Sortina Pharma appoints Dr. Dione Kobayashi as Scientific Advisor

Sortina Pharma, a pioneer in the development of next-generation cancer therapies, today announced the appointment of Dione Kobayashi, PhD as Scientific Advisor.

Dr. Kobayashi is Partner of Amplify and Head of Therapeutics at Mass General Brigham (MGB) Innovation, where she manages the pre-commercial fund and team and invests in and operates pre-companies and newcos, including in neuroscience. She has extensive experience in translational drug development and company creation within the central nervous system (CNS) field, and has previously served as Vice President of Preclinical Translation at Cydan Development and held director roles at the neurodegeneration companies Alector and Annexon, as well as at the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation. Earlier in her career she spent around ten years as a scientist and research program leader at Genentech, Elan and Pfizer. She has launched or co-founded several companies in CNS, gene therapy and rare disease. Dr. Kobayashi holds a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh and an undergraduate degree from MIT.

As Scientific Advisor, Dr. Kobayashi will support Sortina Pharma as the company prepares for candidate drug selection and the IND-enabling program, with glioblastoma as the lead indication.

"Dione combines deep experience in CNS drug development with a strong track record in building and financing biotech companies," said Sara Rhost, CEO of Sortina Pharma. "Her perspective will be valuable as we take our sortilin inhibitors toward the clinic in glioblastoma, a brain cancer with very high unmet need."

Dr. Kobayashi commented:

" I am pleased to join Sortina Pharma as Scientific Advisor. Glioblastoma has very high unmet medical need, and I look forward to supporting the team as it advances its sortilin inhibitor program toward the clinic”.

This appointment further strengthens Sortina Pharma’s scientific leadership and underscores its commitment to advancing innovative approaches to treating aggressive and hard-to-treat cancers.

She co-founded Sortina Pharma together with professor Göran Landberg and GU Ventures in 2020.

About Sortina Pharma

Sortina Pharma is a pre-clinical drug development company founded in 2020 based on research originating from professor Göran Landberg´s research group at Gothenburg University. The company develops anti-Sortilin small molecule inhibitors as oral treatment for cancer patients, with or at risk of recurrencies and metastases, aiming to increase survival rates of incurable Sortilin positive cancers such as Glioblastoma, Breast Cancer, Melanoma and Pancreatic Cancer.

For more information, please contact

Sara Rhost, CEO, sararhost@sortinapharma.com