Terry Pizzie, the previous CEO of Horizon Discovery and Astrea Bioseparations, has taken on the CEO function at Broken String Biosciences.
His appointment marks a big milestone as Broken String transitions from a pioneering expertise developer to a completely industrial group.
Co-founder and former CEO Felix Dobbs will proceed to guide firm operations and expertise growth as chief operations officer.
Gabe Longoria joins as chief industrial officer, his important monitor file of economic management in cell and gene remedy instruments including additional depth to the corporate’s industrial experience. Co-founder Professor Simon Reed continues in his function as chief scientific officer.
Broken String Biosciences, the ‘Life Science Company of the Year’ winner at this yr’s Cambridge Independent Science & Technology Awards, is a genomics firm based in 2020 and based mostly on the Wellcome Genome Campus.
“Terry’s proven track record in building commercially successful life science businesses makes him the ideal leader to guide Broken String through its next phase,” mentioned Felix.
“Under his leadership, and with Gabe’s commercial acumen, we are now well positioned to make INDUCE-seq the gold standard for gene editing off-target assessment, a crucial step in the delivery of safe gene editing therapies to patients.’’
INDUCE-seq is a cell-based, unbiased, PCR-free platform for the precision measurement of genomic breaks induced by gene editing. A PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, test is a laboratory technique used to amplify millions of copies of a specific DNA segment from a small sample, but can be easily contaminated.
“Gene editing technologies such as CRISPR and base editing are already transforming what’s possible in medicine,” mentioned Terry. “INDUCE-seq gives developers a powerful new way to rapidly and confidently evaluate both the efficacy of on-target editing and the potential impact of off-target effects, helping them design more precise, safer therapies and to advance promising therapies much faster.
“This is an exciting moment for the company and the industry, and I’m thrilled to lead Broken String as we bring this technology to more customers globally.”