A calm and blue sea with very small waves.
Our body has the ability to defend and heal.
We want to make it work for everyone.

Promakhos Therapeutics

Though inflammation is normally a healthy part of the body’s response to injury or infection, some people experience a dysfunctional immune response. The resulting chronic inflammation can damage the body and lead to further disease. Current therapies for chronic inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and ankylosing spondylitis often work by suppressing the immune system, and treat symptoms rather than addressing the root causes of the disease. However, only 20-30% of patients benefit from these therapies long term. So, what if – instead of working against the immune system – we figured out how to restore its balance and function?

Promakhos Therapeutics aims to do just this. Founded in the spring of 2021 and based in Allston, Massachusetts, we develop curative therapies that restore the function of the innate immune system, allowing the body to control inflammation and heal.

Meet the team

We are entrepreneurs, scientists and drug discovery professionals.

Katerina Chatzi, Ph.D.
Bio

Katerina Chatzi, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer, President and Co-founder

Katerina Chatzi, Ph.D.

Postdoc, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Harvard University

Postdoc, Biophysics
KU Leuven

PhD., Biochemistry and Microbiology
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

Katerina Chatzi, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer, President and Co-founder

Katerina Chatzi serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Promakhos Therapeutics. Katerina is a distinguished scientist-entrepreneur with expertise in immunology, protein secretion, biochemistry, bacteriology, cell biology and business development. She has performed biomedical research for over 15 years across four different countries, uncovering fundamental principles underlying bacterial secretion, protein folding, antibiotic resistance, and cell cycle regulation.

Katerina’s scientific journey started at the University of Crete, where she studied mechanisms underlying tolerogenic immunosuppression during pregnancy in mice. She then received an Erasmus fellowship to study antibiotic resistance at Uppsala University in Sweden. Returning to Greece, she received the Excellent Academic Performance Award and started her Ph.D. training to study and reconstitute bacterial secretion systems. For her work, she was awarded the prestigious Heraclitus II fellowship from the National Strategic Innovation Program. Katerina then continued her research on bacterial secretion and protein folding as a Research fellow at the KU Leuven in Belgium.

Katerina arrived in the United States of America to work as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University. Recognizing her passion for translational research, she engaged in various business development programs across the Harvard and Massachusetts ecosystems. Through her exposure to different scientific fields as well as clinical and business environments, Katerina realized how her skills can help in the development of novel immunomodulatory therapeutics. She assembled a team and founded Promakhos Therapeutics to carry out her vision.

Jasper E. Neggers, Ph.D.
Bio

Jasper E. Neggers, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder

Jasper E. Neggers, Ph.D.

Postdoc, Medical Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Postdoc, Target Identification & Validation
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

PhD., Functional Genomics & Chemical Biology
KU Leuven

Jasper E. Neggers, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder

Jasper Edgar Neggers is the Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Promakhos Therapeutics. Jasper is an entrepreneurial, pioneering and innovative scientist with a background in microbiology, immunology, cell biology, target identification and validation, drug discovery and functional genomics. His commitment to entrepreneurship, scientific inquiry and translational research stems from his natural curiosity for biology and biotechnology, which manifested as he grew up in the Netherlands.

Jasper performed his Ph.D. studies at the Rega Institute for Medical Research at the KU Leuven, Belgium. He was among the first scientists to apply CRISPR/Cas to genetically engineer human cells. Jasper collaborated with Karyopharm Therapeutics to validate the mechanism of action of the now marketed anticancer drug Selinexor (XPOVIO®) and the clinical stage drug KPT-9274. In Belgium, Jasper also invented a CRISPR-based genetic screening approach for identification of the cellular target of new candidate drugs.

