Tectonic Therapeutic, a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company transforming the discovery of novel G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR)-targeted therapies, today announced that Peter McNamara, PhD has been appointed Senior Vice President, Head of Research.

“Dr. McNamara played a key role in the discovery and preclinical development of eight molecules currently under clinical investigation and three FDA approved drugs, including Zykadia and Braftovi,” said Alise Reicin, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tectonic Therapeutic. “His proven ability to identify and develop drug candidates from early discovery to the clinic across a variety of therapeutic areas will be invaluable as we unlock the full potential of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR)-targeted therapies using our GEODe platform. Peter’s experience is bolstered by his leadership skills in building productive multidisciplinary teams starting from strategy to design principles and implementation both in startup biotech and in the pharma industry. We welcome Peter as a key member of our leadership team at Tectonic.”

Dr. McNamara joins Tectonic from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), where he was Head of Biotherapeutics and Biotechnology, responsible for GNF’s platform technologies in biotherapeutics discovery and optimization, protein sciences, structural biology, functional genomics, high through-put screening, automation and engineering. Dr. McNamara joined the GNF in 2005 as Associate Director of In vivo Pharmacology. From 2009 to 2018 he was Executive Director, Head of Pharmacology and later Executive Director, Head of General Medical Biology where he was responsible for the scientific strategies and drug discovery activities pertaining to GNF’s programs across a broad range of disease areas with special emphasis on regenerative medicine and tissue repair. Dr. McNamara earned his PhD and BSc in Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland at Galway and was a post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania where he became a member of the Faculty at the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics in the School of Medicine.

“Tectonic has the technology and the experienced team to expand and accelerate the development of GPCR-targeted therapies with biologics,” said Dr. McNamara. “The GEODe platform that Tectonic has developed is incredibly exciting and can be utilized to develop drugs that improve patient care across a number of therapeutic areas. I look forward to working with Dr. Reicin and the members of the Tectonic management team to develop new therapeutics based on this remarkable technology.”

About Tectonic Therapeutic

Tectonic, co-founded by Andrew Kruse and Tim Springer of Harvard Medical School, is transforming the discovery of antibodies and other biologic drugs targeting G-protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) to develop novel therapies for patients inadequately served by current treatments. With our proprietary GEODe platform, we aim to unlock the therapeutic utility of the most difficult receptors in the class, to date considered undruggable with small molecules. For more information, please visit www.tectonictx.com, or follow us on LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210527005293/en/