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Companies Enter Agreement to Co-Develop First-in-Class Small Molecule Therapies for Key Lysosomal Storage Disorders

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – May 8, 2013 – Nimbus Discovery, LLC, a biotechnology company discovering novel medicines against exciting but previously inaccessible disease targets, today announced a co-development agreement with Shire plc focused on small molecule treatments for several rare genetic diseases known as lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs). The goal of the collaboration is to utilize the Nimbus breakthrough computational chemistry approach to discover and develop novel, disease-altering therapies. Many LSDs remain untreated because of challenges in creating drugs that can effectively reach the disease site. The significant potential of this partnership is the development of the first small molecule agents designed to penetrate inaccessible tissues while offering the convenience of an orally-administered pill.

The Nimbus Shire collaboration is the result of a joint assessment of a series of important rare disease targets with significant unmet medical need. One target was ultimately chosen to be the research focus. Under the terms of the agreement, Nimbus will use its cutting-edge research and development platform to extensively profile molecules against the agreed upon disease target and will deliver a drug candidate that is ready to enter late preclinical studies. Nimbus will control and conduct all related research up to achievement of drug candidate status at which point Shire will have an exclusive option to acquire the program. Shire will then be responsible for all clinical development and future commercialization activities. Nimbus is eligible to receive preclinical, development and commercial stage milestones commensurate with the innovative nature of the research and significant unmet medical need of the disease indications.

“This collaboration validates our computationally-driven, structure-based drug discovery engine and innovative partnering model,” said Rosana Kapeller, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Nimbus. “Nimbus is thrilled to pursue our first alliance with Shire, a company that shares our passion for uncovering breakthroughs in highly sought-after disease targets that have proven inaccessible to traditional industry approaches.”

“Nimbus is ground-breaking in their approach to drug discovery and, in a short period of time, have already assembled an impressive track record in delivering clinical candidates for challenging disease targets,” said Dr. Philip J. Vickers, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Shire. “As a leader in rare diseases, this partnership is another way for Shire to ensure that we expand into new disease areas and continue to apply cutting edge technologies in this space. This agreement complements Shire’s long-term commitment to bring innovative therapies to patients with rare diseases worldwide.”

This is the first deal announced through Shire’s strategic alliance with Atlas Venture, which identifies investments for early stage venture creation around rare genetic diseases.

About Lysosomal Storage Disorders

Lysosomal Storage Disorders are a group of approximately 50 rare inherited metabolic disorders that are caused by a lack of enzymes that normally eliminate unwanted substances in human cells. Lysosomes act as the “recycling center” of each cell, breaking down unwanted material into simple products for the cell to use for building new material. The lack or malfunction of certain enzymes causes a buildup of the molecules that the enzyme would normally eliminate, and deposits accumulate in many cells of the body. Abnormal storage impairs cell function and can cause damage to the body’s cells, which can lead to serious health problems. Lysosomal storage diseases predominantly affect children, many of which die within a few months or years of birth if untreated.

About Nimbus

Nimbus Discovery, a biotechnology company, harnesses cutting-edge computational technologies to uncover breakthroughs in small molecule pharmacology. Nimbus focuses on medically important and highly sought-after disease targets that have proven inaccessible to traditional industry approaches. Nimbus’ robust pre-clinical pipeline includes novel agents for the treatment of cancer, metabolic disease and inflammation. The company is organized as a constellation of small, nimble teams of experienced drug-hunters deployed across program-focused subsidiary companies. Each team is freed from conventional barriers to scientific success, chartered to create solutions, and geared for program asset deals with leading pharmaceutical companies. Founded in 2009, Nimbus partnered with Schrödinger to invent and apply a physics-based approach that establishes a new standard for rational drug design. Nimbus is backed by world-class life science investors, including Atlas Venture, SR One, Lilly Ventures and Bill Gates. For more information please visit www.nimbustx.com.

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Scientific Leader to Support Nimbus’ IRAK4 and ACC Programs on Path to IND in 2014

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – February 6, 2013 – Nimbus Discovery LLC, a biotechnology company discovering novel medicines against exciting but previously inaccessible drug targets, today announced the appointment of William “Wes” F. Westlin, Ph.D., as Head of Preclinical Research & Early Development. Dr. Westlin joins Nimbus from Celgene, where he was Vice President, Preclinical Research, following Celgene’s acquisition of Avila Therapeutics in 2012.

“Wes is an outstanding scientific leader who will help us accelerate our IRAK4 and ACC programs towards early proof of concept in the clinic,” said Rosana Kapeller, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Nimbus. “He brings broad and highly relevant drug development expertise most recently from Avila’s Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (Btk) and EGFR-mutant selective inhibitor (EMSI) programs. We are tremendously excited to welcome him to Nimbus.”

