Dr. Peter Fekkes joins 54gene with 20 years of industry experience in company environments ranging from major global pharmaceutical to well-established biotech to start-up companies. He brings depth and breadth of experience in discovering molecules against a broad range of targets through diverse drug modalities.
Prior to joining 54Gene, Peter held roles of increasing responsibility at Phylos, SRU Biosystems, the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, H3 Biomedicine, HotSpot Therapeutics and FogPharma.
Most recently, he headed the Discovery Bioscience group at FogPharma, where he was responsible for the hit-to-lead progression of stabilized alpha-helical peptide hits using rigorous biochemical, biophysical, structural and cellular biology approaches to confirm the mechanism of action. In addition, he and his team developed and implemented a multiplexed peptide cell penetration measurement method to help inform on cellular target engagement.
Previously, Peter headed the New Target Platform at HotSpot Therapeutics, where he applied artificial intelligence approaches to the identification of targets with suitable pockets that are functionally involved in allosteric regulation. He also guided the drug discovery efforts on the early target portfolio.
Before that, he successfully built the early drug discovery group at H3 Biomedicine and supported the entry of molecules into the clinic for three different programs, all starting form a well-defined mode-of-action hypothesis and backed by genetic and genomic observations. A signature accomplishment at H3 was the pivotal role he played in elucidating the mode of action of a novel spliceosome modulator now in clinical development.
Peter holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.