Jasper arrived in the USA as a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to spearhead a team of researchers to identify and validate new therapeutic targets for cancer. He quickly distinguished himself and was awarded a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation fellowship. As a fellow, Jasper developed an updated compendium of synthetic lethal interactions in cancer, helped identify new metabolic vulnerabilities in pancreatic cancer and continued developing new CRISPR/Cas applications. His work has nominated several new high-priority therapeutic targets for cancer and has led to the initiation of new drug discovery campaigns. As a rising scientific leader, Jasper was on his way to become an assistant professor after receiving the National Cancer Institute Pathway to Independence Award for Outstanding Early-Stage Postdoctoral Researchers. However, ultimately, Jasper wants his research to translate into patient impact and felt that an academic career would not provide the right environment to pursue his vision. So, he handed back his million-dollar grant money and joined Katerina to co-found Promakhos Therapeutics.

Strategic advisors

Joshua R. Korzenik, M.D.
Bio

Joshua R. Korzenik, M.D.

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Joshua R. Korzenik, M.D.

Associate Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School

Resnek Family Distinguished Chair in Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Brigham and Women's Hospital

Director of the Resnek Family Center for Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis Research
Brigham and Women's Hospital

Founding Director of the Crohn's and Colitis Center
Brigham and Women's Hospital

Joshua R. Korzenik, M.D.

Dr. Korzenik is a specialist in Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy that focuses on developing new therapies for inflammatory bowel disease and primary sclerosing cholangitis. He is also well recognized for his compassion and dedication to his patients and for his integrative team approach to patient care. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the Founding Director of the Crohn's and Colitis Center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Director of the Resnek Family Center for Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis Research at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Resnek Family Distinguished Chair in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Korzenik has been involved in inflammatory bowel disease research and patient care for almost 25 years. His insights in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have opened new avenues of research and possible therapies, and he was among the first investigators to research the intestinal microbiome for clues about the role it may play in the development of inflammatory bowel disease as well as in its management through nutrition and therapeutics. Dr. Korzenik is an author of over 100 peer-reviewed articles and research papers and frequently speaks at professional meetings. He was named Humanitarian of the Year in 2013 by the New England Chapter of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America and was awarded the Torch of Friendship in 1999 by the Mid-America Chapter in St. Louis. Moreover, he has sequentially been selected as a Top Doctor by Boston Magazine in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Dr. Korzenik has led and was involved in many major clinical trials of new therapies for inflammatory bowel disease. For example, he has initiated a different therapeutic approach to Crohn’s disease through a set of multi-center clinical studies utilizing granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) and granulocyte macrophagecolony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) as therapeutic agents. In addition, based on an understanding of ulcerative colitis as a vascular disease and under-appreciated properties of heparin, he has previously developed clinical trials using heparin for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. His research has also focused on uncovering better biomarkers that can guide drug development and determine which interventions tested in clinical trials may be most effective and on understanding what initiates and perpetuates inflammation.

Tomi K. Sawyer, Ph.D.
Bio

Tomi K. Sawyer, Ph.D.

Maestro Therapeutics

Tomi K. Sawyer, Ph.D.

Chief Drug Hunter & President
Maestro Therapeutics

Adjunct Professor, Center for Drug Discovery
Northeastern University

Adjunct Professor,  Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Tomi K. Sawyer, Ph.D.

Tomi Sawyer serves as a drug discovery and development consultant. Tomi is an accomplished and entrepreneurial drug hunter, medicinal chemist and chemical biologist with a track record of developing both peptide and small molecule drugs. Tomi has over four decades of industrial experience in both pharma and biotech and is well known for his contributions to GPCR, kinase, protease and protein-protein interaction drug discovery. He is the inventor of the marketed drugs Afamelanotide (Scenesse®, Clinuvel) and Ponatinib (Iclusig®, Ariad Pharmaceuticals [now Takeda]) and is credited with over 600 scientific publications, patents, and presentations.

Tomi is currently the Chief Drug Hunter and President of Maestro Therapeutics, a consulting/advisory enterprise that supports peptide drug discovery in academia, biotech and pharma. Tomi Sawyer has recently retired from his position as Distinguished Scientist, Global Chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories. In this role, he provided leadership to the Peptide Drug Hunter Network and several peptide R&D programs as well as innovative core capabilities and knowledge engine. He previously also served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Aileron, Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery at Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Senior Director, Chemical Sciences at Pfizer and was a past President of the American Peptide Society.

