CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ROME Therapeutics, a biotechnology company harnessing the power of the dark genome to develop breakthrough medicines for cancer and autoimmune diseases, today announced the appointment of Jeff Hatfield as Chair of the ROME Board of Directors. Currently serving as Chief Executive Officer of Vividion Therapeutics, Mr. Hatfield brings more than three decades of successful industry leadership across biotech and pharmaceuticals.
“We are excited to bring Jeff on to the ROME team as the Chair of our Board of Directors. His background across multiple therapeutic areas and his expertise in guiding novel platform companies to significant value will be of great benefit as we continue to grow and develop our pipeline,” said Rosana Kapeller, M.D., Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of ROME.
Mr. Hatfield leads development of a portfolio of first-in-class oncology and immunology programs at Vividion, which was acquired by Bayer Pharmaceuticals for $1.5 billion, and leverages a unique chemoproteomic discovery platform to target disease-causing proteins historically believed to be undruggable. Prior to joining Vividion, Mr. Hatfield served as Chief Executive Officer of Vitae Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer in computational structure-based drug discovery, where he oversaw the successful early development of several therapeutic programs and the company’s ultimate acquisition by Allergan. Earlier in his career, he held multiple senior leadership roles at Bristol Myers Squibb, including Senior Vice President, Immunology and Virology Divisions, President, BMS-Canada and Head of U.S. Market Access.
“I am impressed by ROME’s unique work to unlock the dark genome – the expansive portion of human DNA only now emerging as a valuable source of completely novel therapeutics in cancer and autoimmune diseases,” said Mr. Hatfield. “This is an exciting time to join, with the science gaining momentum and multiple discovery programs underway. I look forward to working with the team to advance ROME’s fascinating technologies and pipeline, with the clear goal of bringing new therapies to patients in need.”
Mr. Hatfield currently serves on the Board of Directors of Vir Biotechnology and is a Key Advisory Board member for Harvard Business School’s Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship. He is also a faculty member at Purdue University, where he teaches entrepreneurship to doctoral students. Mr. Hatfield holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in pharmacy from Purdue University.
About ROME
ROME Therapeutics is developing novel therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases by illuminating the dark genome and decoding the repeatome within – the vast stretches of uncharted genetic material comprising repeat sequence motifs derived from the integration of viruses into the human genome throughout evolution. With several drug targets identified and multiple discovery programs underway, ROME is moving rapidly to leverage this new frontier in biology. To lead this exploration, ROME has assembled a team of world-class leaders across oncology, immunology, virology and machine learning. ROME is based in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.rometx.com.
