Dr. Shanta Bantia is president and chief scientific officer of Nitor Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company in Birmingham, Alabama that is focused on immune diseases, infectious diseases and oncology. Dr. Bantia is a pharmacologist by training, and she introduced the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) target, among other targets, to DiscoveryBioMed (DBM), Inc. In addition to being part of DBM’s accelerator program, Nitor has other asset programs in immunology and oncology in preclinical development. Prior to founding Nitor, Dr. Bantia was a key senior pharmacologist with Biocryst Pharmaceuticals before the company moved from Birmingham to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, where it continues to focus on the clinical development of several key assets that Dr. Bantia helped discover and develop.