“Nimbus has clearly demonstrated that it can drug the toughest targets in important, validated pathways and I am convinced that their approach will enable the development of novel therapeutics in oncology, immunology and metabolic disease,” said Dr. Westlin. “I am delighted to join such an outstanding group of collaborative scientists.”

Dr. Westlin has more than 20 years of drug discovery and development experience. During his tenure at Avila, and later Celgene, he was responsible for all of the company’s preclinical efforts, including biology research, pharmacology, toxicology, ADME/PK, and clinical strategic planning. He successfully advanced Avila’s Btk program into Phase 1 development for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Westlin joined Avila in 2007 as the company’s third employee and helped build the R&D department to more than 40 employees. Within this five-year period, Dr. Westlin contributed to more than 10 projects from lead optimization to Phase 1 proof-of-concept, and advanced three programs to IND ready stage.

Prior to joining Avila, Dr. Westlin served as the Senior Vice President for Preclinical Research at Praecis Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for preclinical activities in oncology, immunoinflammatory diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease programs. Before joining Praecis, Dr. Westlin held scientific positions of increasing responsibility in the immunology, molecular pharmacology, and oncology research units of Monsanto/Searle and subsequently Pharmacia. He has co-authored more than 40 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, has been named a co-inventor on multiple patents and has been invited to deliver scientific presentations around the world. Dr. Westlin also currently serves as a Board member for the Inflammation Research Association. He received his Master’s and Ph.D. in Pharmacology from New York Medical College and his B.S. in Biology from the University of Richmond.

About Nimbus

Nimbus Discovery, a biotechnology company, harnesses cutting-edge computational technologies to uncover breakthroughs in small molecule pharmacology. Nimbus focuses on medically important and highly sought-after disease targets that have proven inaccessible to traditional industry approaches. Nimbus’ robust pre-clinical pipeline includes novel agents for the treatment of cancer, metabolic disease and inflammation. The company is organized as a constellation of small, nimble teams of experienced drug-hunters deployed across program-focused subsidiary companies. Each team is freed from conventional barriers to scientific success, chartered to create solutions, and geared for program asset deals with leading pharmaceutical companies. Founded in 2009, Nimbus partnered with Schrödinger to invent and apply a physics-based approach that establishes a new standard for rational drug design. Nimbus is backed by world-class life science investors, including Atlas Venture, SR One, Lilly Ventures and Bill Gates. For more information please visit www.nimbustx.com.

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Company successfully discovered and optimized the first small molecule allosteric inhibitors of ACC achieving excellent potency, selectivity and drug-like properties within 12 months

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – January 28, 2013 – Nimbus Discovery LLC, a biotechnology company discovering novel medicines against exciting but previously inaccessible drug targets, will present preclinical data today at the Keystone Symposia Conference: Adipose Tissue Biology in Keystone, Colo., that show that the company has identified a series of novel, highly potent, and highly selective Acetyl CoA Carboxylase (ACC)1/2 allosteric inhibitors. Inhibition of ACC reduces fatty acid synthesis and stimulates fatty acid oxidation and has the potential to favorably affect the morbidity and mortality associated with obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver diseases.

Most efforts to discover ACC inhibitors have focused on interactions within the carboxyltransferase (CT) domain of the enzyme active center resulting in poor drug-like properties and have thus failed to provide benefit to patients. In contrast, Nimbus focused on the biotin carboxylase (BC) domain where the natural product soraphen interacts. Nimbus ACC allosteric inhibitors demonstrate excellent drug-like properties and show liver-muscle exposure that is aligned with driving outstanding pharmacology in preclinical models of disease.

Key findings of the Nimbus compounds presented at the conference include:

• Development of this series of ACC inhibitors has yielded deep structure-activity relationships, sub-nanomolar enzyme inhibition, functional activity in cellular assays and favorable drug-like properties leading to in vivo proof of concept.
• ND-630, the Nimbus lead compound, potently inhibits hepatic fatty acid synthesis (ED₅₀ = 0.14 mg/kg) in a highly dose-dependent manner and stimulates whole body fatty acid oxidation (minimum effective dose 3 mg/kg) in preclinical models of disease.

“Using our state-of-the art structure-based drug design approach, Nimbus was able to identify potent small molecule ACC inhibitors, with excellent pharmaceutical properties, 12 months after hits were generated from an in silico screen. We believe that we are the first company to create drug-like allosteric inhibitors against ACC. The impressive potency and selectivity of our molecules could translate into significant safety and efficacy benefits in the clinic,” said Rosana Kapeller, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Nimbus. “We are now conducting a detailed pharmacological evaluation of this broad portfolio of potent allosteric inhibitors, including ND-630, and will provide an update on these data in metabolic disease, diabetes and cancer tumor metabolism models in the near future.”

