Blueprint Medicines, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of personalized cancer therapies, has appointed Christoph Lengauer, Ph.D., chief scientific officer.

Lengauer most recently was vice president and global head of oncology drug discovery and preclinical development at Sanofi. Previously, he was executive director and senior unit head, oncology discovery at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, and an associate professor of oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Lengauer has a proven track record in cancer drug discovery, including contributing to 17 development candidates, 11 drugs/programs that reached first-in-human clinical trials and two registered drugs. He is lead or senior author of several scientific articles published in journals such as Cell, Nature and Science.

"Christoph has been at the forefront of the development of several novel and effective cancer drugs that have had a significant impact on patients' lives and brings a powerful understanding of cancer drug development to Blueprint," said Nicholas Lydon, Ph.D., scientific co-founder of Blueprint Medicines. "He is uniquely suited to lead our cancer therapeutics development strategy, and we believe his appointment is a true validation of the potential of Blueprint Medicines' platform and our ability to leverage emerging molecular insights to develop genomically-driven, highly selective therapies."