivia, J.D., LL.M.
General Counsel, Senior
Vice President of Corporate
Affairs & Secretary
Keith Olivia is the General Counsel, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Secretary at OnKure, Inc. He has over 20 years of extensive legal experience spanning a range of industries, including life sciences. Prior to joining OnKure, Mr. Olivia practiced transactional law with international, regional and boutique business law firms in Boulder and Denver, Colorado since 1997, including serving as OnKure’s corporate counsel since its founding in April 2011. He has also taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Colorado School of Law’s Entrepreneurial Law Clinic and an adjunct faculty member at the Colorado State University’s Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise MBA Program. Mr. Olivia received a B.S. in Finance with a Minor in Economics from the Pennsylvania State University, Smeal College of Business, a J.D. with honors from The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, and an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Florida, Fredric G. Levin College of Law. He has been admitted to practice law in the State of Colorado since 1995.

Duncan Walker, Ph.D.
Chief Development Officer
Duncan Walker is the Chief Development Officer at OnKure, Inc. He has a proven track record in cancer drug discovery and development, including contributing to the discovery and development of four FDA-approved medicines. Before joining OnKure, Dr. Walker was Head of Oncology at Kymera Therapeutics, and prior to that he worked at Forma Therapeutics, where he built and led the preclinical and early development group, and helped drive multiple novel small molecule drugs into and through Phase 1 studies. Dr. Walker was head of Translational Medicine and Development Program Lead at Array BioPharma, where he played key roles in the development and partnering of several molecules, including the MEK inhibitor binimetinib, and the Her2 inhibitor tucatinib. Earlier in his career, Dr. Walker held senior roles in several pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Sunesis, Roche and Glaxo. He did his postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Jim Maller at the University of Colorado and received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Washington University in St. Louis.

Jennifer Diamond, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Jennifer R. Diamond, M.D. is the Chief Medical Officer of OnKure. Dr. Diamond brings expertise in early phase clinical trials and translational oncology research, in particular, first-in-human early phase clinical trials of novel therapeutics in oncology, combination strategies to potentiate the activity of immunotherapy, and new therapies for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). In addition to serving in her role at OnKure, Dr. Diamond works in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus as a Breast Cancer medical oncologist and Associate Professor of Medicine. She is also the Clinical Research Director of the Phase I and Expansion/Molecular Studies Program (POEMs) and the founding co-Director of the Women’s Cancer Developmental Therapeutics Program at the CU Cancer Center. Dr. Diamond has been involved in clinical and translational research in the Phase I and Breast Cancer research programs at CU since 2007 where she currently runs a research laboratory focused on the development of targeted agents in TNBC, including strategies to overcome treatment resistance.

Jason Leverone, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Jason Leverone is the Chief Financial Officer of OnKure, Inc. He brings over 25 years of strategic finance and operational experience across multiple industries, including the last 16 years in life sciences. Prior to joining OnKure, Mr. Leverone served as the Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of miRagen Therapeutics, Inc, a publicly traded biotechnology company acquired in 2021. During his tenure at miRagen, he held roles of increasing responsibility in operations, corporate finance and strategic planning, including key roles in the Company’s public offering, strategic license transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining miRagen, Mr. Leverone served as Senior Director of Finance and Controller for Replidyne, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company acquired in 2009. He also served as Corporate Controller for CreekPath Systems, Inc., a private international software development company. Mr. Leverone began his professional career in public accounting at Ernst and Young LLP and continued with Arthur Andersen LLP. He is a Certified Public Accountant and earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Bryant University.

James Blake, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President
of Computational Drug
Discovery
James Blake is the Senior Vice President of Computational Drug Discovery at OnKure, Inc. Over his thirty-year career, Dr. Blake has been a key member of numerous drug discovery efforts, bringing expertise in structure- and ligand- based design, physical property optimization, virtual screening, and library design, with particular emphasis on oncology targets. Prior to joining OnKure, Dr. Blake was a Senior Research Fellow at Pfizer Boulder Research & Development, and was a key team member with Array BioPharma, where he contributed to the design of 13 clinical candidates, including 5 marketed drugs to date. Dr. Blake began his career at Pfizer Central Research, where he focused on neuroscience targets. He is a co-inventor on over 60 patents and is a co-author on 68 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Dr. Blake did his postdoctoral research at Yale University and received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at Purdue University.

