OncoNano Medicine, a biotechnology company developing innovative cancer therapies, announced today that Dr. Kartik Krishnan, MD, PhD, has been appointed as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Krishnan, who joined OncoNano as Chief Medical Officer in 2022 and became President and Head of Research and Development in 2023, succeeds Martin Driscoll, who led the company since January 2021.

Dr. Brett Giroir, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OncoNano, praised Dr. Krishnan as “a highly experienced executive and passionate physician-scientist who has been an essential force for OncoNano’s success in the last two years”. He expressed confidence that Dr. Krishnan will champion OncoNano’s growth and development as a pioneer in innovative cancer therapies.

Dr. Krishnan has over 20 years of experience in oncology, having worked at several biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies in various roles. He has led the development of ONM-501, a dual-activating STING agonist, into first in human studies and prioritized the next set of novel pipeline medicines. He said he was “enthusiastic” about OncoNano’s technology platform and its potential to bring transformative medicines to patients.

Along with Dr. Krishnan’s appointment, OncoNano also announced the promotion of Dr. Melissa Paoloni to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Paoloni, who joined OncoNano in December of 2023, will oversee the management team and support OncoNano’s corporate planning, communications, partnering and stakeholder engagement.

OncoNano Medicine is developing a new class of cancer therapeutics that utilize principles of molecular cooperativity in their design to exploit pH to diagnose and treat solid tumors with high specificity. Its product candidates and interventions include solid tumor therapeutics, a platform of immuno-oncology therapeutics that activate and guide the body’s immune system to target cancer, and agents for real-time image guided surgery.

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