DICE Therapeutics
Da Duan has a strong background in protein chemistry and biochemistry. They started their career as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco in 2013 and worked there until 2016. After that, they joined Codexis, Inc. as a Scientist in Biochemistry and worked there for four years until 2020. In 2020, they moved to Frontier Medicines as a Senior Scientist in Protein Sciences before transitioning to a similar role at Codexis, Inc. in 2021. Currently, Da Duan is working at DICE Therapeutics as an Associate Director in Protein Chemistry since 2023.
Da Duan completed a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Biochemistry at Queen's University from 2003 to 2007. Subsequently, Da Duan pursued a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the same university from 2008 to 2013.
DICE Therapeutics
At DICE Therapeutics, we design and develop innovative therapies in immunology for patients with debilitating disease. Seeking to create a future where convenient oral medicines with biologic-like efficacy are available to patients with serious medical conditions, we are developing oral alternatives to medicines currently limited to injectable forms. We believe that such pills will be widely appreciated by patients and doctors alike, as they provide a lower bar to entry than biologics, and as oral medicines can easily be co-formulated with other efficacious drugs. The combination of our core technology with additional, unique biophysical insights has enabled DICE to target protein-protein interactions with small molecules. In doing so, DICE has cracked open a previously intractable set of clinically validated therapeutic targets, including Interleukin-17 (IL-17). Our lead program – an orally bioavailable IL-17 antagonist for the treatment of psoriasis – is currently progressing through IND-enabling studies. In parallel, we continue to advance both partnered and internal pipeline drug discovery programs, providing a robust pre-clinical pipeline.