Dr. Dillon joined Curasen in January 2023 bringing more than 30 yrs of research and development experience across large and small pharmaceutical companies. Most recently, Dr. Dillon was chief scientific officer and head of research at IDEAYA Biosciences, where he was responsible for establishing the drug discovery strategy, building the team, and selecting the early portfolio. Under his leadership, IDEAYA established itself as one of the leading Synthetic Lethal Oncology companies with three clinical programs and a robust discovery portfolio focused on first-in-class DDR therapeutics. The company completed an IPO in 2019 and established a multi-program collaboration with GSK in 2020.
Prior to joining IDEAYA, Dr. Dillon was global discovery chemistry head, oncology and new therapeutic modalities at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and director of medicinal chemistry at Roche. He obtained a B.Sc. (Hons) in chemistry from the University of Leicester and Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, in the UK. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in chemistry at Oregon State University. Dr. Dillon is an author of more than 70 publications and patents.