Kevin S. Litwiler, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President
of DMPK and Clinical
Pharmacology
Kevin S. Litwiler is the Senior Vice President of DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology at OnKure. He brings over three decades of diverse biopharmaceutical experience in clinical pharmacology, drug metabolism and pharmacometrics spanning a variety of drug targets and therapeutic areas. Prior to joining OnKure, Dr. Litwiler served as Executive Director, Clinical Pharmacology Global Product Development, Oncology at Pfizer Inc., where he was responsible for the late-stage advancement of Boulder-based assets, including two commercialized products. Prior to joining Pfizer, he served as Executive Director and head of Clinical Pharmacology at Array BioPharma Inc. During his tenure at Array, he oversaw strategy, productivity, compliance and budget for the department. Dr. Litwiler also contributed to INDs for 23 Array candidates and the design and conduct of over 40 clinical trials. He started his career at DuPont Biotechnology, where he held numerous research roles of increasing responsibility. Dr. Litwiler received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo and B.S. in Chemistry from Clarion University of Pennsylvania.

Richard Woessner, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President
of Pharmacology
Rich Woessner is Senior Vice President of Pharmacology at Onkure Therapeutics, working with discovery and clinical development teams to guide and implement in vivo pharmacology strategies for evaluation of preclinical stage compounds, and provide translational pharmacology data to inform clinical development strategies. He has over 30 years of experience in oncology drug discovery and pre-clinical pharmacology and has held roles at biotech and at large pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi, MedImmune, Array BioPharma, AstraZeneca, and Blueprint Medicines. He has led the preclinical in vivo pharmacology effort on multiple projects that have resulted in advancement of compounds into the clinic, including ipatasertib (AKT inhibitor), filanesib (KSP inhibitor), AZD4205 (JAK1 inhibitor), and danvatirsen (STAT3 inhibitor). While at Blueprint Medicines, he established in-house in vivo pharmacology capability and led the in vivo pharmacology group, supporting multiple projects that led to nomination of development candidates. Dr. Woessner received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois, followed by postdoctoral training at SmithKline Beecham, where he studied the biology of topisomerases I and II and mechanisms of resistance to the topoisomerase I inhibitor topotecan.

Robbie Alton, Pharm
Vice President of Clinical Operations
Roberta (“Robbie”) Alton is the Vice President of Clinical Operations at OnKure, Inc. She has nearly two decades of global clinical development and operations experience across various therapeutic areas, focusing primarily on the oncology space. Prior to joining OnKure, Mrs. Alton most recently served as Head of Clinical Operations at Denovo Biopharma LLC, where she developed timelines and infrastructure needed to operationalize global clinical trials that led to successful preparation and completion of NDA submissions. Prior to Denovo, she served as the Senior Director of Clinical Operations and Project Management at Halozyme, Inc., where she oversaw the implementation of Phases 1 – 3 studies across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Previously, Mrs. Alton held the role of Global Clinical Trial Manager at PRA Health Sciences Inc., where she built and managed a cohesive clinical team, managed vendors and monitored the quality of clinical deliverables. Mrs. Alton received her B.S. and Pharm. in Pharmacy and Biochemistry from the University of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Mark L. Boys, Ph.D.
Vice President of Discovery Chemistry
Mark Boys is the Vice President of Discovery Chemistry at OnKure, Inc. Dr. Boys is a seasoned pharmaceutical professional with more than 25 years of research and managerial expertise within large and small life science companies and experience in both medicinal and process chemistry. In his most recent position prior to joining OnKure, Dr. Boys worked at Pfizer Inc. as a Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry and was responsible for more than 75 (internal and CRO) medicinal, synthetic and development chemists.
While at Pfizer, Dr. Boys’ teams successfully delivered preclinical and clinical candidates including an ALK5 inhibitor for treatment of dermal scarring and he successfully initiated and formed a Synthesis Development Group to facilitate the smooth transition of projects and compounds from research into process development. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Boys worked at Array BioPharma, Inc. and lead a team that discovered a CSF1R inhibitor (ARRY-382) as part of a collaboration with Celgene Corporation, and which has been undergoing clinical trials in an oncology setting. While at G.D. Searle, LLC, Dr. Boys successfully delivered chemical processes to the pilot plant for multi-Kg production. Dr. Boys has also worked at Glaxo plc and Pharmacia Corporation and has been involved with numerous other programs that have delivered preclinical and clinical candidates.
