Gary Ashley

Dr. Gary Ashley is co-founder of Prolynx, an Emeryville, California-based biotechnology company developing extended-duration therapeutics for obesity and metabolic disorders. He has spent more than a decade refining the chemistry underlying the company's ultra-long-acting half-life extension technology, which leverages proprietary linker chemistry to enable controlled drug release. Prolynx's approach has previously demonstrated clinical proof-of-concept in oncology and is now being applied to a portfolio of incretin and non-incretin therapies designed for once-monthly and once-quarterly dosing.

Education

Dr. Ashley holds a B.S. in Chemistry from MIT and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a licensed patent agent with over 70 scientific publications and more than 50 issued U.S. patents.

Career History

• Co-Founder, Prolynx (2010–present)
• Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University
• Executive Director of Chemistry and Vice President of Exploratory Research, Kosan Biosciences
• Senior chemistry and research leadership roles, Parnassus Pharmaceuticals

Earlier in his career, Dr. Ashley led drug discovery and exploratory research efforts across academic and industry settings, contributing to the advancement of multiple therapeutic programs.

What Dr. Ashley could bring to Prolynx as co-founder: With his deep expertise in sustained-release chemistry refined over more than a decade, combined with senior R&D leadership experience at pharmaceutical innovators like Kosan Biosciences and Parnassus Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Ashley brings foundational scientific innovation and drug discovery acumen essential to de-risking Prolynx's proprietary linker technology and advancing its obesity pipeline toward clinical development—particularly given his track record advancing multiple therapeutic programs in both academic and commercial settings.