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Over 160 CEOs Sign MassBio’s Pledge to Create a More Equitable and Inclusive Life Sciences Industry

Four months after launch, Rome Therapeutics has hired a new chief scientist. Dennis Zaller, Ph.D., arrives at the startup from Celgene, where he spent five years overseeing partnerships with early-stage biotechs across immunology, fibrosis and immuno-oncology and ushering six new drugs into the clinic. |  FIERCE Biotech

ROME announced Wednesday that Zaller would be joining the biotech as chief scientific officer. So far, it’s the young company’s biggest hire to date. |  Endpoints News

Rome Therapeutics started lockdown with a “quarantini” happy hour, where employees made a drink, sat at a computer screen and chatted about life. “That got old quite fast,” said co-founder and CEO Rosana Kapeller. |  WSJ

Rosana was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, and went to medical school there before coming to the Boston area to do her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology. She has serious science and technology chops, and is now learning to adjust to the new role of being a CEO.  |  The Timmerman Report

Rome integrates genomic, transcriptomic, epigenetic and proteomic data into its machine learning analyses to identify tissue- and disease-specific repeat RNAs. |  BioCentury

Rome is taking the path less traveled…with a leadership team comprised entirely of women. “Although that was not done on purpose, it reflects that right now we have a robust pipeline of senior leaders who are female, and I’m very proud of that,” Kapeller said. “That could not be done 10 years ago.” |  Xconomy

For decades, scientists have mostly focused on just two percent of the genes that encode proteins in drug discovery. The rest, which is largely comprised of the repeatome, is often dismissed by many as junk DNA. Rosana had a hunch that something powerful is hidden in that "junk". |  GV

“It is wild, and that’s what I love about it,” Kapeller says. “I always say, ‘Give me the hardest problem in biology to solve.’” |  C&EN

These virus- like strands of genetic material stay dormant in healthy cells, but when cells undergo stress—during circumstances like an infection, cancer or autoimmune disease—they “wake up” and may play a role in the development of that disease. |  FierceBiotech

It has become increasingly clear that at least part of the repeatome is integral to how cells function and plays a significant role in human health. These strands of genetic material… are called into action during times of stress. And it’s thought they play a role in driving diseases such as cancer. |  VentureBeat

They’re one of the first jumping into a still-emerging field and their goal is sustained remission: cancer and autoimmune treatments that won’t stop working after a few months, or years. |  Endpoints News