Dr. Sandra Dunn founded Phoenix Molecular Designs in 2012, following the identification of a novel approach to treating TNBC, the deadliest form of breast cancer. The discovery of RSK as a prime target for TNBC came from functional genomic screens in her laboratory. Dr. Dunn has spent more than 27 years as a breast cancer researcher and as such has served on multiple oversight committees, including: Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (USA) and the Susan Komen Foundation. She was the youngest member of the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program in the early 1990s and was recognized for her commitment to the field during her early days as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Sandra Dunn is passionate about making a difference in the lives of people suffering from cancer and is firmly dedicated to breast cancer. This was inspired by personal experiences with the disease in her family, as it impacted several generations of women. Her broad range of experience in private industry, government and academia has prepared her to lead PhoenixMD, where they are working to change the outcomes for women with breast cancer by developing a selective new drug to uniquely attack the cancer cells in a way that has not been done before.
She has led multinational oncology research projects to advance the development of novel cancer therapeutics and has built amazing teams to achieve these goals. Over the past three decades, she has raised millions of dollars to fund cancer research and has built one of the few female-led biotechnology companies specifically aimed at eradicating breast cancer.
Dr. Sandra Dunn is technology leader in oncology drug development and biotechnology businesses.
Phoenix Molecular Designs – Designing Novel Cancer Therapeutics
Phoenix Molecular Designs is dedicated to designing safer more effective cancer therapeutics. Our philosophy is to rationally develop drugs that are game changers for the treatment of Triple Negative breast cancer. These therapies have applications to 14 other types of cancers including prostate, lung and colon cancers as well as rare forms of brain tumors in children. What is unique about the therapy we are developing is it is designed to prevent cancer from returning because we are targeting the Phoenix of cancer.
Our work is focused on developing cancer therapies by inhibiting RSK kinases, a class of enzymes that have proven to be the most tractable drug targets in oncology.
“ We are developing a drug specifically for the most aggressive type of breast cancer. It’s designed to be safer than chemotherapies, so our goal is to find treatments for breast cancer that don’t have those nasty side effects. Personalized medicine is really about identifying what is the best therapy for you as an individual. The whole effort is to try get around unnecessary toxicities for patients so that we can really make a success out of cancer treatment for patients. I just feel really grateful for the opportunity to help people and I feel that we do have something that is special and unique here and that we will make a difference for patients with cancer.”
~ Dr. Sandra Dunn, CEO Phoenix Molecular Designs