Krystal Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: KRYS), the leader in redosable gene therapies for rare diseases today announced the appointment of Chris Mason, MD, PhD, FRCS, FMedSci, and Jing L. Marantz, MD, PhD, MBA to its board of directors.

“We are pleased to welcome Drs. Mason and Marantz to our board of directors,” said Krish S. Krishnan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Krystal Biotech, Inc. “They bring significant gene therapy translational and rare disease commercial strategy expertise that will be invaluable as we continue on our mission to be a fully integrated rare disease company.”

Dr. Mason is a Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at AVROBIO, a clinical-stage, gene therapy company. He is a clinician-scientist with over 25 years of cell and gene therapy experience spanning research and development, clinical medicine, and bioprocessing. He is a Full Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy in the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, University College London. In 2019, he was elected as a Fellow of The Academy of Medical Sciences. He is also a Founder and Non-Executive Director of OriBiotech, a company focused on next-generation fully-automated cell therapy bioprocessing. Dr. Mason was instrumental in the founding of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), the UK-Israel Science Council, and the London Regenerative Medicine Network. He is on the SAB of number of companies as well as the UK Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult and the Canadian Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM). Dr. Mason is Senior Editor of the journals, ‘Cell and Gene Therapy Insights’ and ‘Regenerative Medicine’.

“I am very excited to join the outstanding team at Krystal Biotech, who are redefining in vivo gene therapy with their promising, redosable HSV-1-based approach,” said Dr. Mason. “Their innovative platform appears ideally suited to deliver the much-needed step change for the treatment of serious skin diseases at commercial scale, as well as the potential to address additional target tissues.”

Dr. Marantz has more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry across roles spanning development, medical affairs, business development, and commercial strategy in multiple specialties and rare diseases. She currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Head of Medical Affairs at Acceleron Pharma. Prior to joining Acceleron in 2020, Dr. Marantz was Senior Vice President, Head of Medical Affairs at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals where she built the medical affairs organization into a global footprint across 19 countries and led two successful global product launches (Onpattro and Givlaari). Prior to Alnylam, Dr. Marantz served as Vice President, Global Medical Affairs, Head of U.S. Medical Affairs and interim Head of Latin America Medical Affairs at Alexion Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for three marketed rare disease products (Soliris, Strensig, and Kanuma). She previously held leadership positions at Biogen, ARIAD, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals across development, medical affairs, and business development.

“I’m delighted to join the board at such an exciting time as Krystal looks to commercialize its first product from its proprietary and differentiated gene therapy technology,” said Dr. Marantz. “I look forward to contributing to Krystal’s effort to bring innovative therapies to patients with high unmet need while continuing to expand its platform and pipeline.”