Verastem Cofounders to Present at MIT Technology Breakfast on Breakthrough Discoveries in Cancer Stem Cells

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Verastem, Inc., (VSTM) a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat cancer by the targeted killing of cancer stem cells, announced that Robert Weinberg, Ph.D., Verastem scientific cofounder and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, and Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., Verastem cofounder, Chairman and CEO, will present at the MIT Technology Breakfast on February 28, 2013, at 8am ET.

The Technology Breakfast series features breakthrough discoveries from research at MIT and brings together the researchers and entrepreneurs who accelerate and commercialize the technology. Drs. Weinberg and Westphal will speak on how they are changing the landscape of the current treatment paradigm in cancer.

Verastem was founded on work in the laboratories of Dr. Weinberg and Dr. Eric Lander, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, that describes the underlying mechanisms of cancer stem cell development and methods to identify drugs that preferentially target them. Cancer stem cells have been implicated as a cause of tumor resistance to chemotherapy and driver of disease progression.

Verastem has advanced the discoveries made by Drs. Weinberg and Lander into clinical development and is currently testing lead compound, VS-6063, in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for ovarian cancer in combination with the standard chemotherapy, paclitaxel. VS-6063 is an orally available, small molecule inhibitor of focal adhesion kinase (FAK).

Verastem is planning a potentially pivotal trial of VS-6063 in mesothelioma midyear 2013. In addition to VS-6063, the Company has multiple drugs targeting cancer stem cells in development. Verastem plans to initiate clinical trials of FAK inhibitor VS-4718 and PI3K/mTOR inhibitor VS-5584 during 2013 in patients with advanced cancers.

Dr. Robert Weinberg is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research in the Department of Biology at MIT. Dr. Weinberg is an internationally recognized authority on the genetic basis of human cancer development and is the author or editor of five books and more than 350 articles. The Weinberg lab is known for its discovery of the first human oncogene -- the ras oncogene that causes normal cells to form tumors -- and the isolation of the first known tumor suppressor gene -- the Rb gene. He earned his S.B. and Ph.D. in biology/life science from MIT. Dr. Weinberg is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Christoph Westphal cofounded Verastem and is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Dr. Westphal is a partner of Longwood Fund, which founds and invests in medical companies. He was founder and chief executive officer of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which he took public and led as chief executive officer until 2010. Christoph cofounded Alnara Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly in 2010) and was cofounder and chief executive officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Momenta Pharmaceuticals. Currently, Dr. Westphal serves on the board of directors of Ovascience (which he cofounded), on the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School and on the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He earned an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University and BA, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Columbia University.

About Verastem, Inc.

Verastem, Inc. (VSTM) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat cancer by the targeted killing of cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are an underlying cause of tumor recurrence and metastasis. Verastem is developing small molecule inhibitors of signaling pathways that are critical to cancer stem cell survival and proliferation: FAK, PI3K/mTOR and Wnt. For more information, please visit http://www.verastem.com.

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Verastem Cofounders to Present at MIT Technology Breakfast on Breakthrough Discoveries in Cancer Stem Cells