IFM Therapeutics LLC Appoints William R. Roush as Executive Vice President of Chemistry

BOSTON, Oct. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- IFM Therapeutics, LLC (IFM), a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system to treat inflammatory disorders and cancer, announced today that William R. Roush, Ph.D., will join the company as executive vice president of chemistry. Roush joins IFM after having originally served as a senior advisor of the company. In his new role, Roush will oversee IFM's chemistry efforts aimed at discovering and developing drugs that target the innate immune system.

"IFM is committed to developing transformative medicines that precisely target the innate immune system, with the potential to significantly improve the lives of patients with autoimmune disorders and cancer," said Roush. "I am pleased to join the IFM senior management team to help steer the company forward and further explore the promise of the innate immune system to develop potential new treatments that may make a difference in solving current medical challenges."

Roush brings extensive and deep experience in synthetic organic chemistry, chemical biology and medicinal chemistry to IFM after previously serving as a senior advisor for the company. Roush joins IFM from The Scripps Research Institute where he served as a professor of chemistry, executive director of medicinal chemistry and associate dean of Scripps' Kellogg Graduate School. Prior to that, he held faculty positions at the University of Michigan, Indiana University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Roush is the recipient of numerous awards for his scientific contributions, including a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, a Merck Faculty Development Award, the Alan R. Day Award of the Philadelphia Organic Chemist's Club, an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society, a Merit Award from the National Institutes of Health, the Paul G. Gassman Distinguished Service Award of the American Chemical Society, the American Chemical Society Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products, and was elected to the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Chemical Society.

"We are excited to welcome Bill as a full-time member of IFM's senior management team," said Martin Seidel, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of R&D. "As one of IFM's early scientific leaders, Bill has helped to shape the company from the very beginning, and his contributions have been invaluable to the development and progress of the science. His deep understanding of chemical biology, drug discovery and natural product synthesis will greatly enhance our knowledge and capabilities in the development of potential new drug candidates focused on innate immunity as IFM continues to search for novel treatments for patients suffering from cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases."

Roush received a bachelor's degree in chemistry, summa cum laude, from the University of California at Los Angeles, and he holds a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University.

About IFM Therapeutics, LLC

IFM Therapeutics, LLC is a privately held biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded by an international group of preeminent scientists and physicians who have spent decades understanding innate immunity and the role it plays in regulating the immune system. IFM's team has discovered and developed small molecules that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system as next-generation therapies for cancer, autoimmunity, and inflammatory disorders. For more information, please visit www.ifmthera.com.

SOURCE IFM Therapeutics

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