WALTHAM, Mass. & MONTREAL, September 7, 2021 – Ventus Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company using structure-based drug design and leading-edge computational chemistry tools to advance a pipeline of small-molecule medicines for high-value targets, today announced the appointment of Christopher Bayly, PhD to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).
Dr. Bayly’s research interests are in the areas of computational biophysical and bioorganic chemistry. He has developed new methods and published extensively in these fields including methods for RESP, AM1-BCC, SMIRNOFF, and the Open Force Field (OpenFF) initiative. Force fields represent principles and assumptions necessary to enable molecular modeling tools, and his breakthrough work provides the foundation of much of the industry’s currently most advanced software. In addition, Dr. Bayly has more than 25 years of experience in the use of computational chemistry methods to solve practical pharmaceutical discovery problems, encompassing a unique combination of expertise in methods development and the application to drug discovery.
“We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Bayly to our SAB as we solidify Ventus’ position at the forefront of structure-based drug design,” said Michael Crackower, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Ventus. “With deep expertise in molecular dynamics and free energy calculation, Christopher will help Ventus extend the application of our leading computational approaches for structure-based drug design to increasingly challenging targets as we create new medicines for patients with serious illnesses.”
In addition to serving on the SAB, Dr. Bayly will play an active role in expanding Ventus’ ReSOLVE platform. “A scientist of Dr. Bayly’s caliber will be an invaluable resource as we continue to scale our ReSOLVE platform and expand its capacity,” said Jason Burch, Ph.D., Head of Chemistry of Ventus.
“Ventus’ ReSOLVE platform, coupled with expert teams in structural biology and medicinal chemistry, represents the leading edge of small molecule drug discovery, and I look forward to collaborating on important new medicines for patients across a range of diseases,” said Dr. Bayly.
About Ventus Therapeutics
Ventus Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel small-molecule medicines by pioneering structure-based drug discovery for biologically validated, but challenging, drug targets. Our ReSOLVE™ platform reveals novel druggable sites on traditionally undruggable targets, enables virtual screening, and accelerates medicinal chemistry and SAR. Using ReSOLVE™, we are rapidly advancing a pipeline of new medicines to treat autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and cancer. Our most advanced programs are directed to critical targets in innate immune pathways. For more information, please visit www.ventustx.com and engage with us on Twitter @VentusTx or on LinkedIn.
