Experienced biotech executive to steer TRIMTECH growth
Lawton brings substantial expertise in operations, drug development and strategic leadership, together with extensive boardroom experience, to guide and support TRIMTECH’s accelerated portfolio advancement and its next stage of growth.
She has more than 35 years of global pharma and biotech leadership expertise, during which time she has led global regulatory strategy for numerous product approvals; gained extensive experience in preparing organisations for late-stage development, capital raises and public markets; led a billion dollar commercial organisation and held various industry representative positions.
Her executive career includes senior leadership positions at Genzyme (a Sanofi company), where she oversaw multiple global functions across regulatory affairs, market access, quality systems and general business management.
Her most recent position was as CEO of Kaleido Biosciences and prior as the President and COO. She has also held COO roles at Aura Biosciences and X4 Pharmaceuticals. Current Board roles include Chair of the Board of Directors of Dianthus Therapeutics and Board Member for ProQR Therapeutics and BlueRock Therapeutics.
She has also previously chaired and served on boards for other public and private life-science companies, including Spyre Therapeutics and X4 Pharmaceuticals.
Dr Nicola Thompson, CEO, TRIMTECH Therapeutics, said: “We are incredibly thrilled to welcome Alison to the team as Chair. Her exceptional track record will be invaluable as we progress toward the next round of milestones for the company.
“Alison’s experience leading organisations through complex growth phases complements our science-led approach and will strengthen the Board as they guide TRIMTECH towards our goal of delivering accessible, disease-modifying therapies for neurodegeneration.”
Lawton added: “TRIMTECH has built a strong scientific and organisational foundation to deliver on its mission. I look forward to leading the Board as the company moves toward its next phase of financing and advancing its innovative degrader platform.”
Founded on decades of pioneering academic research into the protein TRIM21, a novel E3-ligase, the company has demonstrated its ‘TRIMTAC’ degraders can recapitulate degradation seen with other modalities (vectors and antibodies) whilst leaving the functional monomeric form of the target protein intact and able to support healthy cellular function.
TRIMTECH’s approach opens up much needed small molecule approaches for indications that affect very large populations, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
The company was launched in 2023 by its academic co-founders Leo James, (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology) and Will McEwan, (UK Dementia Research Institute, University of Cambridge), with Cambridge Innovation Capital and SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund in conjunction with their joint entrepreneur-in-residence, Dr Damian Crowther.
TRIMTECH previously announced a $31 million (£25m) seed funding round, led by CIC and DDF, with M Ventures and Pfizer Ventures joining. Additional investors include Eli Lilly and Company, MP Healthcare Venture Management, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and Start Codon.