About Nimbus

Nimbus Discovery, a biotechnology company, harnesses cutting-edge computational technologies to uncover breakthroughs in small molecule pharmacology. We focus on medically important and highly sought-after disease targets that have proven inaccessible to traditional industry approaches. Our robust pre-clinical pipeline includes novel agents for the treatment of cancer, metabolic disease and inflammation. Nimbus is organized as a constellation of small, nimble teams of experienced drug-hunters deployed across program-focused subsidiary companies. Each team is freed from conventional barriers to scientific success, chartered to create solutions, and geared for program asset deals with leading pharmaceutical companies. Founded in 2009, Nimbus partnered with Schrödinger to invent and apply a physics-based approach that establishes a new standard for rational drug design. Nimbus is backed by world-class life science investors, including Atlas Venture, SR One, Lilly Ventures and Bill Gates. For more information please visit www.nimbustx.com.

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Potential to increase durability and response rates in lymphoid malignancies
Novel genetically targeted therapy for tumors with activating L265P MyD88 mutation
Data presented at the 54th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – December 9, 2012 – Nimbus Discovery LLC, a biotechnology company discovering novel medicines against exciting but previously inaccessible disease targets, will present preclinical data today that show that the novel Nimbus IRAK4 inhibitors (ND-2110 and ND-2158) when combined with the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, ibrutinib, work synergistically to induce selective cell death in hematological tumors with the activating MyD88 mutation. This genetically-defined patient population can be identified in the clinic prior to treatment increasing the potential for positive response. These findings were generated in collaboration with Louis M. Staudt, M.D., Ph.D., Head, Molecular Biology of Lymphoid Malignancies Section at the National Cancer Institute.

IRAK4 and BTK are well-known signaling kinases required for tumor cell survival and proliferation. The synergism of IRAK4 and BTK inhibition was demonstrated in both ABC-DLBCL and Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia tumor cells at the 54^th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting being held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga.

“Nimbus is the first drug developer to uncover the underlying drivers of potency and selectivity for IRAK4, enabling us to identify truly selective IRAK4 inhibitors in less than two years since the company was founded,” said Rosana Kapeller, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Nimbus. “These data highlight that our novel compounds have the potential to treat a genetically identified patient population, who lack effective treatment options, with a highly targeted cancer treatment with improved likelihood of clinical success. We expect to initiate clinical studies in patients with hematological tumors in 2014.”

Abstract #62 IRAK4 Kinase As A Novel Therapeutic Target in the ABC Subtype of Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma

Kian-Huat Lim, M.D., Ph.D., Medical Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute/ National Institutes of Health, Bethesda

Sunday, December 9, 2012: 12:15 PM

B401-B402, Level 4, Building B (Georgia World Congress Center)

• The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 79,190 new patients diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012 and approximately 20,130 deaths
• Oncogenic MyD88 mutations are present in 39% of activated B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (ABC DLBCL), and many other lymphoid malignancies
• Oncogenic MyD88^L265P constitutively engages IRAK4/IRAK1 kinases to activate the canonical NF-kB pathway and promote lymphoma cell division and survival
• IRAK4 kinase activity is obligatory for MyD88^L265P-driven oncogenic signaling
• IRAK4 inhibitors are universally toxic towards ABC DLBCL tumors containing MyD88^L265 but not cell lines with wild type MyD88 or germinal center B-cell-like (GCB) DLBCL, consistent with the highly specific mechanism of action.
• ND-2158 is well-tolerated in NOD-SCID mice, and shows single agent activity in a DLBCL xenograft (OCI-LY10)
• The compounds demonstrate good pharmacologic drug-like properties and are expected to have a suitable safety profile for clinical evaluation
• Preclinical data strongly support pharmacologic inhibition of IRAK4 kinase activity as a novel and promising therapeutic strategy for treatment of MyD88-mutated DLBCL, and potentially other lymphoid malignancies
• Combined inhibition of BTK and IRAK4 signaling should be explored as a novel therapeutic strategy in ABC DLBCL

About Nimbus

Nimbus Discovery, a biotechnology company, harnesses cutting-edge computational technologies to uncover breakthroughs in small molecule pharmacology. We focus on medically important and highly sought-after disease targets that have proven inaccessible to traditional industry approaches. Our robust pre-clinical pipeline includes novel agents for the treatment of cancer, metabolic disease and inflammation. Nimbus is organized as a constellation of small, nimble teams of experienced drug-hunters deployed across program-focused subsidiary companies. Each team is freed from conventional barriers to scientific success, chartered to create solutions, and geared for program asset deals with leading pharmaceutical companies. Founded in 2009, Nimbus partnered with Schrödinger to invent and apply a physics-based approach that establishes a new standard for rational drug design. Nimbus is backed by world-class life science investors, including Atlas Venture, SR One, Lilly Ventures and Bill Gates. For more information please visit www.nimbustx.com.

