CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Syros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SYRS), a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of medicines to control the expression of genes, today announced the appointment of Alice Tsang Shaw, M.D., Ph.D., to the Company’s Board of Directors. Dr. Shaw is a highly respected oncologist and recognized leader in translational medicine and the development of targeted cancer therapies.

“Alice is a brilliant doctor and researcher, with a proven record of bridging the gap between science and medicine to bring life-changing targeted therapies to market for cancer patients,” said Nancy Simonian, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Syros. “Her expertise and insights, along with her passion for making a profound difference for patients, will be invaluable to Syros as we continue to advance our clinical programs and develop novel targeted approaches for treating patients with cancers that have largely eluded other approaches. We are thrilled to welcome Alice to our board.”

Dr. Shaw is the Director of the Center for Thoracic Cancers, the Paula O'Keeffe Endowed Chair of Thoracic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Co-Leader of the Dana-Farber/MGH/Harvard Cancer Center Thoracic Oncology Program, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also the Co-Leader of the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) Lung Cancer Dream Team. In addition to caring for patients, Dr. Shaw performs clinical and translational research with a focus on developing targeted treatments for oncogene-driven lung cancers and elucidating resistance mechanisms to targeted therapies. Her research has contributed to the development of numerous approved targeted therapies, including crizotinib (Xalkori), ceritinib (Zykadia), alectinib (Alecensa) and lorlatinib (Lorbrena). One of her current areas of focus is developing combination therapy strategies aimed at overcoming drug resistance.

Dr. Shaw is a standing member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee. She has been awarded a number of research grants, including grants from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the V Foundation for Cancer Research, Uniting Against Lung Cancer, the National Foundation for Cancer Research, and the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute. She received her B.A. in biochemistry from Harvard University and her M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency at MGH, oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber/MGH and postdoctoral work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“We now know that many cancers are driven by the abnormal expression of genes,” said Dr. Shaw. “I am excited about Syros’ pipeline programs and its innovative approach to developing medicines to control the expression of genes. I look forward to working with the board and the management team to advance novel treatments for cancer patients.”

About Syros Pharmaceuticals
Syros is pioneering the understanding of the non-coding regulatory region of the genome to advance a new wave of medicines that control the expression of genes. Syros has built a proprietary platform that is designed to systematically and efficiently analyze this unexploited region of DNA to identify and drug novel targets linked to genomically defined patient populations. Because gene expression is fundamental to the function of all cells, Syros’ gene control platform has broad potential to create medicines that achieve profound and durable benefit across a range of diseases. Syros is currently focused on cancer and monogenic diseases and is advancing a growing pipeline of gene control medicines. Syros’ lead drug candidates are SY-1425, a selective RAR? agonist in a Phase 2 clinical trial for genomically defined subsets of patients with acute myeloid leukemia, and SY-1365, a selective CDK7 inhibitor in a Phase 1 clinical trial focused on patients with ovarian and breast cancers. Syros is also developing a deep preclinical and discovery pipeline, including SY-5609, an oral CDK7 inhibitor, as well as programs in immuno-oncology and sickle cell disease. Led by a team with deep experience in drug discovery, development and commercialization, Syros is located in Cambridge, Mass.