David Dimmock Named Chief Medical Officer of Creyon Bio

David Dimmock Named Chief Medical Officer of Creyon Bio
Credit: © Kirsty Pargeter/Fotolia.com
David Dimmock, M.D.

Preeminent clinical genomic medicine pioneer David Dimmock, M.D. has joined RNA-based medicine developer Creyon Bio as chief medical officer, the company announced today. Dimmock, working in the lab of Howard Jacob at Medical College of Wisconsin was an instrumental part of the first team of researchers to genome sequencing to diagnose a rare disease young boy and to use that diagnosis to provide a treatment.

A practicing physician, Dimmock specializes in the long-term care of patients with mitochondrial and metabolic disorders and the identification of rare disorders through newborn screening and advanced genomic techniques.

“It is difficult to find someone today who is more passionate or experienced than David in translating genomic diagnosis to precision medical care,” said Chris Hart, Ph.D., co-founder, CEO, and President of Creyon Bio in a press release. “David complements our exceptional multidisciplinary team, and together we will change how precision medicines are created for patients. We are committed to improving the outcome for patients, and David is the CMO who can help us achieve our mission.”

Dimmock is one of number of the core researchers at Medical College of Wisconsin where the first rare disease genomic diagnosis occurred to leave the school and broaden the reach of genomic diagnoses and genomic medicine at other organizations. Jacob has since taken the role of vice president of genomics research and head of data integration at pharma company AbbVie, and Elizabeth Worthey—another key member of that team—is now section head, director, and associate professor; and head, director and associate professor in the departments of pathology and pediatrics at the UAB School of Medicine.

Dimmock has spent the past six years working with Stephen Kingsmore at Rady Children’s Institute of Genomic Medicine (RCIGM) helping to lead the implementation of rapid precision medicine based on whole genome sequencing. At RCIGM, he designed and led studies demonstrating that genomic sequencing of critically ill children provides dramatic change in medical management and health care cost savings. In addition to his genomics research, Dimmock has been the principal investigator on more than twenty industry-sponsored clinical trials for novel therapeutics in orphan metabolic disease.

“Creyon Bio’s vision is to lead a shift in oligonucleotide-based medicine development and over time deliver a regulatory agency-approved platform that connects definitive diagnosis to precision, personalized therapy,” Dimmock said in a press announcement. “I am excited to join Creyon Bio in building a faster, more cost-effective path to safely and predictably engineer novel OBM therapeutics for patients in need in time to make a difference.”

According to the Creyon Bio website, the pre-clinical company is working to develop a model that will provide “medicines on demand.” It is pursing this model by creating new oligonucleotide-based medicines (OBMs), which it says are an ideal modality for creating gene-centric therapies.

“Unlike other drug modalities such as small molecules or antibodies, a principal way OBMs interact with targets is through well understood Watson-Crick-Franklin hybridization: a zipper-like process that selectively and precisely targets specific positions of DNA or RNA molecules within the cell,” the company state further on its website. “They can control the effective activity of genes through multiple mechanisms. They can enhance or block molecular interactions which can control how genetic information is used by the cell.  This provides the foundation for creating new medicines which directly address the genetic and molecular basis of disease – from preventing the production of toxic RNAs or protein products, to increasing the levels of insufficiently expressed enzymes, to even editing mRNA or changing how the splicing machinery assembles the genetic instructions which control protein production.”

Dimmock’s role as CMO will be to help develop the pre-clinical and clinical data to support Creyon’s platform to deliver on-demand OBMs.