Craig Ramirez
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer Tezcat Biosciences
Craig Ramirez is CEO and scientific co-founder at Tezcat Biosciences, a preclinical-stage oncology company developing protein-drug conjugates that exploit macropinocytosis to reach intracellular targets in RAS-mutant and treatment-resistant tumors.
Dr. Ramirez earned his PhD in biomedical research at NYU Langone and completed postdoctoral fellowships at NYU Langone in drug discovery and at the LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes at UT Austin in developmental therapeutics, where he worked in patient-derived models of drug resistance and combination therapy. He holds a BA in biology from Pomona College.
His research uncovered regulators of RAS-driven macropinocytosis through genome-wide siRNA and compound screens that led to the identification of new effector pathways downstream of oncogenic RAS required for nutrient scavenging and tumor growth, published in Nature, and formed the conceptual basis for Tezcat’s platform. Development of the program to the IND-enabling stage has been through the completion of multiple NCI SBIR/STTR awards.
Seminars
- Highlighting a fundamental metabolic dependency in mutant RAS cancers by educating audiences on protein scavenging as a shared tumor vulnerability
- Demonstrating efficient tumor delivery and strong safety across multiple RAS-driven models using a protein drug-conjugate platform
- Expanding treatment possibilities by enabling combination and post-resistance strategies alongside next-generation RAS inhibitors
