Menu
Menu
Menu
Director of Translational Development, Luis Carvajal, shares his perspective on Kronos Bios’ innovative science and how he is helping to progress Kronos Bio’s KB-0742 program.
As a child, Luis Carvajal was “always that kid who would take his toys apart to try to understand why they work the way they do.” This innate sense of curiosity evolved into a life-long passion for science and a career focused on drug development.
During college, Luis took an introductory course in cancer biology where he learned about the tumor suppressor gene p53, often referred to as “the guardian of the genome.” Luis realized, “If I could learn how cancer develops, I could help make medicines to treat people suffering from this terrible disease.” After college, Luis earned his Ph. D from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, specializing in cancer biology. Later, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, studying hematology and the process by which healthy blood cells become leukemic.
During his post-doctoral studies, Luis had an opportunity to contribute to a study centered around the compassionate use of an oncology drug for a 21-year-old Li-Fraumeni patient with a history of osteosarcoma, breast cancer, and myelodysplastic syndrome who was developing acute myeloid leukemia. Luis explained, “it was at this point that I saw how my work translated from the laboratory into a meaningful contribution to a patient’s journey. We were able to give her and her family hope.”
“I want to give people battling cancer more time to do the simple everyday things that I do with my family…like spending the day at a baseball field coaching little league.”
In 2017, Luis transitioned to the biotechnology industry, working for companies in the Boston area focused on hematology and immuno-oncology. In 2021, he joined Kronos Bio, where he is currently serving as the director of Translational Development. At Kronos Bio, Luis supports the clinical development of KB-0742 and he contributes to preclinical research. Luis takes pride in the “development of assays that we use in the clinic for target engagement and evaluating PK and PD to help assess when we are reaching a therapeutic dose and other measures of efficacy.” Luis enjoys his work at Kronos Bio because his peers, “share his pride in our cutting-edge research.”
Luis speaks with enthusiasm about Kronos Bio’s progress in clinical trials. “It is exciting to see KB-0742, Kronos Bios’ first investigational medicine from our internal discovery platform, in clinical trials. This means that we are now collecting real-world data on how KB-0742 works in patients with MYC-dependent and other transcriptionally addicted solid tumors, including lung, ovarian, and triple negative breast cancers.”
As a father of two young children, Luis finds his work especially rewarding because “I want to give people battling cancer more time to do the simple everyday things that I do with my family…like spending the day at a baseball field coaching little league.”
Kronos Bio, Inc.
1300 So. El Camino Real
Suite 400
San Mateo, CA 94402
+1 (650) 781-5200
Kronos Bio, Inc.
301 Binney Street
2nd Floor East
Cambridge, MA 02142