Tessera Therapeutics Adds New Executives to Executive Team As Company Continues to Launch Gene Writing ™ Technology as New Category of Genetic Medicine | Business and finance


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CAMBRIDGE, Mass .– (BUSINESS WIRE) – December 8, 2021–

Tessera Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new approach to genetic medicine known as Gene Writing â„¢ technology, today announced the expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of Michael Holmes, Ph.D. , Scientific Director, Iain McFadyen, Ph.D., Data Director, and Becky Lillie, Human Resources Director. Jacob Rubens, Ph.D., co-founder of Tessera and Senior Director of Flagship Pioneering, has moved from Scientific Director of Tessera to Director of Innovation. In addition to the three executive appointments, Rebecca Wais, Ph.D., JD, Vice President, Intellectual Property and Legal Affairs, and Ian O’Reilly, Vice President, GMP Quality Manager, recently joined the Tessera team to build internal legal and manufacturing capacity.

“Michael, Iain and Bec are invaluable additions to our Tessera team and our mission to cure disease by writing in the code of life,” said Dr Geoffrey von Maltzahn, CEO and Co-Founder of Tessera and General Partner, Flagship Pioneering. “Their leadership, experiences and mindset will be essential in helping us achieve our aspirations in genetic medicine, attract and retain top talent, and grow our pipeline of Gene Writer candidates to cure and prevent serious illness. “

“We set out to revolutionize the field of genetic medicine by developing gene writing technology that can unlock the therapeutic potential of DNA engineering and fill the gaps in current approaches to gene therapy and gene therapy. gene editing ‘ said Dr Jacob Rubens. “To achieve this goal, we are building the best team on the ground at all levels and functions of our organization. We are delighted that our research is being led by Mike Holmes, whose previous roles included developing the industry’s premier gene editing platform and therapeutic candidates.

Michael Holmes, Ph.D., Scientific Director

Dr Michael Holmes has joined Tessera Therapeutics as Scientific Director to lead the development of new technologies and transformative therapies. Dr Holmes has over 20 years of experience in the development and clinical translation of approaches based on genome editing and gene therapy. He has accomplished experience in translating genomic engineering technologies into product candidates, as evidenced by the leadership of ten therapeutic programs across ex vivo and in vivo therapies. Prior to joining Tessera, Dr Holmes was Scientific Director of Ambys Medicines, and he also held various leadership roles at Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc., including Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.

Dr Holmes led the efforts that resulted in the very first clinical candidate for genome editing therapy and has extensive experience in genome editing of T cells, hematopoietic stem cells and hepatocytes. He was also responsible for the research efforts to develop the human factor 8 protein SB-525 (hFVIII) cDNA program, which achieved the highest level of hFVIII ever reported in animal studies and is currently being evaluated in a phase III study for hemophilia A.

Dr Holmes holds a doctorate. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of California at Berkeley. He also holds a BS in Molecular Biology from the University of California at San Diego. To date, Dr. Holmes has authored over 60 publications in the field of genome editing and gene regulation and is listed as an inventor on over 40 issued and pending US patents.

“After working in the field of genetic medicine for over 20 years, I was inspired by the abilities and performance of Tessera’s Gene Writer candidates and their potential to fundamentally reshape the field of genetic medicine,” said Dr Holmes. “Our Gene Writer tools can perform single base pair modifications, insertions and deletions, and write entire genes, each with significant advantages over current tools, and without relying on viral vectors. I look forward to working with the amazing team to advance our gene writing platform and develop win-win drugs that can transform patients’ lives.

Iain McFadyen, Ph.D., Data Director

Dr Iain McFadyen serves as Chief Data Officer to help advance Tessera’s goal of developing potentially curative drugs in multiple therapeutic areas. Previously, Dr. McFadyen held executive and managerial positions at LifeMine Therapeutics and Moderna, Inc., respectively. As Director of Data at LifeMine, Dr McFadyen oversaw the development of the Genomics Research Based Drug Discovery Platform, led the growth of the Data Sciences department as well as the construction of an IT platform. fully integrated and led efforts to validate target identification. At Moderna, he founded, built and led the Department of Computer Science, which included people working in data science, and helped develop the platform that delivered mRNA and lipid nanoparticles to patients under the form of the coronavirus vaccine. Throughout his career, Dr McFadyen has worked in the fields of computational biology, computational chemistry, data science, and machine learning / artificial intelligence. He has experience working in a variety of modalities (including mRNA, proteins and vaccines) and scientific areas which he will apply to his work at Tessera.

“I was drawn to Tessera because I think genetic writing technology is the future of medicine,” said Dr McFadyen. “I have already developed industrial computational platforms for RNA engineering and for the discovery of genes with unique functions, and I am delighted to use this experience to build and optimize our platform. writing genes at Tessera. “

Dr McFadyen received his doctorate. in Pharmacology from Loughborough University (UK) and University of Michigan in the Traynor Lab, then as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Minnesota. He received his BA in Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Loughborough University. Dr McFadyen is the author of 21 publications and the inventor of eight patents and patent families with 16 pending patent applications.

Becky Lillie, Director of Human Resources

Becky Lillie joins Tessera as Director of Human Resources to lead the HR function and oversee talent management strategies and incentives to enable business strategy. Previously, Ms. Lillie served as Director of Human Experience at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where she modernized human resources, IT and patient advocacy departments. As a seasoned human capital strategist with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Ms. Lillie has deep expertise in the design and execution of people-centered organizations, business models and structures. corporate governance.

“In today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive biotech industry, it is more important than ever to demonstrate strong leadership and create an employee environment that fosters innovative growth and development,” said Mrs. Lillie. “I look forward to working with Tessera to continue building a strong team of scientists driven by the challenge of developing a new class of genetic drugs to change our approach to disease. “

During her career, Ms. Lille rose through the ranks at Alexion from Executive Director to Chief Human Experience Officer over several years, modernizing her HR operations and thus overhauling the R&D operating model. She has also held senior R&D positions at AstraZeneca and Pfizer Inc. Ms. Lillie received her BA in Communications with a focus in Public Relations from the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks.

About Tessera Gene Writer â„¢ Tools

Tessera’s Gene Writer tools are based on the architects of nature’s genome, mobile genetic elements (MGEs), the most abundant class of genes in the tree of life, making up about half of the human genome. Tessera has evaluated tens of thousands of natural and synthetic MGEs to create Gene Writer candidates capable of writing therapeutic messages into the human genome. Tessera’s search engine further optimizes discovered Gene Writer candidates for efficiency, specificity, and fidelity, essentially reducing eons of evolution within months.

About Tessera Therapeutics

Tessera Therapeutics is a pioneer in Gene Writing â„¢ technology, which consists of several technology platforms designed to provide scientists and clinicians with the ability to write therapeutic messages into the human genome, thereby curing diseases at their source. The gene writing platform enables the correction of single nucleotides, the deletion or insertion of short DNA sequences and the writing of entire genes into the genome, offering the potential for a new class of genetic drugs with wide applications at the same time in vivo and ex vivo. Tessera Therapeutics was founded by Flagship Pioneering, an innovative life sciences company that designs, finances and develops leading companies to transform human health and sustainability. For more information on Tessera, please visit www.tesseratherapeutics.com.

Allison Simon, [email protected]

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA MASSACHUSETTS

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: BIOTECHNOLOGY PHARMACEUTICAL GENETICS HEALTH

SOURCE: Tessera Therapeutics

Copyright Business Wire 2021.

PUB: 08/12/2021 08: 00 / DISC: 08/12/2021 08:02

Copyright Business Wire 2021.

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