Management Team
Tarig Bashir
PhD – Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Tarig Bashir, PhD, joined FoRx Therapeutics as CEO in April 2021. He is a Pharma and Biotech Executive with over 15 years of experience and leadership in cancer drug discovery, translational oncology and external innovation. During his career, he has led and overseen discovery-stage and preclinical oncology portfolios, led strategic partnerships with pharma and academia, and contributed significantly to clinical compound development. Tarig held positions of increasing responsibility in Oncology R&D at Organon/Schering-Plough, Johnson & Johnson and Ipsen. Most recently he was Executive Vice President Discovery at Proteros, where his responsibilities included new company building.
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Tarig studied biology at the University of Würzburg and the State University of New York at Albany. He earned his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and conducted his postdoctoral training at the New York University School of Medicine.
Frank Zenke
PhD – Chief Scientific Officer (CSO)
Frank Zenke, PhD, joined FoRx Therapeutics as CSO in August 2023. He held positions with increasing responsibility in the healthcare division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, and its US subsidiary EMD Serono, Billerica, with strong emphasis on the discovery and development of therapeutic strategies targeting the DNA Damage Response network. As Global Head of DDR Research he has played a pivotal role in discovering and developing multiple small molecule inhibitors targeting the key DDR kinases ATR, ATM, and DNA-PK. Collaborating with esteemed academic centers, biotechnology, and pharma partners, he has driven the exploration of new target classes, and shaped innovative clinical development directions through fundamental translational research.
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Frank studied biology at the Ruhr University of Bochum and Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf where he received his diploma and PhD degrees. He carried out his postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
Ulrich Lücking
PhD – VP, Head of Chemistry
Ulrich Lücking, PhD, is a drug discovery leader with 20 years of industrial experience in small molecule research. As a project leader and inventor at Bayer AG and Schering AG his efforts were instrumental in the identification of six clinical candidates so far, including the highly potent and selective ATR inhibitor BAY 1895344. During all his path Ulrich has contributed to the exploration of novel chemical space, for instance with his innovative applications of sulfoximines or macrocycles in drug discovery.
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Prior to joining industry, Ulrich studied chemistry at the University of Hannover and at the University of Cambridge. He completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Müllheim an der Ruhr, and then carried out his post-doctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla.