Biomia Appoints Dr. Frederick Westhorpe as new Chief Scientific Officer, and co-founder Dr. Jie Zhang as Chief Technology Officer

Copenhagen, Denmark, May 21., 2025 – Biomia, a preclinical-stage biotech company focused on advancing nature-inspired small molecules for central nervous system disorders, today announced the appointment of Frederick Westhorpe, PhD, as Biomia’s new Chief Scientific Officer. At the same time Biomia announced the transition of Biomia’s co-founder Jie Zhang, PhD, from Chief Scientific Officer to Chief Technology Officer. 

“We are excited to welcome Frederick to Biomia, and we are confident that his extensive small molecule drug discovery and development expertise will complement the Biomia team, and guide our company’s next phase of strategic growth,” says Michael Krogh Jensen, Ph.D., Biomia’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Frederick’s almost-decade long experience in preclinical drug development, and specifically his recognised leadership in progressing CNS small molecule R&D programs to clinical readiness across a variety of CNS indications, will strengthen our capabilities as we advance our pipeline of small molecule therapeutic candidates towards the clinic”, Michael continues.

“I am thrilled to join Biomia as Chief Scientific Officer. Biomia is uniquely positioned to combine nature-inspired chemistry with modern drug discovery, using a biosynthesis platform that unlocks differentiated, disease-relevant molecules with demonstrated human efficacy. Biomia’s robust existing data, translational pharmacology strategy, and human-based evidence for our lead programs made this a compelling opportunity to drive those assets toward the clinic. With a mission-driven and highly capable team already in place, I am excited to help lead the delivery of new treatment options for patients with CNS disorders.”, says Frederick Westhorpe.

Frederick has previously orchestrated portfolio growth strategy across multiple neurological indications in both start up and mid-size biotech. Prior to joining Biomia, Frederick served as Director of Discovery Pharmacology at Compass Pathways (UK) where Frederick led CNS small molecule discovery and development teams from preclinical discovery  to Ph. 1. readiness across several programs in mental health. Prior to that, Frederick held senior leadership roles in in vitro sciences and pharmacology at Merck Research Labs (US) and CuraSen Therapeutics (US), respectively.  

“With the continuous development of Biomia’s drug discovery platform and compelling pipeline assets, we're excited to welcome Frederick as our new Chief Scientific Officer”, says Jie Zhang, Biomia’s co-founder and new Chief Technology Officer. “As I transition into the role of CTO I’ll now be focusing on our manufacturing platform for the efficient biosynthesis and diversification of bioactive small molecule libraries — the core foundation of Biomia’s drug discovery programs. With Frederick joining our leadership team, Biomia’s R&D strategy is now put to play to advance our pipeline and deliver safer, more effective candidates into clinical trials”.

“I am deeply grateful to Jie Zhang and would like to take this opportunity to thank him, for his tremendous job of leading the early development of Biomia’s platform with world-leading biosynthesis capabilities of complex natural products with therapeutic potential, and also for his leadership in defining our early pre-clinical assets within CNS disorders. I am convinced that Jie’s transition to CTO, working with Frederick as CSO, will provide Biomia with even stronger global leadership in natural products drug discovery”, adds Michael.

Jie has over the last 9 years led the establishment of the core enabling technologies encompassing Biomia’s biomanufacturing platform. Prior to co-founding Biomia, Jie led the early R&D and business development for the biomanufacturing platform at the BioInnovation Institute (DK). Prior to that, Jie held a senior researcher position at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark with a research focus on development of synthetic biology tools and models for biomanufacturing.

About Biomia

Biomia is a pre-clinical stage biotech company focused on drug discovery inspired by bioactive small molecules found in nature. Biomia has developed a proprietary drug discovery engine founded on synthetic biology, biomanufacturing, and AI to uniquely source and optimize novel, safe, and efficacious nature-inspired medicines. Biomia has established early preclinical pharmacology of novel composition of matter in CNS disorders, in particular  cognitive deficits in mental health and neurodegenerative disorders as well as psot-surgical pain, with pipeline expansion into other indications planned in the future. For more information about Biomia, please visit: www.biomia.com

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info@biomia.com