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Nurix Appoints Dr. Robert Tjian to its Board of Directors

Nurix Appoints Dr. Robert Tjian to its Board of Directors

SAN FRANCISCO, December 6, 2016 – Nurix, Inc., a private drug discovery company, today announced the appointment of Dr. Robert Tjian to the company’s board of directors.

Dr. Tjian is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous awards including the Alfred P. Sloan Prize and the Louisa Gross Horwita Prize. He was a co-founder of Tularik with Dave Goeddel and Steve McKnight and most recently served as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) from 2009 to 2016. After leaving HHMI, Dr. Tjian joined the Column Group as a discovery partner in September 2016.

“It is indeed a privilege to welcome Dr. Tjian to the Nurix board of directors,” said Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of Nurix. “Dr. Tjian’s unique combination of scientific expertise and biotechnology business insight will be of great value to Nurix as we translate our breakthrough science into breakthrough drugs for patients.”

Dr. Tjian discovered the first transcription factors, human proteins that bind to specific sections of DNA and play a critical role in regulating how genetic information is expressed into the thousands of biomolecules that keep cells, tissues and organisms alive. Dr. Tjian’s laboratory has focused on disruptions in the process of transcription that causes disease such as cancer, metabolic syndromes and neuro-degenerative diseases. In recent years, much of Dr. Tjian’s research has focused on key transcription events in embryonic stem cells. He joined the University of California, Berkeley faculty in 1979, where he assumed several leadership roles including director of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center, faculty director of the Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, and head of the Siebel BioHub, and continues to serve on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.

With his appointment, Dr. Tjian will assume the board seat previously occupied by David Goeddel, Ph.D. of The Column Group.

“Dave has made significant contributions to Nurix since its inception and has been a guiding influence for the advancement of Nurix’s scientific and business initiatives, said Dr. Sands. “He has successfully established the company as a leader in the protein homeostasis field and we thank him for his leadership.”

About Nurix Therapeutics

Nurix, Inc. is a leader in the discovery of small molecules that modulate the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) to address significant, unmet medical needs. The UPS is a regulatory pathway that controls protein levels, a function vital to the healthy life of a cell, and presents therapeutic opportunities in multiple disease areas. Nurix was founded by internationally-recognized experts in the ubiquitin proteasome field and is funded by leading life science investors, Third Rock Ventures and The Column Group. In September 2015, Nurix and Celgene entered into a broad collaboration targeting protein homeostasis for next-generation therapies in oncology, inflammation and immunology. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit www.nurix-inc.com

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Sara Zelkovic
LifeSci Public Relations