Dr. Boys received his BSc from University of York (UK) and his Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Colorado State University.
Isaac Manke, Ph.D.
Isaac Manke is a General Partner at Acorn BioVentures. Previously, he was a General Partner at New Leaf Venture Partners, where he invested across private and public biotechnology companies for 11 years. Prior to his venture capital career, he was an Associate Equity Analyst in the Global Biotechnology Equity Research group at Sanford C. Bernstein and prior to that in the Biotechnology Equity Research group at Deutsche Bank. Prior to these roles, he was a Senior Analyst at Health Advances, a biopharmaceutical and medical device strategy consulting firm.
Dr. Manke received a Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry and Molecular Structure from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a B.A. in Biology and B.A. in Chemistry from Minnesota State University (Moorhead). During his research career his discoveries led to several publications in top journals, including Science and Cell, and were selected by Science as one of the “2003: Signaling Breakthroughs of the Year.” These discoveries also resulted in four issued patents.
R. Michael Carruthers
Michael Carruthers currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Edgewise Therapeutics (NASDAQ: EWTX). Mr. Carruthers has over 20 years of experience serving as Chief Financial Officer for publicly-traded biopharmaceutical companies, with extensive experience across corporate finance and strategic planning including IPOs, secondary offerings and M&A transactions. Previously, Mr. Carruthers consulted as Chief Financial Officer for several private and public companies. Mr. Carruthers served as Interim President of Nivalis Therapeutics, a publicly traded company acquired by Alpine Immune Sciences, in 2017 and Chief Financial Officer and Secretary from 2015 to 2017. From 1998 to 2015, he served as Chief Financial Officer for Array BioPharma Inc., a publicly traded company acquired by Pfizer Inc. Prior to this, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Sievers Instruments, Treasurer and Controller for the Waukesha division of Dover Corporation and Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Carruthers received a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Andrew Phillips, Ph.D.
Andy Phillips is President and Chief Executive Officer of Aleksia Therapeutics, Inc. and Nexo Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, he was Managing Director at Cormorant Asset Management, LP and Chief Financial Officer of Helix Acquisition Corp. Before joining Cormorant, he was the President and Chief Executive Officer of C4 Therapeutics. Prior to joining C4 Therapeutics, Andy was Senior Director, Center for Development of Therapeutics at The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Previously, he was a Professor of Chemistry at Yale University and a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado. Andy holds Ph.D. and B.Sc. Hons. degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand).
Anthony D. Piscopio, Ph.D.
Tony Piscopio is the co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and President of OnKure, Inc. He is a serial entrepreneur with executive leadership experience spanning more than two decades in the life sciences industry. Most recently, Dr. Piscopio served as Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Chemizon, Inc., a global drug discovery organization where he was responsible for managing operations in the U.S., Seoul, Korea, and Beijing, China, and oversaw the acquisition of the company to Taihan Electric Wire Co. after two years of operation. Previously, Dr. Piscopio co-founded Array BioPharma (ARRY;NASDAQ), where he served as Vice President of Chemistry and was responsible for strategy, new product development, GMP manufacturing, process research, parallel synthesis on an industrial scale and oncology drug discovery. Prior to Array, Dr. Piscopio was a founding member of Amgen’s small molecule drug discovery division in Boulder, Colorado, and served as a research scientist at Pfizer. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute and received a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Nicholas A. Saccomano, Ph.D.
Nicholas A. Saccomano is a biopharmaceutical professional with nearly 35 years of extensive research, development and management experience across multiple therapeutic areas. He most recently worked at Pfizer R&D, Inc. as Chief Science Officer and Site Head at its Boulder facility, where he led a 170-person research and development team that advanced a portfolio of small molecule drug programs from inception to proof-of-concept. Prior to working at Pfizer, Dr. Saccomano served as Chief Science Officer at Array Biopharma Inc., where he was responsible for creating and advancing ten clinical-stage compounds, with seven drug approvals to date. Dr. Saccomano also served as Chief Technology Officer at SomaLogic Inc., where he managed scientific and technical teams in charge of advancing elements of the company’s proteomic platform. He currently serves as a scientific advisor to several innovative companies. Dr. Saccomano received a B.S. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Columbia University under the direction of Gilbert Stork.
