Victoria Richon Ph.D.
Vice President, Biological, Sciences, Epizyme
Victoria Richon, Ph.D. joined Epizyme in October 2008 as Vice President of Biological Sciences. Epizyme is a biopharmaceutical company founded in late 2007 whose mission is to rapidly translate the discoveries emerging from epigenetic research into molecularly targeted drugs for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Victoria was a leading member of the scientific group at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center that discovered the histone deacetylase inhibitor vorinostat (SAHA). This discovery was the basis of Aton Pharma, a company that Victoria co-founded and for which she served as Executive Director of Biology. Aton Pharma was acquired by Merck in 2004. Victoria joined Merck Research Laboratory-Boston as Senior Director where she headed the Department of Cancer Biology and Therapeutics and also continued supporting vorinostat through its approval by the U.S. FDA in October 2006 for the treatment of cutaneous manifestations in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). Marketed under the name Zolinza™, vorinostat is the first histone deacetylase inhibitor approved for the treatment of cancer. Dr. Richon received her B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Vermont and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska. She completed her post-doctoral research at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Talk Title: “Therapeutic Inhibition of Epigenetic Enzymes”