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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Nov. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDYA), an oncology-focused precision medicine company committed to the discovery and development of targeted therapeutics to treat cancer, announced that Dr. Paul A. Barsanti, Ph.D., has joined IDEAYA as Vice President, Head of Drug Discovery, to help advance the company's ongoing preclinical research programs.  Dr. Barsanti will be responsible for medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, and structural biology, as well as preclinical activities, including CMC manufacturing, formulation, DMPK and toxicology activities of the company. 

"We are thrilled to have Paul join our research team at IDEAYA.  Paul is an experienced drug hunter with deep medicinal chemistry and drug discovery experience.  His leadership will enhance our efforts to discover small molecule therapeutics across our precision medicine oncology pipeline," said Michael Dillon, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Head of Research at IDEAYA Biosciences.

Dr. Barsanti previously served as an Executive in Residence at 5AM Ventures.  Prior to that he was Director, Head of Chemical Sciences at Nurix, and earlier held various positions at Novartis, including Associate Director and Group Leader.  Dr. Basanti also conducted research at Chiron Corporation and at Glaxo Group Research.  Dr. Barsanti holds a B.S. (Hons) in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Bath University, England, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. 

Dr. Michael Dillon, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Head of Research, plans to transition from his current role to Research Fellow in mid-2020, a role in which he will continue to serve IDEAYA, providing strategic and operational guidance in chemistry and drug discovery across multiple research programs.  "Mike has been with IDEAYA since early 2016, and under his leadership, we have built a dedicated team and extensive capabilities in small molecule drug discovery in oncology.  We have a robust preclinical pipeline of synthetic lethality programs, including targeting MAT2A, Pol theta, PARG and Werner helicase.  We thank Mike for his many contributions and ongoing commitment as he transitions next year into his new role as Research Fellow," said Yujiro S. Hata, Chief Executive Officer at IDEAYA.

Jason S. Throne, J.D., has joined as Vice President, General Counsel, and is responsible for leadership and management of legal, compliance and risk management matters of the company.  "Jason has extensive corporate legal experience, and is a strong leader who will help guide our company as we continue to execute on our mission to discover and develop innovative precision medicine therapeutics," said Yujiro S. Hata, Chief Executive Officer at IDEAYA.  Prior to joining IDEAYA, Jason served as Vice President, General Counsel at NeoTract prior to its acquisition by Teleflex, and in various roles at Thoratec, including as Associate General Counsel, Corporate and Compliance Officer, prior to its acquisition by St. Jude Medical. Prior to his in-house counsel roles, Jason was an associate at Cooley Godward, representing both private and public companies on corporate matters.

About IDEAYA Biosciences
IDEAYA is an oncology-focused precision medicine company committed to the discovery and development of targeted therapeutics for patient populations selected using molecular diagnostics.  IDEAYA's approach integrates capabilities in identifying and validating translational biomarkers with small molecule drug discovery to select patient populations most likely to benefit from the targeted therapies IDEAYA is developing.  IDEAYA is applying these capabilities across multiple classes of precision medicine, including direct targeting of oncogenic pathways and synthetic lethality – which represents an emerging class of precision medicine targets. 

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements related to expected timing for transition of research leadership personnel. Such forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause IDEAYA's preclinical and clinical development programs, future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the uncertainties inherent in the drug development process, including IDEAYA's programs' early stage of development, the process of designing and conducting preclinical and clinical trials, the regulatory approval processes, the timing of regulatory filings, the challenges associated with manufacturing drug products, IDEAYA's ability to successfully establish, protect and defend its intellectual property and other matters that could affect the sufficiency of existing cash to fund operations. IDEAYA undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of IDEAYA in general, see IDEAYA's recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on August 12, 2019 and any current and periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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SOURCE IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc.