San Diego, California and London, UK, October 17, 2022 – Replay, a genome writing company reprogramming biology by writing and delivering big DNA, today announced that it has established a scientific advisory board (SAB) comprising ten experts across a broad range of areas of scientific importance in genomic medicine and cell therapy.
The newly formed SAB will provide input into Replay’s strategy, portfolio of next-generation genomic and cell therapy medicines, and associated technology platforms. The SAB complements Replay’s industry seasoned management team and board.
Adrian Woolfson, Executive Chairman, President and Co-founder of Replay, commented: “The multi-disciplinary nature of our scientific advisory board reflects Replay’s commitment to invoking innovation from a broad range of scientific specialties and leveraging this across our research and development programs. Our new advisors represent some of the best scientific minds of their generation and bring a unique and differentiated portfolio of expertise into the Company. Their contribution to Replay will be invaluable as we continue to address some of the most significant challenges in genomic medicine and cell therapy.”
Lachlan MacKinnon, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Replay, added: “Following on from our recent launch, the formation of our uniquely distinguished scientific advisory board further demonstrates Replay’s commitment to developing a cutting-edge portfolio of medicines guided by world-class science. The combined inter-disciplinary expertise of our scientific advisory board brings tremendous knowledge and experience into the Company as we continue to expand our operations, with a view to developing transformative genomic medicines.”
Replay’s SAB will be chaired by Professor Roger Kornberg, PhD, a biochemist whose laboratory work has focused on the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription and in particular the structure of RNA polymerase and the nucleosome.
Professor Roger Kornberg, PhD, Chairman of Replay’s Scientific Advisory Board, said: “Replay’s scientific advisory board incorporates expertise across several areas relevant to Replay’s genomic medicine and cell therapy technology platforms. I am excited to be working with this exceptional group of scientists and believe we can make a compelling contribution and help Replay realize its vision for genomic medicine.”
Replay’s SAB members are as follows:
Professor Roger D. Kornberg PhD (Chairman), is the Winzer Professor of Medicine in the Department of Structural Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2006).
Professor Carl H. June, MD, is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Director of Translational Research at the Abramson Cancer Center. He was the co-founder of TMunity.
Professor Robert S. Langer, ScD, FREng, is one of 12 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), co-founder of Moderna, and was formerly Chair of the FDA’s Science Board. He has been awarded 40 honorary doctorates, written over 1,500 articles, and received over 220 awards.
Professor Lynne E. Maquat, PhD, is the J. Lowell Orbinson Endowed Chair and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Rochester Medical Center, and founding Director of the Center for RNA Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester NY. She was awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine from Israel (2021) and the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize from Harvard Medical School (2021).
Professor Dame Carol Robinson, DBE FRS FMedSci FRSC, is the Dr Lee’s Professor of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, the Founding Director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery at Oxford, and a Founder of OMass Therapeutics. She is a Professorial Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford, and was formerly President of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Professor David V. Schaffer, PhD, is the Hubbard Howe Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is Director of the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub and Director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3). He was the co-founder of 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Ignite Immunotherapies, Rewrite, and 5 additional companies.
Professor Stuart L. Schreiber, PhD, is the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. He is a co-founder of the Broad Institute at Harvard University and MIT and co-founder of Harvard’s Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology. He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2016).
Professor Pamela Silver, PhD, is the Elliot T. and Onie H. Adams Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, and a founding member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School.
Professor Sir John E. Walker, FRS FMedSci, is Emeritus Director and Professor at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit at the University of Cambridge, England, and a fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1997).
Professor John Fraser Wright, PhD, is Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology, Oncology, Stem Cell Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine, and Director of Technology Innovation at the Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine at Stanford University. He is co-founder and was Chief Technology Officer at Spark Therapeutics and is co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor at Kriya Therapeutics.
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About Replay
Replay is a genome writing company, which aims to define the future of genomic medicine through reprogramming biology by writing and delivering big DNA. The Company has assembled a toolkit of disruptive platform technologies – including a high payload capacity HSV platform, a hypoimmunogenic cell therapy platform, and a genome writing platform – to address the scientific challenges currently limiting clinical progress and preventing genomic medicine from realising its full potential. The Company’s hub-and-spoke business model separates technology development within Replay from therapeutic development in product companies that leverage its technology platforms. For example, Replay’s synHSV™ technology, a high payload capacity HSV vector capable of delivering up to 30 times the payload of AAV, is utilized by Replay’s four gene therapy product companies, bringing big DNA treatments to diseases affecting the skin, eye, brain, and muscle. The Company has, additionally, established an enzyme writing product company that leverages its evolutionary inference machine learning and genome writing technology to optimize enzyme functionality. Replay is led by a world-class team of academics, entrepreneurs, and industry experts. The Company raised $55 million in seed financing in July 2022 and is supported by an international syndicate of investors including: KKR, OMX Ventures, ARTIS Ventures, and Lansdowne Partners.
Replay is headquartered in San Diego, California, and London, UK. For further information please visit www.replay.bio and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Contacts:
Replay
Dr Adrian Woolfson/Lachlan MacKinnon info@replay.bio
Consilium Strategic Communications – Media relations
Amber Fennell/Tracy Cheung/Andrew Stern replay@consilium-comms.com
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