Frank Parlati

Developing small molecule drugs that target paralog genes in biomarker defined cancers

• Led research strategy to discover and develop small molecule inhibitors of synthetic lethality targets, such as VPS4A, for treatment of biomarker-selected cancer patients
• Oversaw pre-clinical discovery and development of clinical molecules telaglenastat (glutaminase inhibitor) and CB-1158 (arginase inhibitor) and IND candidates CB-708 (CD73 inhibitor) and CB-668 (IL4I1 inhibitor) from early discovery to clinical development
• Messaged drug rationale to investors, analysts, physicians and external scientists
• Supervised biology, pharmacology, DMPK and clinical biomarker departments
• Presided over key hires, budgets and corporate policies

• Co-founded, capitalized and operationalized Cleave Biosciences
• Built biology team, implemented assays to triage p97 small molecule inhibitors, devised and managed triage cascade to select proof-of-concept molecules

• Early and key member of research and development team for proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib for treating multiple myeloma
• Led pre-clinical translational oncology studies to position and differentiate carfilzomib from market leader bortezomib
• Invented, developed and implemented pharmacodynamic and biomarker assays to monitor proteasome activity into clinical trial studies

• Performed mechanistic studies on ubiquitin ligase small molecule inhibitors as potential cancer therapeutics

• Pioneered assays to prove SNAREs are core machinery proteins responsible for cellular membrane fusion (lab of Nobel laureate James Rothman)