Cizzle Biotechnology Holdings plc (LON:CIZ), the UK based diagnostics developer, is pleased to announce that Professor Dawn Coverley, Founder and Non-Executive Director (NED) of Cizzle Biotechnology has, with immediate effect, been appointed Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), an executive role on the board of the Company.
Key Highlights
· Professor Dawn Coverley has been appointed CSO with immediate effect. Her new role is an executive role on the Company’s board and replaces her current position as an NED.
· Successful completion of a technical programme to launch the most cost-effective and scalable version of the CIZ1B biomarker assay as an ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) for CLIA accreditation.
The change in role from NED to CSO, enables Dawn to allocate more of her expert time to directly support the Company’s licensing partners, particularly in the USA, to support Cizzle Bio Inc’s CAP (College of American Pathologists) accredited laboratory partners, helping them to achieve CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) LDT (Laboratory Developed Test) accreditation and identify and lead new non-dilutive grant funded research and clinical evaluations.
Dawn is currently a professor and principal investigator of a research laboratory at the University of York, studying how specialised cells are protected from age-related decay. After a first degree in Genetics (Leicester), and a PhD in Biochemistry (Cancer Research UK), she completed postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge, then moved to the University of York to establish an independent research group in 2002, supported by the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine.
Dawn will reduce a number of her current teaching and scientific roles at the University of York in order to devote sufficient time to the Company’s activities, whilst maintaining a number of key roles, including leadership of her research group and management of the Company’s existing research and development contract at the University of York.
The timing of this appointment coincides with the successful completion of the technical programme which confirms that the most cost-effective and scalable version of the CIZ1B biomarker assay for CLIA accreditation is an ELISA. The rigorous quality control programme undertaken has been able to demonstrate equivalence with initial manual laboratory tests and with the BioTechne ProteinSimple capillary Western system. Results have shown sensitivity equivalent to published CIZ1B lung cancer studies *, and an ability to correctly identify people with lung cancer with few false negative results. This is another major step in demonstrating that the Company’s lung cancer blood test is both cost effective and a commercially scalable global solution to reduce premature cancer deaths and improve survival rates and quality of life for cancer patients.
Commenting, Allan Syms, Executive Chairman of Cizzle Biotechnology, said:
“I am delighted that Dawn will be able to allocate more of her time to directly support the Company as we progress through the commercial phase and the test is rolled out to partner laboratories. As the founder of Cizzle and the world expert on the CIZ1 gene and our CIZ1B variant biomarker, Dawn will be able to take a greater role in the direction and implementation of our entire research and development programme, managing Cizzle’s participation in clinical evaluations with cancer centres across the globe and directly supporting the Company’s licensing partners’ route to market. We are extremely grateful to the University of York for accommodating this change in her role which will enable her to continue as head of her research group, and in delivering our important research agreement with the University.”
* Variant Ciz1 is a circulating biomarker for early-stage lung cancer PNAS USA 2012 and A quantitative immunoassay for lung cancer biomarker CIZ1b in patient plasma Clin Biochem. 2017
