Cleave Biosciences Names Alessandra Cesano as Chief Medical Officer and Lewis Shuster as Director

BURLINGAME, Calif., Feb. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cleave Biosciences today announced Alessandra Cesano, M.D., Ph.D. has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Cesano is a board certified medical oncologist and holds a Ph.D. in Tumor Immunology. She has 20 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries advancing oncology drug candidates through late-stage development at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Biogen Idec and Amgen. Prior to Cleave, Dr. Cesano held the position of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical Officer at Nodality where she led clinical and regulatory strategies to advance the company's technology in patient selection for hematological malignancies. Previously at The Wistar Institute, her work concentrated on tumor immunology in hematologic cancers. Dr. Cesano earned a medical degree from the University of Turin, Italy and a Ph.D. in Tumor Immunology from The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA.

"Dr. Cesano is an excellent addition to our team. Cleave has made tremendous preclinical progress and we are looking forward to testing our drug candidate and patient selection strategies in a clinical setting," said Laura Shawver, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Cleave Biosciences.

"This is a perfect time to join Cleave Biosciences, as we prepare to enter clinical trials in 2014 with our first small molecule protein degradation inhibitor for hematological and solid tumors," said Dr. Cesano.

Cleave also announced that Lewis "Lew" Shuster has been appointed as an independent Director of the company. Mr. Shuster is presently the Chief Executive Officer of Shuster Capital, a strategic and operating advisor to life science company executives and investors, which he founded in 2002. Mr. Shuster has 30 years of experience in the roles of CEO, CFO and COO of life science companies including Kemia, Invitrogen, Pharmacopeia and Human Genome Sciences. He has served as a director of more than a dozen life science companies, including chairing audit committees of public companies. He presently serves as a Director of Response Biomedical, MSN Healthcare and Mast Therapeutics. Mr. Shuster holds a M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. from Swarthmore College.

About Cleave Biosciences
Cleave Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel protein degradation inhibitors for the treatment of cancer. Cleave is a pioneer in the discovery and development of drugs that target protein degradation systems and have the potential to transform the treatment of people with difficult to treat solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. The company is privately held and located in Burlingame, California. For additional information, visit www.cleavebio.com.

SOURCE Cleave Biosciences