San Diego, California, October 1, 2024 – Plexium, Inc. (Plexium), a leading next-generation targeted protein degradation company, today announced that it has appointed Jorge F. DiMartino, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Clinical and Translational Development. Dr. DiMartino will be responsible for leading Plexium’s clinical function and overseeing the advancement of development stage programs against high-value targets such as SMARCA2, IKZF2, CDK2, CRAF and others.

“We are fortunate to have someone with Jorge’s expertise, vision and drug development experience join us at such a pivotal time in our company evolution,” said Michael Martin, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Plexium. “With over twenty years of clinical and translational development leadership in both biotech and large pharmaceutical settings, Jorge is an important addition to our executive team, strengthening the abilities to optimally progress our product pipeline.”

Prior to joining Plexium, Dr. DiMartino provided strategic leadership and clinical translation support for multiple biotech companies to advance their programs from preclinical through early clinical development. Dr. DiMartino previously served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, Clinical Development at Kronos Bio, Inc. While at Kronos, he built a clinical and translational development group and led the development strategy and execution for three clinical stage programs. Prior to Kronos Bio, Dr. DiMartino was Vice President, Translational Development, Protein Homeostasis and Epigenetics Thematic Center of Excellence at Celgene Corp., with responsibilities for establishing and overseeing a team driving an industry leading epigenetic profiling capabilities in pursuit of chromatin modifier targets. Prior to Celgene, Dr DiMartino was Group Medical Director, BioOncology/ Exploratory Clinical Development at Genentech Inc., where he led the BCL2 (venetoclax, navitoclax) programs and managed a team advancing a broad portfolio of early-stage oncology compounds.

“I am excited to leverage my background in oncology drug development to grow Plexium’s clinical pipeline and realize the exciting potential of its platform by creating next-generation monovalent targeted protein degrader therapeutics,” added Dr. DiMartino. “It is a rare opportunity to work on novel, differentiated programs that have the potential to benefit patients across a landscape of oncology and other diseases, I look forward to contributing to the next phase of Plexium’s growth.”

Dr. DiMartino received a B.A. in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, a Ph.D. in immunology from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and an M.D. from the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. He completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at the Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, and a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Pathology at Stanford.