Peptilogics promotes new chief technology officer
Tuesday, January 25
By Jordyn Hronec – Digital Producer, Pittsburgh Business Times
Jan 24, 2022, 4:27pm EST
South Side-based biotech company Peptilogics announced that it has appointed a new chief technology officer.
Dr. Nicholas Nystrom, the company’s senior vice president and head of computation and data, will now step into the role. As CTO, Nystrom will oversee and lead technology strategy and the implementation of the company’s computational peptide design platform, which combines artificial intelligence, technology and supercomputing with biological and pharmaceutical expertise in order to optimize the peptide therapeutics that Peptilogics engineers.
Peptides are molecules that consist of multiple amino acids, and they can have a variety of functions in the body. Peptilogics creates peptide therapeutic treatments, such as its current lead treatment, PLG0206, which it developed to treat Periprosthetic Joint Infections.
“Technology innovation is essential to enable the rapid design of best-in-class peptide drugs to treat diseases with large unmet medical needs,” Nystrom said. “Our platform demonstrates great promise to accelerate the design of safe, effective peptide therapeutics by intelligently navigating complex chemical and biological spaces. I look forward to continuing to oversee its development and the many doors it may open to the largely untapped diversity of potential peptide therapeutics.”
Nystrom first joined Peptilogics in 2021, after a near 30-year career at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. During his time at PSC, Nystrom led several projects that often combined AI and supercomputing with biology and chemistry and supported research in the fields. In 2020, he worked closely through PSC with the White House Covid-19 High Performance Computing Consortium.
“Over the last 100 years, the biopharmaceutical industry has made incredible advancements to bring life-changing medicines to patients. Improving this trajectory will require applying technology tools like AI and machine learning to help unravel biological complexity,” said Dr. Jonathan Steckbeck, founder and CEO of Peptilogics. “Our design platform is at the forefront of this convergence of technology and biology, due to the contributions of our highly capable, inter-disciplinary computational team led by Nick. Prior to joining us, Nick spent his career designing and building first-in-world systems that pushed the boundaries of what was possible with AI and high-performance computing. We are fortunate to have him on the team.”