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Proprietary physics-based drug discovery technology enabled rapid identification of potent and selective drug candidates for previously inaccessible target

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – November 12, 2012 – Nimbus Discovery LLC, a biotechnology company discovering novel medicines against exciting but previously inaccessible disease targets, will present data today at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, D.C., demonstrating robust efficacy and selectivity of their IRAK4-inhibitors in preclinical models of rheumatic and auto-immune diseases. IRAK4, is a kinase protein, well-validated and long sought after as a target for the treatment of such conditions as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease. Previous attempts to identify small molecule modulators of IRAK4 have failed, and yet, the Nimbus compounds show good drug-like properties and are candidates for further development with the potential to make a significant positive impact on patients.

More than 100 conditions fall under the category of rheumatic disease and there are approximately 46 million people in the United States living with some form of the disease. Rheumatic diseases affect the joints and bones and cause chronic joint pain, swelling, and stiffness, and some affect other areas of the body, including the heart, kidneys, lungs, and skin. The drugs currently available to treat most of these conditions do not provide a cure but rather limit the symptoms.

Using a physics-based computational approach, Nimbus and their co-founding partner, Schrödinger Inc., uncovered previously unexploited drivers of potency and selectivity. These insights were used to discover, design, synthesize and test the first truly selective small molecule IRAK4 inhibitors. The three Nimbus novel compounds, ND-346, ND-2110 and ND-2158 demonstrated high selectivity against a panel of 334 kinases, and potent in vitro inhibition of cytokine production in cells and whole blood. Moreover, robust in vivo efficacy was achieved in collagen-induced arthritis, psoriasis and mono-sodium urate (MSU) gout mouse models.

“Previous attempts to modulate IRAK4 have resulted in poor selectivity and inadequate drug-like properties,” said Rosana Kapeller, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Nimbus. “These data validate Nimbus’ computational approach to drug discovery and demonstrate our ability to quickly and efficiently identify high potential drug candidates for a target that has challenged researchers for more than a decade.”

Download the poster presented by Nimbus Discovery at the 2012 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual Scientific Meeting (PDF File)

About Nimbus

Nimbus Discovery, a biotechnology company, harnesses cutting-edge computational technologies to uncover breakthroughs in small molecule pharmacology. We focus on medically important and highly sought-after disease targets that have proven inaccessible to traditional industry approaches. Our robust pre-clinical pipeline includes novel agents for the treatment of cancer, metabolic disease and inflammation. Nimbus is organized as a constellation of small, nimble teams of experienced drug-hunters deployed across program-focused subsidiary companies. Each team is freed from conventional barriers to scientific success, chartered to create solutions, and geared for program asset deals with leading pharmaceutical companies. Founded in 2009, Nimbus partnered with Schrödinger to invent and apply a physics-based approach that establishes a new standard for rational drug design. Nimbus is backed by world-class life science investors, including Atlas Venture, SR One, Lilly Ventures and Gates Ventures. For more information please visit www.nimbustx.com.

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Expands Breadth of Nimbus Drug Discovery Network

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – November 8, 2012 – Nimbus Discovery LLC, today announced that it has executed a Privileged Partnership Agreement with Proteros Biostructures GmbH (“Proteros”), Martinsried, Germany. This partnership will accelerate drug discovery efforts against a growing pipeline of medically important targets.

Nimbus joins a select number of prestigious pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that have entered into Privileged Partnership Agreements with Proteros. Privileged Partners are able to preferentially access Proteros’ new Gallery Structures, technologies and extensive in-house expertise to accelerate structure-based drug discovery efforts.

Jonathan Montagu, Vice President, Business Development and Operations at Nimbus commented, “Our cutting-edge computational platform relies heavily upon high quality x-ray structure data. Hence, our current collaboration with Proteros has been instrumental in our success with previously inaccessible targets. This expanded partnership is a logical progression of how we are integrating leading edge technologies to create a new model for drug discovery.”

Cony D’Cruz, Chief Business Officer and President, Proteros, US Inc. added, “We are excited to expand our collaboration with Nimbus. The relationship has been very productive and we look forward to continuing to support Nimbus’ innovative and proven discovery platform.”

