GenEdit, Inc., a developer of genetic medicines that leverage its NanoGalaxy platform for tissue-selective delivery, announced the appointment of J. Rodrigo Mora, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Dr. Mora is an accomplished immunologist and research and development (R&D) leader with over 25 years of experience spanning academia and industry, including holding pivotal executive and scientific leadership roles at Moderna, Takeda, and Janssen. At GenEdit, Dr. Mora will lead the advancement of the company’s ongoing R&D programs to develop novel therapeutics for neurology and new R&D programs to develop therapeutics for immunology and immuno-oncology.
“Dr. Mora’s extensive experience in immunology and nanoparticles establishes a strong foundation for our new immune programs and our ongoing collaboration with Genentech,” said Kunwoo Lee, Ph.D., GenEdit’s CEO and Co-founder. “Dr. Mora’s vision for advancing novel therapeutic platforms will be invaluable as we further build out our NanoGalaxy platform and therapeutic pipeline. We look forward to his leadership in pioneering new genetic medicines that will expand the boundaries of what is possible for patients.”
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“I am incredibly excited to join GenEdit and to work alongside such a talented team dedicated to advancing transformative genetic medicines for those in need,” said Dr. Mora. “GenEdit’s innovative platform demonstrates the delivery of nucleic acid payloads, including mRNA, DNA, and siRNA, specifically to immune cells on top of earlier success with other target tissues. It opens the potential to address diverse therapeutic areas, such as autoimmune diseases and cancer.”
Previously, Dr. Mora was Vice President of Immunoengineering at Moderna, where he applied LNP-mRNA technology to modulate immune phenotypes and develop new nanoparticle-based genetic medicines. He also led efforts to create mRNA-based therapies targeting immune cells and hematopoietic stem cells.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Mora held pivotal roles at Takeda Pharmaceuticals as Senior Medical Director in Immuno-Oncology and Head of Immune Cell Therapy Engineering, where he advanced immune cell-based therapies. At Takeda, Dr. Mora also served as Medical Director and Clinical Lead in IBD Immunology, where he applied his expertise to understand and address underlying immunological imbalances in gut inflammation and designed clinical trials and authored protocols and IND submissions aimed at advancing treatments for inflammatory bowel diseases. At Janssen R&D, he served as Associate Scientific Director, where he co-led initiatives in IBD research, employing computational platforms to uncover novel therapeutic targets in autoimmune diseases. Dr. Mora’s academic experience includes serving as Faculty Member in Immunology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where his lab focused on immune homeostasis and tolerance and inflammatory responses in the intestinal mucosa. His findings have been published in leading journals and cited over 13,000 times.
SOURCE: Businesswire