BOSTON — Nimbus Therapeutics has announced three senior leadership appointments as the company expands its business development and research capabilities and advances its pipeline of experimental small-molecule medicines.
Lizabeth Leveille, M.S., MBA, has been appointed Chief Business Officer, Fang Wang, Ph.D., has joined as Senior Vice President and Head of Biology, and Daniel Price, Ph.D., has been promoted to Senior Vice President and Head of Chemistry.
The appointments come as Nimbus advances several drug discovery programs, including a selective salt-inducible kinase 2 (SIK2) inhibitor for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and a WRN program targeting cancer.
“Nimbus is at an exciting and important phase in the evolution of our pipeline across multiple therapeutic areas, with our WRN program showing encouraging depth and durability of response in cancer patients, our SIK2 program approaching first-in-human studies for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, and several other promising early-stage programs advancing against difficult-to-drug targets,” said Abbas Kazimi, Chief Executive Officer of Nimbus.
Kazimi said Leveille’s experience in business development will help the company pursue strategic opportunities as its drug pipeline matures.
Leveille brings more than 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutical licensing, collaborations and acquisitions. She joins Nimbus from Merck Research Laboratories, where she served as Vice President and Head of BD&L Boston Innovation Hub and Discovery Transactions.
Previously, she spent nearly a decade at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in strategic alliances and transactions. She also serves on the boards of MassBio and Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives.
Leveille earned an MBA from Babson College and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biotechnology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Wang joins Nimbus from HotSpot Therapeutics, where she served as Senior Vice President of Oncology Discovery and Translational Science. She brings nearly two decades of experience in precision oncology, cancer immunology and metabolic disease research.
Previously, Wang held leadership positions at FogPharma and Agios Pharmaceuticals. At Agios, she helped advance three first-in-class therapies that received FDA approval: Tibsovo, Idhifa and Voranigo.
Wang earned her doctorate in molecular virology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and completed postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic.
“Fang has a remarkable track record of leading strong biology teams and advancing programs from discovery into the clinic,” said Peter Tummino, President of Research and Development at Nimbus. “As our Head of Biology, she will play a critical role in identifying and advancing compelling targets, deepening our understanding of disease biology, and translating those insights into the next generation of agents in our pipeline.”
Price, who joined Nimbus in January 2022, previously served as Vice President of Computational Chemistry and Structural Biology. In his new position, he will oversee the company’s chemistry operations and further integrate computational drug discovery, artificial intelligence and predictive modeling into its research efforts.
Before joining Nimbus, Price spent 16 years at GSK, where he contributed to the discovery of four clinical-stage drug candidates across multiple therapeutic areas.
He holds a doctorate in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado. He also completed postdoctoral research at Scripps Research.
“Dan has had a significant impact on Nimbus since joining the company, bringing deep expertise in computational chemistry and structural biology to programs across our pipeline,” Tummino said.
Nimbus uses structure-based drug design, computational chemistry and artificial intelligence to develop small-molecule medicines targeting diseases across multiple therapeutic areas.
