Dwight Morrow Email & Phone Number

United States

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

As head of Biological Sciences (BSci), I lead a diverse team of passionate scientists with broad scientific expertise. We work with business partners across Moderna from early exploratory research to later stage clinical programs studing LNP behavior & biology, as well as generation of critical reagents. BSci consists of four teams:• Translational biology is responsible for the development of in vitro & ex vivo models, in vivo biodistribution studies (mRNA and protein), non-clinical PK/PD relationships, tolerability, innate immunogenicity & reactogenicity. • Cell biology responsible for the study of LNP uptake, trafficking & endosomal escape of nucleic acids from LNPs including mRNA and DNA cargos. • Analytical biology with expertise in SEC, HPLC and Mass Spec with a focus on the LNP corona (protein & lipid) and the biological role the corona plays in biodistribution, LNP stability, & reactogenicity.• Protein science responsible for design, expression and purification of critical proteins as well as monoclonal and polyclonal production.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

I joined Parallel Bio as VP, Head of Platform. Parallel Bio grows best-in-class human immune organoids at scale. Immune organoids, coupled with computational and artificial intelligence enable an entirely new approach to develop safe and effective small molecule and biological drugs while gaining unprecedented insight into human immune system function not possible with current in vitro or animal-based in vivo models.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Rubius Therapeutics focus was to transform red blood cells into potent cellular therapies for patients with rare enzyme deficiencies, cancer, and autoimmune disease. At Rubius, I led the P3 organization (Platform Innovation, Protein Sciences and Prime,) a fantastic team of highly skilled and dedicated scientists. Our job was to develop novel strategies to engineer & create new Red Cell Therapeutics (RCTs). This included novel protein design (cytokines, growth factors, T cell and NK cell activators), protein expression and purification systems; lenti-virus, transposon, electroporation & LNP/mRNA methods to genetically engineer stem and progenitor cells; assay development for oncology and autoimmunity programs; deep ‘omics (protein, lipid, single-cell RNA and metabolite) & cell health studies to better understand and improve RCTs; develop novel methods to attach small molecules, proteins, even nucleic acid onto the surface of RBCs including click-chemistry and lipid-based “painting”; development of mouse and non-human primate models to study PK/PD/biodistribution relationships; and lastly, championed an entirely new approach to making red cell-based therapeutics. Rubius, unfortunately, closed its doors late 2022.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Magenta Therapeutics was harnessing the power of stem cell science to revolutionize stem cell transplantation for patients with immune- and blood-based diseases. I left GSK to join Magenta, coming in as employee #3 to help build the company and its culture. I am an inventor on Magenta’s first patents and led Magenta’s first program to IND and successful P1 clinical launch; done on time and in budget. My responsibilities included all aspects of research, IND-enabling & GLP-toxicology studies, CMC manufacturing, fill/finish, working with regulatory colleagues to write and file Magenta’s first IND, design and support clinical plans, investigator brochure, pharmacy manual, as well as our dosing and cohort strategy. I was fortunate to work with amazing scientists without whom nothing mentioned above could have been done.

Brentford, Middlesex, Gb

As a member of the department of Target Sciences, my job was to help define and implement the strategy to identify and validate new drug targets for Metabolic Pathways and Cardiovascular therapy area working very closely with highly talented geneticists, bioinformaticians, statisticians and experimental disease modeling experts. Critically important was identification of appropriate cell line, primary disease relevant cell, stem cell or induced pluripotent stem cells. Validation was done using over expression, RNA knockdown or gene editing CRISPR technologies.

Brentford, Middlesex, Gb

As a member of the Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell groups in GSK, I worked on innovative and transformative medicines and platforms in the area of regenerative medicine, stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells and progenitor cells. Areas included hematology, hematopoietic stem cells, stem cell treatments for ophthalmology, neuroregeneration and degeneration including developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) iPS derived motor neurons for screening, small molecule screening for beta-cell regeneration and diabetes as well as molecules for bone and cartilage regeneration. I worked closely with world leading academic investigators as true collaborators to identify novel medicines, develop novel technologies, and move those forward to benefit patients.

Brentford, Middlesex, Gb

As a member of the Stem Cell group in GSK I had primary responsibility for developing our stem cell strategy in a number of key therapeutic areas. I lead a stem cell strategy group accountable for global stem cell and induced pluripotent stem cell strategy for both safety assessment (cardiomyocytes and hepatocytes) and efficacy screening. The primary objective was development of disease relevant cell based assays that would permit more rapid identification of molecules likely to translate clinically. In January, 2013 our group became the Regenerative Medicine DPU with a focus on innovative regenerative medicines.

Brentford, Middlesex, Gb

My primary responsibilities involved developing and screening cell-based assays for drug discovery. This included membrane and whole cell assays such as calcium, GTPgS, binding assay, fluorescence assays (FP, FRET, LANCE, FLINT), luciferase assays, to name a few. My group did both compound profiling and high throughput screening. Previously the group did significant assay development before our remit was changed to predominantly screening. The worked supported project teams from many departments and disciplines including oncology, respiratory, metabolic, bone, immunology, and heart failure.

Brentford, Middlesex, Gb

My first position was at SB before SB became GSK. I was hired as a scientist to do cell-based technology development. Shortly after joining I was also asked to lead the cell-based high throughput screening group.

I joined Cadus to do yeast screening work using several novel technologies. Unfortunately, Cadus went out of business, remaining folks began working for OSI Inc, another biotechnology/pharmaceutical company. I worked for OSI for about four months before leaving for SmithKline Beecham.

During my post-doc I worked on double-strand break repair in yeast; TEL1, a homolog of the gene ATM mutant in Ataxia Telangiectasia; and developed novel methods for manipulating large DNA and chromosome fragments.

Phd, Molecular Immunology

Ba, Biology

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Molecular Genetics