Rakovina Therapeutics Inc. (TSX-V:RKV; FSE:7JO0) announced the appointment of Dr. Ranjit Bindra to its scientific advisory board and disclosed receipt of a $920,846.10 refund from the Canada Revenue Agency under the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program.
Dr. Bindra joins as scientific director of the Yale Brain Tumor Center and the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Therapeutic Radiology at the Yale School of Medicine. He previously founded Modifi Biosciences, which was acquired by Merck in 2024. His laboratory identified that IDH1/2-mutant cancers carry a DNA-repair defect exploitable through PARP inhibition — findings published in Nature, Nature Genetics and Science Translational Medicine. Dr. Bindra currently serves as lead co-principal investigator on a 35-site Phase II trial assessing the PARP inhibitor olaparib in IDH1/2-mutant solid tumors.
The CRA refund, which includes interest, will fund advancement of Rakovina's pipeline, including preclinical testing of its kt-5000AI dual ATR/mTOR inhibitor program and ongoing development work in partnership with Variational AI.
The company also authorized the grant of 2,910,500 stock options to consultants, employees, officers and directors. Each option carries an exercise price of $0.20 per common share and expires five years from the grant date, vesting quarterly over one year.
Dr. Bindra joins existing scientific advisory board members Dr. Dennis Brown, Prof. Petra Hamerlik, Prof. Artem Cherkasov and Dr. Leonard Post.
Rakovina describes itself as a Vancouver-based biopharmaceutical research company developing cancer therapies that target the DNA-damage response, leveraging artificial intelligence platforms.
