Quiver Bioscience has appointed co-founder Graham Dempsey, PhD as Chief Executive Officer, marking a strategic leadership transition as the Cambridge-based company prepares to advance its lead antisense oligonucleotide program targeting Nav1.7 for chronic pain into clinical development. The appointment positions Quiver to scale its AI-driven central nervous system drug discovery platform while progressing multiple therapeutic programs toward the clinic.
Dr. Dempsey assumes the CEO role after more than a decade of scientific and operational leadership at Quiver, most recently serving as Chief Scientific Officer where he directed all scientific, medical, engineering and AI/machine learning activities. Paul Roma, Quiver co-founder and interim CEO, will transition to Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Nav1.7 ASO Program Approaches Clinical Development
Under Dr. Dempsey's leadership, Quiver will advance its lead asset, an antisense oligonucleotide targeting Nav1.7, a voltage-gated sodium channel implicated in several neuropathic pain disorders. The program is approaching development candidate selection in 2025 and is expected to begin critical IND-enabling studies shortly thereafter.
"Despite the longstanding promise of Nav1.7 as a target for pain, it has remained elusive for drug developers. We're excited by the potential of our genetic medicine strategy and platform to unlock this important target towards creating a transformative product for patients suffering from chronic neuropathic pain," said Dr. Dempsey.
The Nav1.7 ASO is designed to deliver durable relief for chronic pain while overcoming limitations of other Nav-targeted small molecules currently under development and recently approved. Quiver's data package demonstrates the efficacy of Nav1.7 ASOs in rescuing pain phenotypes in both in vitro and in vivo models with a favorable CNS tolerability profile.
Expanding CNS Pipeline and AI Platform
Beyond the Nav1.7 program, Quiver is scaling its human-centric AI-driven CNS drug discovery platform with in silico models for target, efficacy and toxicity prediction. The company is bolstering a pipeline of programs in pain, neurodevelopmental disorders, and other CNS diseases, including advancement of its UBE3A-targeting ASO for chromosome 15q duplication syndrome (Dup15q) toward IND status.
Dr. Dempsey has led the development and evolution of Quiver's technology platforms since the company's inception, as well as its first small molecule and antisense oligonucleotide therapeutic programs, resulting in several foundational patents and peer-reviewed publications. He has also directed more than a dozen pharmaceutical collaborations and secured grants from non-dilutive funding sources including NIH SBIR Programs and CNS Foundations.
Scientific Leadership and Platform Innovation
Dr. Dempsey holds a B.A. in biochemistry and biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard Medical School, where he co-invented novel fluorescence-based imaging platforms and contributed to the development of stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), subsequently commercialized by Nikon Instruments. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Dan Lewis Foundation for Brain Regeneration Research and the editorial board of Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids.
Quiver's technology platform integrates advanced single-cell imaging and multi-omics to build what the company describes as the world's most information-rich neuronal insight map via its "Genomic Positioning System." The approach combines scalable human models, proprietary engineering, and AI/ML models to identify novel therapeutic targets and candidate molecules for CNS therapeutics development.
