KARION – therapeutics

Karion is a drug discovery & development company and our mission is to unlock new therapies for unmet medical needs, to improve patient survival and their quality of life.

We focus on the development of innovative and disruptive effective and safe therapies for aggressive cancers.

THE STORY BEHIND OUR NAME

Our name was inspired by three words:
Karyon + Care + Innovation

KARYON
A common word used in biology derived from ancient Greek and means “the nucleus of a cell” and that is exactly where we want to efficiently fight cancer.

CARE
At Karion we care about people, we care about cancer patients and our motto is to “carry-on” in our search for innovative and safer oncology treatments.

INNOVATION
What drives us, we want to deliver next level therapies to increase cancer patients outcomes.

OUR FIRST PRODUCT

KT408

KT408 is a small molecule with an excellent efficacy and safety profile

Created in-house and manufactured in Lab scale

Anticancer activity proven
in animal models

International patent protects this technology that addresses unmet medical needs

KT408 targets aggressive cancers such as Renal Cell Carcinoma and Triple Negative Breast Cancer

KT408 has a disruptive mode of action, different from current anticancer drugs used in the clinics

LEADERSHIP TEAM

MARTA COSTA
CEO

READ MARTA'S BIO

Marta Costa is a co-founder and serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Karion Therapeutics since August 2022. She is also a Researcher at the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS) in the School of Medicine of the University of Minho (UMinho, Portugal). Marta has been dedicated to the pre-clinical development of innovative drug candidates for poor prognosis cancers.

She holds a degree in Applied Chemistry (UMinho, 2006) and a PhD in Sciences - Organic Chemistry (UMinho, 2011). Marta has experience working as a Medicinal Chemist in a pharmaceutical company (Bial, 2011) and has also postdoctoral experience at the Chemistry Department at UMinho (Portugal, 2012-2014), working in organic synthesis and teaching (UMinho). Marta joined the ICVS in 2015, as a postdoctoral fellow (2015-2019).

In the last years, Marta has been acknowledged with several national and international awards (from academy and industry), including the Arqus International Innovators Award (2023) and the Innovation Award from Bluepharma (2022), grants from the National League Against Cancer (2019 and 2021) and funds from the European Regional Development Fund (2020).

FÁTIMA BALTAZAR
BIOLOGY

READ FÁTIMA'S BIO

Fátima Baltazar is a co-founder of Karion Therapeutics. She is Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the School of Medicine and Vice-Director of Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS) of the University of Minho (Portugal).

Fátima Baltazar holds a first degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences by the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and a PhD in Biological Sciences by the University of Hull (U.K.).

Her main research interests are on the discovery of new prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer, and also drug discovery for cancer therapy.

She is a Board member of the International Society of Cancer Metabolism (ISCaM) and member of different national and international organizations, including ASPIC (Portuguese Association for Cancer Research), EACR (European Association for Cancer Research) and ISCaM (board member).

FERNANDA PROENÇA
CHEMISTRY

READ FERNANDA'S BIO

Fernanda Proença is a co-founder of Karion Therapeutics. She is Full Professor at the Chemistry Department of the University of Minho (Portugal, 2003), where she started her career in 1977 as an Assistant Professor. She holds a degree in Chemistry from the University of Coimbra (Portugal, 1976), a PhD in Chemistry, specializing in Organic Chemistry from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom, 1981) and the Habilitation in Organic Chemistry from the University of Minho (Portugal, 2001).

Her research interests focus on organic synthesis, in particular of compounds with potential biological activity. She is co-author of more than 130 peer-reviewed publications and several patents (national patent and international). She has been a member of scientific and organizing committees for several national and international congresses and of national and international project and scholarship evaluation committees. She is a member of the A3ES panel of experts for the evaluation / accreditation of study cycles in Portuguese universities. She served previously as director of the Department of Chemistry, director of the Chemistry Research Centre and Vice President of the School of Sciences for research (University of Minho).

TERESA DIAS COELHO
BUSINESS

READ TERESA'S BIO

Teresa Dias Coelho is co-founder of Karion Therapeutics.

She holds a degree in Economics (Nova SBE, 2004) and a masters in Finance (Nova SBE, 2007).Teresa has experience working as strategic consultant (PwC and EFACEC Singapore), audit consultant (Baker Tilly Portugal) and corporate finance specialist (Deloitte Brasil). She has worked as a new product and business strategist in SulAmérica Seguros, the biggest private insurance company in Brazil.

She is the Managing Director of Próxima Geração, a portuguese non-profit organization that aims at attracting young people to engage more with civic participation. She is also the co-founder of non profit organization WACT - We Are Changing Together, that has projects in both Portugal and São Tomé e Principe.

CONTACT US

KARION THERAPEUTICS, LDA.
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF MINHO, CAMPUS DE GUALTAR,
4710-057 BRAGA, PORTUGAL

INFO@KARIONTX.COM

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