Senda Biosciences Appoints Stuart Milstein, Ph.D., as SVP and Head of Platform Biology

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Senda Biosciences, Inc., a company that is harnessing nature to program targeted, potent and tunable medicines, has appointed Stuart Milstein, Ph.D., to the newly created position of Senior Vice President and Head of Platform Biology. Dr. Milstein most recently served as the Vice President of platform biology at Korro Bio, Inc., and previously led the RNAi Lead Development group at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Milstein will be responsible for advancing Senda's platform and scaling the Company's efforts to unlock a new class of fully programmable medicines.

"Stuart is one of the industry's foremost experts in translating RNA science into meaningful new therapies and his experience is perfectly suited for Senda at this moment, as we leverage the power of evolution to discover and develop programmable medicines," said Guillaume Pfefer, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Senda Biosciences and Partner at Flagship Pioneering. "We've recently generated significant momentum programming medicines that use the codes provided by nature to target cells and tissues of interest, with the potential to surpass current industry standards. We're thrilled to work with Stuart to continue that momentum, and on behalf of our team and board, we welcome Stuart to Senda and look forward to his contributions."

"Senda made tremendous progress recently advancing its platform, generating exciting data in large animal studies and disease-relevant models that demonstrate the ability to effectively co-opt natural mechanisms to program human cells in vivo. This accomplishment offers great potential for the development of programmable therapies that can be directed to specific tissues, using nucleic acids as well as other modalities," said Dr. Milstein. "The most transformative thing about this approach is that once you have demonstrated it works, the potential for new therapies is exponential. I'm truly excited to be joining Senda and look forward to an exciting journey."

Before joining Senda, Stuart served as Vice President of Platform Biology at Korro Bio, where he built and led the high-throughput screening and platform biology functions and served on the leadership team. At Korro, he helped establish their ADAR-mediated RNA editing platform, enabling the company to transition from seed funding through Series B. Previously, at Alnylam, Stuart helped establish and then led the RNAi Lead Development group responsible for the lead development and optimization of all candidates in the Alnylam pipeline. He contributed to the discovery and optimization of multiple products, including Onpattro™, the first-ever approved RNAi therapeutic, Givlarri™, the first approved siRNA GalNac conjugate, and other approved products for orphan and large indications. He also initiated work on the delivery of siRNAs to the central nervous system (CNS), co-led the CNS delivery platform, and made substantial contributions across Alnylam's platform, including optimizing siRNA design for GalNAc conjugates.

Dr. Milstein has trained as a research fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he focused on genomics and proteomics. He received his Ph.D. through the genetics program at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Stony Brook University, studying the genetics of apoptosis.

About Senda BiosciencesSenda Biosciences, Inc. is uniquely positioned to transform human health by harnessing millions of years of evolution to program targeted, potent and tunable medicines. Nature has provided the codes to program human cells – both from within (mRNA) and from outside – from what surrounds them. The trillions of non-human cells in the human ecosystem have evolved natural nanoparticles that precisely shuttle biomolecules into human cells, providing the missing pieces to fully unlock programmable medicines. Senda's proprietary platform includes the first-ever atlas of nature-derived programmable systems at the molecular level and across all kingdoms of life – accessing the entire code provided by nature required to program cells. With this platform, Senda is developing a new class of SendRNA™ medicines. The unique properties of these medicines create new frontiers for mRNA therapeutics and vaccines for infectious, genetic, autoimmune, and metabolic diseases and oncology indications – with further potential to transform the gene editing and protein-based therapy landscapes as well. Based in Cambridge, MA, Senda was founded by Flagship Pioneering. For more information, visit sendabiosciences.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category bioplatform companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $140 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $2.6 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $19 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 42 transformative companies, including Axcella Health (Nasdaq: AXLA), Codiak BioSciences (Nasdaq: CDAK) Denali Therapeutics (Nasdaq: DNLI), Evelo Biosciences (Nasdaq: EVLO), Foghorn Therapeutics (Nasdaq: FHTX), Indigo Ag, Kaleido Biosciences (Nasdaq: KLDO), Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA), Omega Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OMGA), Rubius Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RUBY), Sana Biotechnology (Nasdaq: SANA), Seres Therapeutics (Nasdaq: MCRB), and Sigilon Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SGTX).

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SOURCE Senda Biosciences