Craig M. Crews

Education and training

Crews graduated from the University of Virginia in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, after which he performed research at the University of Tübingen as a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Fellow. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Raymond Erikson at Harvard University, Crews was the first to purify and clone the MAP kinase kinase MEK1, a key signaling molecule controlling cancer-driving cellular processes including proliferation and survival. Targeting MEK1 for the treatment of cancer has since been pursued by several biotechnology companies.

He subsequently worked in the research group of Stuart Schreiber as a Cancer Research Institute Fellow.

Academic career

In 1995, Crews joined Yale University as an assistant professor in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. His research has significantly advanced the field of chemical biology, especially in the area of targeted protein degradation. At Yale, he also serves as the executive director of the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery.

In December 2023, Crews was honored with the 2024 Kimberly Prize in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Simpson Querrey Institute for Epigenetics.

Crews has contributed to the development of induced proximity as a strategy in drug discovery. This approach involves bringing proteins into close spatial proximity to produce specific biological effects and is central to targeted protein degradation and related therapeutic methods. His work helped demonstrate the potential of this concept, particularly through the development of PROTACs (proteolysis-targeting chimeras), which use the cell's degradation system to remove certain proteins.

Crews received the Scheele Prize in 2021 and the Passano Award in 2025, the latter shared with Ray Deshaies for their contributions to the development of targeted protein degradation technologies.

Crews has founded two biotechnology companies to develop TACs discovered in his Yale research lab, each of which induces protein-protein interactions within distinct target classes to achieve a therapeutic effect.

In 2013, Crews founded New Haven-based Arvinas, which uses the PROTAC technology discovered in his lab to develop drugs to treat cancer, neurodegeneration, and other diseases. Notably, Arvinas' PROTAC drugs have successfully demonstrated oral availability in clinical trials, overcoming a key challenge faced by PROTACs-based drug development since conception, owing to their atypically large size and pharmacological properties.

As of 2023, Arvinas has four PROTAC therapies in clinical trials. The most advanced is vepdegestrant (ARV-471), a PROTAC targeting the Estrogen Receptor, in Phase 3 trials to treat metastatic breast cancer. In 2021, Arvinas and Pfizer, Inc. partnered to co-develop vepdegestrant. Phase 1/2 data have shown promising safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics for both drugs, and both drugs appeared to be well tolerated. Moreover, ongoing clinical trials have demonstrated evidence of efficacy in breast tumors with mutated estrogen receptor.

In 2019, Crews founded Halda Therapeutics, a venture-backed biotech company that is developing RIPTACs, or Regulated Induced Proximity Targeting Chimeras, for the treatment of cancer. Unlike PROTACs, RIPTACs do not directly elicit degradation of a target protein. Instead, RIPTACs induce the formation of a stable complex between a target protein selectively expressed in cancer tissue and a more widely expressed protein essential for cell survival. The resulting cooperative protein:protein interaction (PPI) abrogates the function of the essential protein, thus leading to the death of cancer cells expressing the target protein.

In August 2024, Halda Therapeutics, a biotechnology company founded by Crews, secured $126 million in a Series B extension financing. This funding aims to advance Halda's proprietary RIPTAC (Regulated Induced Proximity Targeting Chimeras) platform, which employs a "hold and kill" mechanism to selectively target and eliminate cancer cells. The company initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial for its lead candidate, HLD-0915, in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in January 2025.