About Nimbus

Nimbus Discovery, a biotechnology company, harnesses cutting-edge computational technologies to uncover breakthroughs in small molecule pharmacology. We focus on medically important and highly sought-after disease targets that have proven inaccessible to traditional industry approaches. Our robust pre-clinical pipeline includes novel agents for the treatment of cancer, metabolic disease and inflammation. Nimbus is organized as a constellation of small, nimble teams of experienced drug-hunters deployed across program-focused subsidiary companies. Each team is freed from conventional barriers to scientific success, chartered to create solutions, and geared for program asset deals with leading pharmaceutical companies. Founded in 2009, Nimbus partnered with Schrödinger to invent and apply a physics-based approach that establishes a new standard for rational drug design. Nimbus is backed by world-class life science investors; including Atlas Venture, SR One, Lilly Ventures and Gates Ventures. For more information please visit www.nimbustx.com.

About Proteros biostructures GmbH

Proteros is a privately held company that provides services and proprietary technologies to support integrated drug discovery. Proteros uses its technical expertise, industrial processes and unique technologies for crystallography, kinetic and thermodynamic profiling and fragment-based lead generation incorporating protein structure inspired compound and fragment libraries. The platform enables ‘knowledge driven lead engineering’ to accelerate and improve protein structure analysis and structure-based drug discovery. Proteros complements its clients’ internal capabilities with external expertise and access to flexible resources. Proteros currently provides services to more than 80 pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients in North America, Europe and Asia. Proteros US, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Proteros established to serve the growing customer base in North America. For more information please visit www.proteros.com.

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – November 1, 2012 – Nimbus Discovery LLC, a biotechnology company discovering novel medicines against exciting but previously inaccessible disease targets, today announced that Daniel S. Lynch has been appointed to the company’s Board of Directors as Executive Chairman. Dan will succeed Bruce Booth, D. Phil., Partner at Atlas Venture and Co-Founder of Nimbus, who will remain on the Board.

“One of Dan’s many strengths is his ability to drive young companies to achieve their goals. In particular, his proven track record in creating value through partnerships will be important as we secure a series of program-focused transactions”, said Bruce Booth. “His expertise in strategy and executive management will provide a valuable resource to the Nimbus team and Board,” Booth added.

Previously, Dan was Executive Chairman at Avila (acquired by Celgene in 2012) and Stromedix (acquired by Biogen Idec in 2012). Dan has more than 25 years experience serving in management positions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dan was CEO and CFO at ImClone Systems, which he led through a significant turnaround, helping to restore the company’s reputation and to secure FDA approval of ERBITUX^® (cetuximab), a novel cancer treatment. Earlier, he served in various financial positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb over a 15-year tenure.

“Nimbus Discovery is successfully developing drugs for sought-after targets where traditional chemistry approaches have failed,” said Dan Lynch. “Nimbus has established a radically new approach to drug discovery that has the potential to transform the entire industry pipeline with innovative medicines.”

About Nimbus

Nimbus Discovery, a biotechnology company, harnesses cutting-edge computational technologies to uncover breakthroughs in small molecule pharmacology. We focus on medically important and highly sought-after disease targets that have proven inaccessible to traditional industry approaches. Our robust pre-clinical pipeline includes novel agents for the treatment of cancer, metabolic disease and inflammation. Nimbus is organized as a constellation of small, nimble teams of experienced drug-hunters deployed across program-focused subsidiary companies. Each team is freed from conventional barriers to scientific success, chartered to create solutions, and geared for program asset deals with leading pharmaceutical companies. Founded in 2009, Nimbus partnered with Schrödinger to invent and apply a physics-based approach that establishes a new standard for rational drug design. Nimbus is backed by world-class life science investors, including Atlas Venture, SR One, Lilly Ventures and Gates Ventures. For more information please visit www.nimbustx.com.

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By Patricia Resende (Mass High Tech)

April 20, 2012

Rosana Kapeller has always had the entrepreneurial bug and a love for science. While most of Kapeller’s family members believed she would join the high-powered family’s media business in her native Brazil, Kapeller had a different plan. With her MD in hand, she left Brazil to get her Ph.D. and join her husband-to-be Towia Libermann in Boston. She forged ahead in her role as scientist at Millennium Pharmaceuticals to director of its molecular and cellular biology department before co-founding Ailerion Therapeutics where she helped raise $60M million in capital. With support from her family in the Bay State and Brazil, the mother of three and chief scientific officer at Nimbus Discovery continues to balance her love for family and Brazilian culture with business and science.

Education: Kapeller started her post-secondary education at Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas de Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and graduated with a M.D. She left Brazil in 1987 to attend Tufts University Medical School, where she earned a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular physiology.

On her path to science: “I grew up in a family of publishers and journalists and there were few people in the family that stepped out to be a doctor. My interest was in bringing basic science and novel therapeutics to patients and I knew I couldn’t do that in Brazil.”