Susan Bates, M.D.
Dr. Susan Bates received her M.D. degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. She completed her clinical training in internal medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Bates was a Lead Clinical Investigator and Head of the Molecular Therapeutics Section in the Developmental Therapeutics Branch of the Center for Cancer Research before moving to Columbia University in August 2015.
During her years at the NCI, Dr. Bates led a highly successful translational research program focused on mechanisms of multidrug resistance and approaches to evaluate and improve the activity of epigenetic modifying agents. Her laboratory was among the first to clone the multidrug transporter ABCG2, eventually characterizing its function and its role in chemo-resistance and chemo-protection. This effort built upon earlier work elaborating the role of the multi-drug transporter P-glycoprotein that had defined the drug sensitivity profiles of cell lines in vitro, particularly in the NCI-60 cell line panel. The latter observation continues to impact how the NCI-60 cell line panel is used in drug discovery, and helped her identify a novel agent, at that time known as depsipeptide. Dr. Bates brought this drug to the clinic and after completing its phase I testing, served as Principal Investigator of a multi-institutional, international Phase II study of romidepsin (depsipeptide) in cutaneous and peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Working with Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, the data from this study were included in New Drug Applications (NDA) to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). This partnership led to approval by the FDA of romidepsin for two indications – initially for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and later for peripheral T-cell lymphoma.
Dr. Bates’ current interests are both laboratory and clinical in nature. Her laboratory efforts include laboratory and translational studies on drug resistance in T-cell lymphomas and advanced solid tumors including breast, pancreatic, neuroendocrine, renal and lung cancers. Her work is dedicated to new drug development, and finding antineoplastic agents that, alone or in combination with other anticancer agents, improve the options available for difficult to treat cancers. Emanating from the clinical and translational development of romidepsin, a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, a current focus is on epigenetic therapies, and the development of combination therapies to use with HDAC inhibitors in refractory advanced cancers, including solid tumors. She also has a special interest in drug delivery and drug distribution and the role of the blood brain barrier in creating a sanctuary site for cancers that metastasize to the brain. Clinically, her goal has always been to translate ideas from the laboratory to clinical trials, an effort that has proven very successful. Clinically she seeks to develop combination therapies with histone deacetylase inhibitors for the therapy of solid tumors; and to develop therapies to treat central nervous system metastases, a complication of cancer that is becoming a greater problem as patients live longer with cancer.
Keith Flaherty, M.D.
Keith T. Flaherty, M.D. is Director of Clinical Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Flaherty and colleagues made several seminal observations that have defined the treatment of melanoma when they established the efficacy of BRAF, MEK and combined BRAF/MEK inhibition in patients with metastatic melanoma described in a series of New England Journal of Medicine articles for which Dr. Flaherty was the first or senior author. He is the principal investigator of the NCI MATCH trial, the first NCI-sponsored trial assigning patients to targeted therapy independent of tumor type on the basis of DNA sequencing detection of oncogenes. Dr. Flaherty joined the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors in 2018 and AACR Board of Directors in 2019. He serves as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research. Dr. Flaherty co-founded Loxo Oncology in 2013 and served on the board of directors through the acquisition by Eli Lilly in 2019. He co-founded X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XFOR) and privately held Strata Oncology (2015), Apricity Oncology (2017), C-Reveal (2020), and most recently, Scorpion Therapeutics (2020). He serves on the boards of directors for Clovis Oncology, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals and Kinnate BioPharma.
Lia Gore, M.D.
Lia Gore is a Professor with Tenure in the Departments of Pediatrics, Medical Oncology, and Hematology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where she also serves as Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BMT-Cellular Therapeutics. At the Children’s Hospital Colorado, Dr. Gore holds the Ergen Family Chair in Pediatric Oncology.
