Adcendo Appoints Dominik Mumberg, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer

• Brings in-depth R&D expertise in oncology, including ADCs, targeted radiotherapies, immuno-oncology and small molecules
• Adcendo building a world class team of experienced biotech & pharma executives and renowned leaders in the ADC field

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Adcendo ApS ("Adcendo"), a biotech company focused on the development of breakthrough antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of underserved cancers, today announces the appointment of Dominik Mumberg, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).

Dominik has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  He joins Adcendo from Bayer AG, where he held several leadership roles of increasing responsibility, including Head of Therapeutic Research Area Oncology and VP, Targeted Alpha Therapies and most recently, Translational Innovation Lead. Dominik has a strong track record in delivering over a dozen innovative NMEs including ADCs, targeted radiotherapies, biologics and small molecules into pre-clinical and clinical development. Before his time at Bayer, Dominik was Director, Apoptosis & Signal Transduction Research at Schering AG. He holds a PhD degree in Molecular Biology from University of Marburg, Germany, and spent three years of postdoctoral research in tumor immunology at the University of Chicago. Dominik is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program and has published more than 70 peer-reviewed publications.

Michael Pehl, Chief Executive Officer of Adcendo, said: "We are very excited to welcome Dominik to the Adcendo team. Dominik's wealth of experience and knowledge in oncology, pre-clinical and clinical development and ADCs will be an invaluable addition to Adcendo, as we aim to exploit the full opportunity of our novel ADC target uPARAP in multiple high unmet need solid tumour indications, and build a pipeline of highly differentiated ADC assets, also including other targets. Throughout the past months, we have continued to build a world class team of experienced biotech executives and renowned leaders in the ADC field, which underscores our commitment to develop breakthrough ADCs for the treatment of patients with underserved cancers." 

Dominik Mumberg, Chief Scientific Officer of Adcendo, commented: "I am very pleased to join Adcendo at this important stage of corporate development. I am extremely impressed by the compelling research and pre-clinical data of uPARAP ADCs for the treatment of mesenchymal tumors such as soft tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma and mesothelioma. I look forward to working closely with the Adcendo team to maximise the potential of our lead development candidate also in epithelial cancers, and to advance our scientific understanding of endocytic receptors as well as our ADC pipeline."

This latest addition to Adcendo's leadership team follows the recent appointments of Carmel M. Lynch, PhD, as Chief Development Officer (CDO), Pernille Høyrup Hemmingsen, PhD, as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Dennis Benjamin, PhD as Research Fellow & Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).

About Adcendo ApS:

Adcendo ApS, a spin-out from the Finsen Laboratory of The University of Copenhagen and Rigshospitalet, is developing breakthrough antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for treatment of underserved cancers. In 2021, the company raised its Series A round of EUR 51 million, investors include Novo Holdings, Ysios Capital, RA Capital Management, HealthCap and Gilde Healthcare.

About antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs):

ADCs are a class of highly potent biopharmaceutical drug composed of a targeting antibody linked to a biologically active drug or cytotoxic compound. ADCs combine the unique and very sensitive targeting capabilities of antibodies, with the potent effects of the conjugated cytotoxic drugs, allowing sensitive discrimination between healthy and cancer tissues.

About the uPARAP target:

uPARAP is a cell-surface receptor was originally identified, cloned and characterized by Adcendo's scientific founders. uPARAP is a cell-surface receptor, which is involved in collagen degradation and displays a differentiated expression profile between healthy tissue and cancer tissue, with several cancer types significantly overexpressing the receptor, including soft-tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma, mesothelioma and glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Additionally, uPARAP is found to be upregulated by cells in the stromal compartment in multiple indications, including breast-, colon-, pancreas- and prostate cancers. uPARAP is a recycling endocytic receptor with extremely rapid internalization kinetics, providing highly efficient entry for ADCs targeting uPARAP-expressing cells. Adcendo has realized the first demonstration of targeted drug delivery via uPARAP.