Rene Lemieux
Head of Research Avilar Therapeutics
SVP and Head of Research at Avilar Therapeutics
René Lemieux is SVP and Head of Research at Avilar Therapeutics and is responsible for driving all aspects of discovery activities for Avilar’s pipeline. René is a senior drug hunter with more than 25 years of industry experience and a track record of delivering drug candidates from lead generation into clinical trials with necessary attributes to be commercially viable (inventor of Tibsovo). He is a co-inventor on over 200 patent applications and nearly 30 issued US patents. Prior to Avilar, he was owner & principal of Tetrahedral Consulting, where he helped enable drug discovery efforts at various early-stage biotech companies. René previously was SVP, Head of Drug Discovery and founding member of the executive team at Faze Medicines, VP, Head of Small Molecule Drug Discovery at KSQ Therapeutics, and Director, Medicinal Chemistry at Agios Pharmaceuticals. René started his career at Boehringer-Ingelheim, where he spent 13 years in drug discovery and rising to Senior Research Fellow. Rene completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia in Organic Chemistry and did a postdoctoral fellowship at Colorado State University.
Seminars
- Defining key principles for expanding the druggable proteome and identifying targets amenable to novel induced proximity strategies
- Investigating unmet needs where emerging modalities outperform traditional degradation and uncovering new therapeutic niches
- Addressing translational hurdles for novel approaches and highlighting biotech priorities in overcoming delivery, specificity and scalability challenges
- Spotlighting the most exciting new directions in induced proximity, from novel E3 ligases to non-degradative functional modulation
- Harnessing natural cellular degradation machinery to eliminate pathogenic extracellular proteins ATACs (ASGPR-Targeting Chimeras)
- Discussing Avilar’s proprietary ASGPR ligands deliver superior affinity and optimized ADME properties, enabling differentiated product profiles. Also detailing from concept to candidate: Avilar’s systematic approach to developing oral ATACs
- Sharing ASGPR ligand optimization for continued improvement in oral bioavailability
- Achieving high oral bioavailability with multiple prototype ATACs targeting diverse proteins, including for Avilar’s cardiometabolic program
