What Happened?
New York, NY-based Kallyope Appointed Nancy Thornberry as Chief Executive Officer
About the Company
At Kallyope, we believe that the gut is the gateway to our internal world. Containing millions of neurons, the gut informs our brains about our well-being, metabolism, and nutritional state. The gut-brain axis—the communication highway between our gut and our brain—offers an unprecedented opportunity to access and influence brain centers involved in fundamental human processes. An understanding of the biology mediated by the gut and gut-brain circuits will change the way we think about food, nutrition, and human physiology. Founded and headquartered in New York City, we are developing an industry-leading platform to harness the gut-brain axis. Our cross-disciplinary biotechnology team will integrate cutting-edge technologies in sequencing, bioinformatics, neural imaging, cellular and molecular biology, and human genetics to provide an understanding of gut-brain biology that will lead to transformational therapeutics and consumer products to improve human health and nutrition.
About the Person
Nancy Thornberry was formerly Senior Vice President and Franchise Head, Diabetes and Endocrinology, Merck & Co. Inc. In this role she led discovery and clinical research in diabetes, osteoporosis, fertility and contraception. Prior to her role as Franchise Head, Nancy initiated and was a leader of Merck’s dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) project, which resulted in the discovery of JANUVIA® for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Among other notable scientific accomplishments is the identification of the first caspase, interleukin-1β converting enzyme (ICE/caspase-1). For her scientific contributions she has received numerous awards, including the Merck Presidential Fellowship, Merck Directors Award, Heroes of Chemistry Award by the American Chemical Society, and in 2011 received the Pharmaceuticals Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Discoverers Award, which honors research scientists whose work has been of special benefit to humankind. In addition to her role at Kallyope, she serves as a Director at Intarcia Therapeutics and Abide Therapeutics.
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