Mentor: “I had a ton of support from my family. My great uncle was the driving force of our business in Brazil. He was bigger than life and had a very big impact on my life. My dad is my biggest fan and supporter. We talk every day. He Skypes and FaceTime’s me.” Kapeller visits with her biggest fan on her during her annual trips to Brazil with her family each year.

Advice for women in technology: “One of the biggest challenges for women in science is they are never heard. When a women has an idea everyone nods to be polite. It sounds like a joke, but it is very real. They have ideas and solutions and get frustrated when others don’t see the value of it. I tell women to take ownership and teach them how to toot their own horn without being perceived as a witch.”

On finding balance: Something has to give in order to find work/life balance. “Women have what I like to call superwoman syndrome. They want to do everything perfect. They want to be head of the company, head of the PTO and have a neat and clean home, but they are not willing to accept help. The only reason I could do it was I always had a full-time nanny.”

Proudest accomplishment(s): Without a doubt, Kapeller said her biggest accomplishments in life are her children. “My son Allon, 20, daughter Dana, 18, and son Noah, 11.”

Biggest challenge: “My biggest challenge is the culture. It’s about Brazilian culture being an inclusive, friendly culture. Brazilians have a sense of authority. I’d be outspoken and blunt and nobody could really appreciate that. In meetings, I’d challenge the head of the company. That got me in trouble many times, but I’ve learned my lesson. Here you can’t do that you have to be polite and politically correct.”

Favorite device/gadget: “My iPad. I was at a meeting and I did everything with my iPad. It was like Star Trek.”

Bruce Booth, board member at Nimbus Discovery and partner at Atlas Ventures

“Rosana has already proven in her career that she is a results-driven leader. She genuinely cares about making a difference in this world and it shows in both her work and in the way she treats and respects those she works with.”

View a slideshow of the 2012 Women to Watch honorees.

 

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Utility supercomputing leader facilitates massive cluster for computational drug discovery

NEW YORK, NY – (Marketwire) April 19, 2012 – Cycle Computing provisioned a 50,000-core utility supercomputer in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud for Schrödinger and Nimbus Discovery to accelerate lead identification via virtual screening. This milestone – the largest of its kind – is Cycle Computing’s fifth massive cluster in less than two years on the heels of a 30,000 cluster in October 2011, illustrating Cycle’s continued leadership in delivering full-featured and scalable cluster deployments. Cycle Computing revealed the cluster creation during today’s opening keynote at the AWS Summit in New York City.

Schrödinger’s widely used computational docking application, Glide, performs high-throughput virtual screening of compound libraries for identification of drug discovery leads. Computing resource and time constraints traditionally limit the extent with which ligand conformations can be explored, potentially leading to false negative while the same constraints may require a less accurate level of scoring, which can lead to false positives. Tapping into Cycle’s utility supercomputing, Schrödinger ran a virtual screen in collaboration with Nimbus Discovery of 21 million compounds against a protein target. The run required 12.5 processor years and completed in less than three hours.

“Typically, we have to weigh tradeoffs between time and accuracy in a project,” said Ramy Farid, President, Schrödinger. “With Cycle’s utility supercomputing, we didn’t have to compromise the accuracy in favor of faster throughput, and we were able to run the virtual screen using the appropriate levels of scoring and sampling.”

The global 50,000-core cluster was run with CycleCloud, Cycle’s flagship HPC in the cloud service that runs on AWS. Replicating data across seven AWS regions while automating provisioned resources, CycleCloud run time per job averaged 11 minutes and the total work completed topped 100,000 hours. Schrödinger’s researchers completed over 4,480 days of work, nearing 12.5 years of computations in a few hours, with cost under $4,900 per hour at peak requiring no upfront capital.

“By leveraging AWS, Cycle Computing is able to perform highly sophisticated computations in minutes at a fraction of what it would cost for businesses to purchase the high performance computing infrastructure themselves,” said Terry Wise, Director of Business Development, Amazon Web Services. “Cycle Computing brings an incredible amount of innovation to our partner ecosystem and we’re excited to continue working with them to enable businesses to take advantage of AWS’s highly scalable, elastic and low cost technology infrastructure.”

Cluster and performance analytics software CycleServer tracked utilization, diagnosed performance and managed scientific workflow. Replicating the success of employing next generation developments, Cycle engineers continued open source strategies, including Condor, Linux, and Opscode’s Chef cloud infrastructure automation system. Cycle’s Chef monitoring and analytics plug-in, called Grill, provided visualization into scaling the infrastructure environment and eliminated the need for additional Chef servers with alert technology supporting data around installations, driving down preparation and operational overhead.

