CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Orna Therapeutics,
a biotechnology company dedicated to designing and delivering a new
class of fully engineered circular RNA therapeutics (oRNAᵀᴹ), today
announced the appointments of Robert
Mabry, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer, and Nishla Keiser,
Ph.D., J.D. as Chief Legal and Strategy Officer. Dr. Mabry brings
deep experience in global drug discovery to the Orna team with
extensive experience in managing teams across multiple therapeutic
areas and a demonstrated track record of accelerating leads to IND.
He most recently served as Head of Global Biologics at Takeda
Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Keiser is a seasoned biopharma executive with
experience developing and integrating legal and intellectual
property strategies with portfolio, regulatory and other corporate
priorities in multiple biotechnology fields including nucleic acid
and protein therapeutics. Dr. Keiser most recently served as Senior
Vice President, Deputy General Counsel at Intellia
Therapeutics.
"We are excited to welcome Robert and Nishla to the Orna
leadership team," said Tom Barnes,
Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Orna Therapeutics. "Robert's
extensive experience in driving innovative drug discovery and
development in oncology and other therapeutic areas across multiple
modalities will help Orna treat a broad range of diseases with our
oRNA technology, and Nishla's expertise in corporate development
and building a robust intellectual property strategy and function
will strengthen the path forward for our novel oRNA technologies.
The combined expertise and leadership of these two highly
accomplished individuals will serve Orna well as we head into a
pivotal year for the company."
Robert Mabry, Ph.D., Chief
Scientific Officer
Dr. Mabry has contributed to the research
and development of multiple biologic programs, including several
currently under clinical evaluation and the approval of Sintilumab,
a PD-1 mAb. He joins Orna from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where
he led the discovery and optimization of biological candidates and
provided strategic support in overseeing their scientific
operations. Prior to Takeda, Dr. Mabry served as Vice President,
Protein Sciences for Cogen Therapeutics, now Repertoire Immune
Medicines. During his time as head of department, he was
responsible for protein engineering, antibody technology, protein
production and analytics. Dr. Mabry has also held positions at
Jounce Therapeutics, Adimab, ZymoGenetics, and ImClone Systems. He
received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in Biology
and Biochemistry from Baylor
University.
Nishla Keiser, Ph.D., J.D., Chief Legal and Strategy
Officer
Dr. Keiser joins Orna from Intellia Therapeutics,
where she held many key roles, including Senior Vice President,
Deputy General Counsel and Chief IP Counsel. During her time at
Intellia, Dr. Keiser provided strategic legal advice as a member of
the executive leadership team and was responsible for building and
managing the company's legal team. Prior to Intellia, she focused
on patent litigation and intellectual property counseling for
branded and innovative biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies
at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow,
Garrett and Dunner. She received her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, where she graduated
with academic distinction as summa cum laude. Dr. Keiser received
her Ph.D. from the Division of Biological Engineering at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
where she also received B.S. degrees in Biology, Chemistry, and
Chemical Engineering.
About Orna Therapeutics
Orna Therapeutics is a
biotechnology company dedicated to designing and delivering a new
class of fully engineered circular RNA (oRNAᵀᴹ) therapeutics with
the potential to change the way we treat disease. Orna's
proprietary platform combines novel technology to design circular
RNA transcripts that drive protein expression with validated and
unique delivery solutions. oRNAᵀᴹ has many advantages over
traditional mRNA approaches, including simplified production,
improved formulatability, and superior protein expression – making
it a highly disruptive, new class of RNA therapeutics with vast
potential to change patient's lives. To learn more visit:
www.ornatx.com and follow Orna Therapeutics on
Twitter and LinkedIn.
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SOURCE Orna Therapeutics