Next-Gen Gene Editing, Keith Gottesdiener, President & CEO, Jeremy Duffield, CSO, Prime Medicine
Synopsis:
Keith Gottesdiener, MD, and Jeremy Duffield, MD, PhD, FRCP, are the President & CEO and CSO, respectively, of Prime Medicine. Prime Medicine was founded to bring the promise of gene editing to patients. They use Prime Editing, a next-generation technology that can “search and replace” to restore normal genetic function almost anywhere in the genome. Keith and Jeremy discuss the arc of their careers and how they got to where they are today. They talk about the differences working in big pharma vs. a smaller biotech like Prime. They discuss the importance of companies investing in safety and what they’ve learned regarding indication selection frameworks in gene editing. Finally, they talk about their goal of engaging in partnerships down the road, and the importance of having transparency within their organization.
Biography:
Keith Gottesdiener, MD is President and Chief Executive Officer of Prime Medicine and has served as a member of our Board of Directors since July 2020. From October 2011 until March 2020, Dr. Gottesdiener served as the Chief Executive Officer and a director of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that develops therapeutics in rare genetic obesity. During that time, Rhythm submitted a New Drug Application for setmelanotide in two indications, for which setmelanotide was subsequently approved.
Dr. Gottesdiener joined Rhythm after 16 years at Merck Research Laboratories, where, starting in 1995, he held positions of increasing responsibility, including serving as a leader of Merck’s late clinical development organization from 2006 to 2011 and leading Merck’s early clinical development across all therapeutic areas from 2001 through early 2006. In such roles, Dr. Gottesdiener oversaw, led, or played a lead role in the development of most of Merck’s approved therapeutics and vaccines.
Dr. Gottesdiener received his B.A. from Harvard College and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency and fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-Beth Israel Medical Center-Dana Farber Cancer Institute Children’s Hospital programs. After his fellowship, Dr. Gottesdiener did postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Jack Strominger at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He then joined the faculty as an assistant professor at Columbia University, where he started an independent research laboratory with NIH RO-1 funding, ending his academic career as Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the time he left to join Merck in 1995. Dr. Gottesdiener is also a director at Intercept Pharmaceutics, and at Cardurion Pharmaceuticals.
Jeremy Duffield, MD, PhD, FRCP, is the Chief Scientific Officer of Prime Medicine. He has many years of drug discovery experience at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Biogen Inc. preceded by a distinguished career in academic medicine.
Dr. Duffield has held several leadership roles, with focus in the fields of human genetics, innate immunity and regenerative medicine. He served as Global Head of Human Biology at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and as Vice President of Business Development where he and his team played important roles in discovering and advancing candidates to clinical studies in rare diseases including cystic fibrosis, a1-antitrypsin deficiency, sickle cell disease, FSGS and muscular dystrophies. Several candidates are now approved therapies. He was instrumental in building Vertex Cell and Genetic Therapies.
At Biogen, Dr. Duffield served as Senior Research Fellow and Vice President with responsibilities in early research programs, as joint Head of Innate Immunity and Regenerative Medicine therapeutic area, and as Head of the Biogen Post-Doctoral program. There he contributed to advancing integrin inhibitors, TNF superfamily inhibitors and IRAK inhibitors to clinical evaluation for pulmonary fibrosis and autoimmune diseases.
Prior to joining the leadership at Biogen, Dr. Duffield had a distinguished academic career on the faculty at University of Washington and Harvard Medical School as Head of the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences/American Heart Association-funded Laboratory for Innate Immunity and Regeneration. His laboratory used contemporary genetic methods to study cell and molecular function in innate immune and vascular cells in disease. Inventions from the laboratory contributed to the creation of several biotech companies, two of which advanced candidates now in late clinical trials. Additionally, Dr. Duffield practiced Internal Medicine and Nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital until 2019.
Dr. Duffield served on NIH study sections, several company scientific advisory boards, is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and received many scientific awards including the ASN-AHA Young Investigator Award and the NIH Early Career Investigator/Scholar Award.
Dr. Duffield received his B.A. and M.D. (B.M., B.Ch.) from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Edinburgh in the laboratory of Sir John Savill.