Leveraging CycleCloud software and Cycle’s HPC proficiency delivered these stats:

• Infrastructure: 6,742 Amazon EC2 instances /58.79 TB RAM
• Global-scale: Multi-datacenter clusters with simple user interfaces
• Cluster Size: 51,132 cores, 58.78TB RAM
• Security: Engineered with HTTPS, SSH & 256-bit AES encryption
• AWS Regions:7 (us-east, us-west1, us-west2, eu-west, sa-east, ap-northeast, ap-southeast)

The end-user experience for using CycleCloud is:

• User Effort: One-click global cluster at massive scale
• Start-up Time: Thousands of cores in minutes, full cluster in 2 hours
• Up-front Capital Investment: $0
• Total Infrastructure Cost: $4,828.85/hour

“Researchers can now meet their aspirations and bottom line through secure, mega-elastic and fully-supported utility supercomputers,” said Jason Stowe, founder and CEO, Cycle Computing. “By harvesting the raw infrastructure from AWS, we empower Schrödinger’s scientific accuracy while allowing them to push the boundaries of computation research. Creating robust, reliable and importantly repeatable supercomputers means any industry from life sciences, risk management, quantitative finance to product design can reap the benefits as we tip the scales towards the next generation of massive clusters.”

To learn more about the development of the 50,000 core-cluster and Cycle’s projects leading up to this accomplishment, please visit the Cycle Computing blog: Compute Cycles (http://blog.cyclecomputing.com/).

About Schrödinger

Schrödinger is a scientific leader in developing state-of-the-art simulation software for use in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research. The Company’s products range from a complete suite of drug design software employing both ligand- and structure-based methods to general molecular modeling programs. Additionally, the Seurat platform provides enterprise-wide data management, sharing, and visualization. Most recently, Schrödinger debuted BioLuminate for modeling biologics. The predictive power of Schrödinger’s software allows scientists to accelerate their research and development, reduce costs, and make novel discoveries. Schrödinger operates from locations in New York, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Germany, the UK, and Japan. For more information, visit www.schrodinger.com.

About Nimbus

Nimbus Discovery is applying advances in computer-based drug discovery to develop new medicines against important drug targets and thereby unlock fundamental biological pathways. Nimbus has established a first-of-its-kind partnership with Schrödinger, the leader in computational drug discovery, to gain privileged access to cutting-edge technology and exclusive rights to key targets. Nimbus has already delivered selective, potent, and differentiated compounds within the first year for two disease targets that are pivotal in the progression of an aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and obesity, respectively. Nimbus has built a virtually integrated, globally distributed R&D organization that leverages an experienced internal drug discovery team across an external network of R&D partners. The resulting organization is scalable, capital efficient and has attracted world-class talent. Nimbus seeks to partner its programs with larger pharmaceutical companies early in the development process allowing Nimbus to focus on its competitive advantage in novel drug discovery. Nimbus programs are held in target-specific subsidiaries under an LLC umbrella. Nimbus Discovery was founded in 2009 by Atlas Venture and Schrödinger, Inc. In 2010, Nimbus received three Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Tax Credit (QTDP) grants for its programs. For more information please visit www.nimbustx.com.

About Cycle Computing

Cycle Computing is the leader in Utility Supercomputing software. As a bootstrapped, profitable software company, Cycle delivers proven, secure and flexible high performance computing (HPC) and data solutions since 2005. Cycle helps clients maximize existing infrastructure and speed computations on servers, VMs, and on-demand in the cloud. Our products help clients maximize internal infrastructure and increase power as research demands, like the 10000-core cluster for Genentech and the 30000+ core cluster for a Top 5 Pharma that were covered in Wired, TheRegister, BusinessWeek, Bio-IT World, and Forbes. Starting with three initial Fortune 100 clients, Cycle has grown to deploy proven implementations at Fortune 500s, SMBs and government and academic institutions including JP Morgan Chase, Purdue University, Pfizer and Lockheed Martin.

About Amazon Web Services

Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) began exposing key infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services – now widely known as cloud computing. The ultimate benefit of cloud computing, and AWS, is the ability to leverage a new business model and turn capital infrastructure expenses into variable costs. Businesses no longer need to plan and procure servers and other IT resources weeks or months in advance. Using AWS, businesses can take advantage of Amazon’s expertise and economies of scale to access resources when their business needs them, delivering results faster and at a lower cost. Today, Amazon Web Services provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands of enterprise, government and startup customers businesses in 190 countries around the world. AWS offers over 28 different services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). AWS services are available to customers from data center locations in the U.S., Brazil, Europe, Japan and Singapore.

