Sirenas CEO Eduardo Esquenazi, Ph.D., to Deliver Keynote Presentation at 2016 Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products

SAN DIEGO, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Eduardo Esquenazi, Ph.D., founder and CEO of marine discovery and drug development company Sirenas LLC, will be a featured keynote presenter for the 2016 Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products.

Dr. Esquenazi will participate in the keynote session, "Development of Marine Natural Products as Pharmaceuticals and Tools for Research," to be held at 7:30 p.m. PST on Thursday, March 10 at the Four Points Sheraton in Ventura, California. His presentation, "A Small Company's Perspective on Opportunities for Marine Inspired Drug Discovery and Development in Today's Pharma Environment," focuses on Sirenas' data-driven approach to identify and translate the most promising marine discoveries into new therapeutics. 

"Marine organisms are known to produce some of the most unique and diverse chemistry, filling a great need in modern medicine," said Dr. Esquenazi. "These organisms have evolved over billions of years in competitive ecosystems, and rely on very potent and complex bioactive metabolites to communicate, compete and deter predation. These are the same qualities that make them ideal starting points for powerful therapeutic agents against human disease."

Sirenas also will be presenting research from two of its discovery scientists.

The 2016 Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products, held March 6-11, brings together researchers from academia, industry, and government to address the discovery and development of natural products from marine ecosystems.

"Sirenas is thrilled to participate in the utmost summit for marine natural products, in terms of scientific rigor, breadth and spirit," added Dr. Esquenazi. "I'm grateful to the conference chairs Julia Kubanek, Ph.D., and Paul Jensen, Ph.D., and to the entire organizing committee for the opportunity to share Sirenas' work with this vibrant scientific community."  

About Sirenas
Sirenas aims to sustainably and efficiently uncover, catalogue and develop the high-value chemical diversity of the ocean to address unmet medical needs. Sirenas has uniquely combined marine chemical diversity with adaptive molecular informatics and next-generation synthetic chemistry to create the Atlantis™ Platform for drug discovery. Sirenas' lead molecule, SMD-5033, is a toxin with a novel mechanism of action currently being evaluated as an antibody-drug conjugate payload. In addition, the company has a pipeline of earlier-stage ADC payloads and has recently expanded into the discovery and development of first-in-class small molecule therapeutics for immuno-oncology, infectious and neurological diseases. Sirenas is headquartered in San Diego and has a presence at JLABS San Diego. For more information about Sirenas, please visit SirenasMD.com.

About The Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products
Held in Ventura, California, every two years, The Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products highlights the latest research on chemistry produced by marine organisms. The conference brings together top scientists in the fields of ecology, genomics biosynthesis, informatics and drug discovery.

Company Contact:
Tamara Mayer
Sr. Project Manager, Sirenas
858-909-5105
[email protected]

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SOURCE Sirenas