Circle Pharma, Inc., today announced that co-founder Prof. Matthew Jacobson has been appointed Chair of the UCSF Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
“This is a terrific recognition of Matt’s exceptional accomplishments as a scientist and his passionate commitment as an educator,” said David J. Earp, JD, PhD, Circle’s President and CEO. “We are very appreciative of the guidance and leadership that our two co-founders – Matt Jacobson and Scott Lokey – continue to provide to Circle.”
Prof. Jacobson’s work at UCSF has focused on understanding the complex interactions of drugs and proteins and the implications of the underlying molecular dynamics for biology and drug discovery. In addition to his founding role in Circle, Prof. Jacobson was also a co-founder of Global Blood Therapeutics (NADAQ:GBT) and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Schrodinger, LLC. He has authored more that 140 publictions and has served on the editorial boards of eight journals. Prof. Jacobson joined the UCSF faculty in 2002. He earned a PhD in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and did his postdoctoral work at Oxford and Columbia.
About Circle Pharma
Founded by computational chemist Prof. Matthew Jacobson (UC San Francisco) and peptide chemist Prof. Scott Lokey (UC Santa Cruz), and seed funded by Pfizer and Mission Bay Capital in 2014 and ShangPharma Investment Group Limited in 2015, Circle Pharma is developing a new paradigm for macrocycle drug discovery. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of intrinsically cell- permeable macrocycles that can address both intra- and extra-cellular therapeutic targets, and can be delivered by oral administration. Circle’s macrocycle development platform is applicable across a wide range of serious diseases; the company is initially focusing its internal development efforts on intracellular protein-protein interactions that are key drivers in cancer.
January 19, 2016, South San Francisco