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SR One and Lilly Ventures join financing as new investors

In vivo proof of concept achieved for lead IRAK4 program in 9 months

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – June 28, 2011 – Nimbus Discovery LLC, a biopharmaceutical company using state-of-the-art computational technology to discover novel medicines against exciting but previously inaccessible disease targets, today announced the close of a $24MM Series A financing. The investment was co-led by Atlas Venture, SR One, and Lilly Ventures. Existing investor, Bill Gates, also participated.

“We are delighted to have the support of SR One and Lilly Ventures,” said Bruce Booth, Chairman and Co-founder of Nimbus. “Their investment recognizes the extraordinary progress that Nimbus has made with its platform including the discovery of highly selective IRAK4 inhibitors with potent in vivo activity.”

Proceeds from the financing will be used to accelerate existing programs targeting IRAK4 and ACC, in inflammation, cancer and metabolic disease, and to expand the Nimbus pipeline to include a series of new targets addressing important medical conditions. IRAK4 plays a pivotal role in inflammatory disease allowing the Nimbus drug candidates to be pursued in a broad range of therapeutic applications. IRAK4 is a genetically validated target since humans with inactivating IRAK4 mutations are resistant to autoimmune disease but are otherwise healthy in adulthood.

In connection with the financing, Kent Gossett, M.D., Ph.D., Partner at SR One, and Steve Hall, Ph.D., Venture Partner at Lilly Ventures, have joined the Nimbus Board of Directors.

“We are excited by the advances that Nimbus has made in unlocking previously intractable targets. We believe that the Nimbus approach can deliver medicines that will transform the treatment of serious disease,” Kent said.

“Nimbus Discovery has created a highly innovative drug discovery model that combines a unique collaboration with Schrödinger with single-minded focus on developing valuable drug candidates,” Steve added.

Steve and Kent join the existing Board of Directors that includes Bruce Booth, Ph.D., Partner at Atlas Venture (Director); Vicki Sato, Ph.D., former President of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Director); and Ramy Farid, Ph.D., co-founder of Nimbus Discovery and President of Schrödinger (Director).

About Nimbus

Nimbus Discovery is applying advances in computer-based drug discovery to develop new medicines against important drug targets and thereby unlock fundamental biological pathways. Nimbus has established a first-of-its-kind partnership with Schrödinger, the leader in computational drug discovery, to gain privileged access to cutting-edge technology and exclusive rights to key targets. Nimbus has already delivered selective, potent, and differentiated compounds within the first year for two disease targets that are pivotal in the progression of an aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and obesity, respectively. Nimbus has built a virtually integrated, globally distributed R&D organization that leverages an experienced internal drug discovery team across an external network of R&D partners. The resulting organization is scalable, capital efficient and has attracted world-class talent. Nimbus seeks to partner its programs with larger pharmaceutical companies early in the development process allowing Nimbus to focus on its competitive advantage in novel drug discovery. Nimbus programs are held in target-specific subsidiaries under an LLC umbrella. Nimbus Discovery was founded in 2009 by Atlas Venture and Schrödinger, Inc. In 2010, Nimbus received three Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Tax Credit (QTDP) grants for its programs. For more information please visit www.nimbustx.com.

About Atlas Venture

Atlas Venture is a leading early stage international venture capital firm that invests in technology and life sciences businesses. Since inception in 1980, its partners have helped build more than 350 companies in more than 16 different countries. Atlas Venture is currently investing from its eighth fund which closed in late 2008. For more information, visit www.atlasventure.com.

About SR One

SR One is the corporate venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline. The firm invests globally in emerging life science companies that are pursuing innovative science that will significantly impact medical care. Since 1985, SR One has invested approximately $650 million in more than 140 companies. For more information, visit www.srone.com.

Above Lilly Ventures

Lilly Ventures, one of the venture capital funds associated with Eli Lilly and Company, manages $200 million in committed capital, investing in start-up biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies in early through expansion-stage investments. The primary goal of Lilly Ventures is to facilitate the success of companies with innovative technologies by providing both financial and intellectual resources to accelerate the management teams’ path to success. For further information, visit www.lillyventures.com.

About Schrödinger

Schrödinger is a scientific leader in developing state-of-the-art chemical simulation software for use in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research. The Company provides products ranging from general molecular modeling programs to a full-featured suite of drug design software using both ligand- and structure-based methods. The predictive power of Schrödinger’s software allows scientists to accelerate their research and development activities, reduce research costs, and make novel discoveries that might not be possible otherwise. Most recently, Schrödinger acquired the Seurat™ platform to add enterprise-wide data sharing and visualization to its complete offerings. Schrödinger operates from locations in New York, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Germany, India, the UK, and Japan. For more information, please visit www.schrodinger.com.

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