Additionally, Dr. Gore is Co-Director of the Developmental Therapeutics (Phase I clinical trials) Program at the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center and is the current Groupwide Vice Chair in the National Cancer institute-sponsored Children’s Oncology Group. Dr. Gore’s primary interests are in drug development for refractory cancers and treatment of leukemias. She has received funding from the National Cancer Institute, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, and numerous foundation awards. Dr. Gore has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, has lectured broadly both in the United States and internationally and has advised the U.S. FDA and European Medicines Agency.
Dr. Gore received her medical degree at the George Washington University School of Medicine. She did her internship in Pediatrics at Children’s National Medical in Washington, DC, and residency in Pediatrics at Children’s Colorado. She then had a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, Bone Marrow Transplant, and was a postdoctoral research fellow in Immunology and Hematopoiesis at National Jewish Medical and Research Center and in Leukemia Biology at Children’s Colorado and the University of Colorado.
Kevin Koch, Ph.D.
Kevin Koch has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Edgewise Therapeutics since July 2017 and a Venture Partner at OrbiMed Advisors, LLC since May 2016. Dr. Koch has been active in the life science industry for over 25 years with a focus on drug discovery, translational medicine and clinical development. Prior to joining OrbiMed, Dr. Koch acted as a consultant in the biotech industry from September 2015 to May 2016. Prior to acting as a consultant, Dr. Koch served as the Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery, Chemical and Molecular Therapeutics at Biogen, Inc. from December 2013 to September 2015, where he managed global drug discovery and biomarker development as well as the immunology and hematology teams. Dr. Koch was a co-founder of Array Biopharma Inc. and served as its President, Chief Scientific Officer and Director from May 1998 to November 2013. While there, he built a fully integrated R&D team that oversaw the invention of over 20 clinical development candidates in the multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to Array, Dr. Koch served as an Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry and Project Leader for the Protease Inhibitor and New Leads project teams from May 1995 to April 1998 for Amgen Inc. From September 1988 to May 1995, Dr. Koch held various positions with Pfizer Central Research, including Senior Research Investigator, Senior Research Scientist, and Project Coordinator for the Cellular Migration and Immunology Project Teams.
Dr. Koch is the Treasurer and Board Member of the Inflammation Research Association. Dr. Koch has been a Director of miRagen Therapeutics, Inc. since February 2017. He is a Founding Board Member of Skyhawk Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Koch serves on the boards of Neurogastrx, Inc. and Encycle Therapeutics and consults with several life science companies. He is a Director of Skyhawk Therapeutics, Inc. He is a co-author or inventor of multiple patents and publications. Dr. Koch received a B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from State University of New York, Stony Brook, an M.S. in Organic Chemistry from University of Rochester and a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from University of Rochester.
Xuedong Liu, Ph.D.
Xuedong Liu is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado-Boulder and has been on faculty since 2000. Professor Liu’s research interests include the biochemistry and systems biology of cell signaling. He focuses on understanding signal transduction mechanism of growth factors and small molecule ligands in normal and cancer cells. His laboratory also works on deciphering molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Professor Liu has authored or co-authored more than 75 research papers and patents and is the coeditor of a book entitled “Computational Modeling of Signaling Networks”. In addition, Professor Liu is an OnKure, Inc. co-founder and is responsible for the developing the profile-specific histone deacetylase inhibitor platform which forms the basis of OnKure’s technology. Professor Liu is the recipient of Inventor of the Year Award in 2013 from the University of Colorado. From 1995 to 2000, he was an NIH and DOD postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research with Professor Harvey F. Lodish at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994 with Professor Janet Mertz at McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research.
Pamela Munster, M.D.
Pamela Munster’s clinical research interests are first-in-human early phase clinical trials of novel compounds and alternative strategies for the treatment and prevention of cancer. Pam has been involved in clinical and translational research in early phase clinical trials since 1998. As the program leader for Development Therapeutics and the PI of a peer-reviewed basic science lab, her main focus is on translating preclinical findings into early-stage clinical trials with extensive PK and integration of PD correlative studies and molecular imaging for patients with advanced stage cancer. Her basic research interest is centered on the role of epigenetic modification in therapy resistance in breast cancer and epigenetic priming. In addition to studying basic mechanisms of hormone therapy resistance, Dr. Munster has shown that epigenetic modification plays a crucial role in the hormonal regulation and carcinogenesis of breast cancer.