Andreas Bader's Biography

Andreas Bader, Director, Mirna Therapeutics Inc

Dr. Andreas Bader is Director of Analytical and External Research at Mirna Therapeutics. Since 1996 Dr. Bader has been focusing on the identification of drug targets for cancer. His expertise lies in drug discovery, mechanisms of cancer and validating potential cancer targets in vitro and in vivo. During his postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute, he tracked the oncogenic signal of PI 3-kinase and studied/identified multiple intervention points for cancer therapy. Key studies include those that led to the first demonstration that hot-spot mutations in the catalytic subunit of PI 3-kinase are oncogenic, which provided a strong rationale for the development of therapeutic PI 3-kinase inhibitors in academia and industry. At Asuragen, Inc., a company primarily focused on the development of diagnostics, Dr. Bader directed the miRNA Therapeutics program. He directed in vitro and in vivo studies that led to the identification/validation of tumor suppressor miRNAs with promising therapeutic activity. In late 2009 this project was spun out as a new company, Mirna Therapeutics. To date, he directs in vivo efficacy studies, as well as PK/PD/TK studies to further the development of miRNA-based therapeutics for cancer. Dr. Bader is author of >25 peer-reviewed scientific articles, inventor of 14 patent application families, and is funded by grants from the NIH.