Mass Gives New Life To Life Sciences
from WPI Venture Forum
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Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 5:30pm - 9:00pm
The 16th season of the WPI Venture Forum will open with discussion of a powerful subject for the region's future. Windham-Bannister will discuss how over 10 years the MLSC will direct new funding to foster and grow the scientific research enterprise of the Commonwealth through research and development efforts, including new faculty grants, a corporate research matching grant program, as well as underwriting an advanced therapeutics cluster and a stem cell registry and bank at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Case Presentation: RXi Pharmaceuticals, Tod Woolf
RXi Pharmaceuticals is a discovery-stage biopharmaceutical company pursuing the development and potential commercialization of proprietary therapeutics based on RNA interference (RNAi) for the treatment of human diseases. RNAi is a naturally occurring mechanism for the regulation of gene expression that has the potential to be harnessed to selectively inhibit the activity of any human gene. RXi Pharmaceuticals believes it is well positioned to compete successfully in the RNAi-based therapeutics market with its accomplished scientific advisors, including Dr. Craig Mello, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize for his co-discovery of RNAi, a management team that is experienced in developing RNAi products, and a strong early intellectual property position.
President and Chief Executive Officer Tod Woolf, PhD has twenty years of experience developing and commercializing innovative biomedical technologies, including twelve years of biotechnology management experience. He founded and served as CEO of Sequitur, an RNAi company acquired by Invitrogen in 2003. At Sequitur, Dr. Woolf co-invented and commercialized Stealth RNAi, one of the most widely used second generation RNAi products. Previously, he helped to develop and partner the core therapeutic technology at Genta and RPI (now Sirna/Merck) and Ontogeny (now Curis). In addition to Stealth RNAi, Dr. Woolf also co-invented and helped commercialize six other RNA products.
Dr. Woolf has served as a scientific and business advisor to Signet Labs, Praecis, Invitrogen, ProNai and TriLink Biotechnologies. He holds a Masters and PhD in Cellular and Development Biology from Harvard University and has authored 40 patent applications and scientific publications.
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