Tomi is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Massachusetts and the Northeastern University Center for Drug Discovery. In addition, he is a Distinguished Alumni Entrepreneur from his undergraduate alma mater, Minnesota State University at Moorhead, and previously served as a member of the MSUM Alumni Foundation Board of Directors. At his graduate alma mater, the University of Arizona, Tomi is a Distinguished Alumni Entrepreneur and has received a Professional Achievement Award from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the College of Science.

Mary Christian, PharmD., MBA
Bio

Mary Christian, PharmD., MBA

C4 Therapeutics

Mary Christian, PharmD., MBA

Senior Vice President, Regulatory
C4 Therapeutics

Mary Christian, PharmD., MBA

Dr. Christian is a pharmaceutical and biotech executive with more than 20 years of regulatory and drug development experience across pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. She has created high functioning, fit-for-purpose teams for emerging biotech, envisioned and built new capabilities in large pharma (e.g. Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology Strategic Collaborations, leading to success in >$50M in development partnerships), and led R&D efforts across a variety of therapeutic areas including, but not limited to, CNS, immunology, and immuno-oncology in all phases of development.

Dr. Christian serves as the Senior Vice President of Regulatory at C4 Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotech developing a pipeline of targeted protein degraders for oncology. Besides her role at C4, Dr. Christian also serves as a scientific advisor to several emerging biotech companies and lectures at MIT on Regulatory Strategies for developing drugs and devices.  

Prior to C4, Dr. Christian was the Senior Vice President of Regulatory, Quality and Compliance at Lyndra Therapeutics, a rapidly growing clinical stage biotech whose mission is to reinvent medicine for a healthier world. She was also a founding member of Cyclerion Therapeutics, a spinout of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals focused on serious and orphan diseases, where she led Regulatory, Quality and Pharmacovigilance. Before her role at Cyclerion, Dr. Christian was Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, where she transformed the regulatory organization, successfully negotiated approval of a stalled marketing application for Linzess® in China, advanced rare disease assets into Phase 1 and 2 and built organization models that enabled the spinoff of various assets.    

Prior to joining the world of biotech in Boston, Dr. Christian created and led successful and innovative teams at Bristol-Myers Squibb by identifying novel ways to accelerate research and the delivery of medicines to patients globally. Dr. Christian also held roles of increasing responsibility in Global Regulatory Affairs at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development (now Janssen Pharmaceutica) across several therapeutic areas.

News

January 27, 2021

Promakhos Therapeutics joins the Harvard Venture Program for Spring 2021

Allston, Massachusetts, United States of America

News

Announcement

Allston, Massachusetts, United States of America

January 27, 2021

Promakhos Therapeutics joins the Harvard Venture Program for Spring 2021

Promakhos Therapeutics is excited to announce it will participate as a new Venture Team for the Spring 2021 season in the Harvard Innovation Labs Venture Program, a 3 month pre-accelerator program offered by Harvard University through the Harvard Business School. Promakhos Therapeutics will be part of the Build It track for Health & Sciences. The Harvard Venture Program provides Promakhos Therapeutics with a supportive community of business experts, mentors and advisors through the Harvard Innovation Labs ecosystem.

The program also offers access to key resources and competitive, non-dilutive funding opportunities. Most importantly, the program sets up the trajectory for Promakhos Therapeutics to compete in the Harvard Innovation Labs Spring 2021 President's Innovation Challenge and the Harvard Allston Venture Fund.

For more information about the Harvard Venture program-associated funding opportunities please visit:

https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/funding-opportunities

Support

Partners

Y Combinator Logo
Logo of Harvard Innovation LabsFAST logoMassBioLogo of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Metaplanet logoThe Allston Venture FundMorrison FoersterLogo of Pioneer Fund

Network

Harvard UniversityBrigham and Women's HospitalMount Sinai LogoIMBB-FORTH logo.
Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteBroad InstituteKU Leuven logo.

Contact us

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founders@promakhos.com
Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab
127 Western Avenue, Allston, MA 02134-1008
United States of America