Laura K. Shawver, Ph.D. - 2024 Recipient
President and Chief Executive Officer, Capstan Therapeutics
The 2024 Duane Roth Achievement Award will be presented at the 20th Annual Industry/Academia Precision Oncology Symposium on March 21, 2024.
Dr. Laura Shawver is a pioneer in healthcare who brings over two decades of leadership experience in biotechnology and patient advocacy to her career, creating new paradigms in research and treatment for cancer and other serious diseases.
Dr. Shawver views the field of oncology from the perspective of a scientist, drug developer and survivor. As a scientist, she conducted research in the field of oncogenes, growth factors and signal transduction pathways. This work paved the way for her early drug development career focused on angiogenesis inhibitors and precision medicine, alongside a passion for providing cancer patients with treatment that matched their tumor alterations. Following her own diagnosis and treatment for ovarian cancer in 2006, she founded The Clearity Foundation to help revolutionize ovarian cancer treatment and create a community of support for women living with the disease. The Clearity Foundation’s services include helping women gain access to molecular profile tests to help understand their tumor alterations, sharing the latest information on potential treatment options, guiding women to appropriate clinical trials and providing psychosocial support. Since her recovery from ovarian cancer, Dr. Shawver continues to seek ways to change the paradigm for cancer treatment through her leadership roles in biotech, both as CEO and serving on Boards including those working on precision medicines, AAA ATPases, cytokines, cell therapy and mRNA therapies.
Prior to her current role as President and CEO at Capstan Therapeutics, a company developing targeted in vivo RNA technologies using targeted lipid nanoparticles (tLNPs), Dr. Shawver held the role of CEO at multiple organizations, including Silverback Therapeutics, Synthorx, Inc., Cleave Biosciences, Phenomix Corporation and SUGEN, Inc. She currently sits on the BOD at Relay Therapeutics, Bright Peak Therapeutics, Dovetail Therapeutics and ARS Pharmaceuticals. She is an active member of the American Association for Cancer Research, where she has served on the Scientific Advisory Committee for Stand Up 2 Cancer since its inception in 2008. Throughout her career, Dr. Shawver remains a scientist at heart, having published more than 100 scientific publications, review articles, book chapters and patents.
Dr. Shawver has received many accolades throughout her career, among them the 2023 San Diego BioPharma Achievement Award, 2020 Endpoints Women in Biopharma, 2012 PharmaVOICE 100 and FierceBiotech’s 2011 Women in Biotech. In 2011, she was honored as the University of Iowa’s Distinguished Alumni. She received her Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Iowa.