Their role is to advise on the clinical development of our stem cell therapies and to review and monitor progress with our therapeutic programmes as they progress into and through their clinical development phase. Additionally, the Company has established a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), which is chaired by Dr Mike Owen and is composed of leading academics and industry executives with a world-class breadth of expertise across the Company’s areas of operation. The SAB will provide insight and counsel across ReNeuron’s therapeutic programmes and broader research and development activities. Its role is to advise the Company on scientific matters relating to its research and clinical development strategy. This includes the future direction of cell therapy, links to academic, regulatory and industrial organisations and relationships with peer companies and government bodies on a global basis. The SAB comprises the following members:
Mike Owen’s career in biotech, the pharmaceutical industry and academia spans almost 40 years. He serves as a director of Zealand Pharma, Ossianix Inc, BlinK Biomedical SAS and Avacta plc and, in addition to ReNeuron, is a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Kymab Ltd and the CRT Pioneer Fund LP, and the investor advisory board of HS Lifesciences gmbh. Dr Owen was formally Senior Vice President for Biopharmaceuticals Research at GlaxoSmithKline where he was responsible for the discovery and development of antibody drugs in multiple therapeutic areas through to successful clinical proof of concept. He was also a Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Kymab Ltd, an antibody based Biotech Company, and for many years held a research position at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now CR-UK). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation.
Marie Csete received her undergraduate music degree from Princeton University, followed by an MD from Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons. She is board certified in anesthesiology with subspecialty certification in critical care. Her academic career focused on optimising the perioperative management of liver transplant patients, and she led the liver transplant anesthesiology services at UCSF, UCLA, Michigan and Emory where she was co-director of the MD/PhD program and founding director of the Emory/GaTech human embryonic stem cell core facility. Mid-career Dr. Csete received a PhD in developmental biology from Caltech. Her PhD work focused on the role of oxygen in stem cell fate, which led to later work in stem cell aging. Dr. Csete was the first CSO of CIRM, the California state stem cell agency where she supervised development of its core programs. Currently President & Chief Scientist of the non-profit Huntington Medical Research Institutes, her lab studies iPS models of neurodegeneration. At HMRI she is leading a new scientific strategic plan focused on multidisciplinary approaches to common diseases with core emphasis on inflammation and metabolism, and development of new imaging approaches to quantify these processes.
Stephen J. Gould, Ph.D., is a professor of biological chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Gould’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms behind the biogenesis and uptake of exosomes and microvesicles (EMVs), tiny vesicles secreted by animal cells. Since they have the same topology as the cells themselves, EMVs can be taken up by adjacent cells, completing a pathway of intercellular vesicle traffic. Dr. Gould’s lab is examining the role EMVs play in cell polarity, cell-to-cell interactions and intercellular signalling. His team also is studying ways that HIV and other retroviruses use the exosome biogenesis pathway for the formation of infectious virions – and the consequences of their EMV origin. The goals are to identify the cis-acting signals that target proteins to secreted vesicles, the trans-acting factors that mediate EMV biogenesis, and the mechanisms of EMV biogenesis. The research also aims to determine how HIV exploits the EMV biogenesis pathway and how infection-boosting, protease-generated ligands promote HIV infectivity.
Professor Trevor Jones was the founder Chairman of ReNeuron and is the Chairman of Simbec-Orion Research Ltd (UK). Until March 2015 he was a Director of Allergan Inc (USA), and formerly a main board director of The Wellcome Foundation, where he was responsible for R&D including the development of AZT (HIV/AIDS), Zovirax (Herpes), Lamictal (Epilepsy), Malarone (Malaria) and other medicines. He is also a Board member of e-therapeutics plc. He is a visiting professor at King’s College, London and holds honorary degrees and Gold Medals from 6 universities. He is a founder member of the Geneva-based, Public: Private Partnership, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and in 2004 was appointed to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (C.I.P.I.H). Trevor was for 12 years a member of The UK Government regulatory agency, the Medicines Commission, an advisor to the Cabinet Office on the Human Genome project, a member of the Prime Minister’s Task force on the Competitiveness of the Pharmaceutical Industry (PICTF) and Chair of the UK Government Advisory Group on Genetics Research.For 10 years until September 2004 he was Director General of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) a member of Council of IFPMA and the Board of EFPIA.
Thomas Lönngren is the former Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency, EMA and he previously served with the Swedish Board of Health and Welfare as Director of Operations and later Deputy Director General at the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA). Thomas established the EMA from a relatively small-unknown agency in 2001 to a world-renowned regulatory agency in 2010 and was responsible for all of its operations. Stepping down after 10 years’ service he is currently Director at his own independent consultancy, Pharma Executive Consulting, offering strategic advice to the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector in the area of Drug Development focusing on Regulatory and Market access aspects. During 2011, Thomas was a member of the board of CIBIO in Brisbane, Australia. Through his consultancy his main work is as Strategic Advisor at NDA Group AB and its clients. His focus over the last two years has been advising US based biotech companies located in US, Boston, Cambridge, New York and San Francisco. Thomas is currently serving on several Advisory Boards and frequently speaks at conferences around the world US, Europe, Japan and Australia. He is currently a board member of Global Kinetics Corporation in Melbourne and Analytica Ltd in Brisbane Australia and is also an advisor to GLG New York, CIRS UK, Scientificmed Sweden, Molecular Warehouse UK and Pictet Asset Management, Switzerland. He is Honorary Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians UK, Honorary Doctor of Uppsala University, Sweden and Honorary Doctor of the University of Bath, United Kingdom. He graduated from the Pharmaceutical Faculty in Uppsala 1976.
Professor Robert MacLaren is Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, where he directs research into developing new clinical treatments for blindness, using stem cells, gene therapy and electronic retinal implants. In 2016 he performed the world’s first operation inside the human eye using a remotely controlled robot. Together with the University of Oxford, in 2014 he co-founded Nightstar Therapeutics, a biotechnology company originally based at the Wellcome Trust in London, to develop gene therapy treatments for patients with retinal diseases. Nightstar was acquired for $800 million by Nasdaq-listed Biogen, Inc. in June 2019.
Chris Mason is Professor of Regenerative Medicine Bioprocessing in the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, University College London working on the clinical translation and commercialization of cell and gene therapies. He has a multidisciplinary track record, spanning R&D, clinical medicine, bioprocessing, regulation, healthcare economics, reimbursement and business. His current responsibilities include; Chair of the BioIndustry Association (BIA) Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy Industry Group, Co-Chair of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) Cell Therapy Section, Founder and CEO of the London Regenerative Medicine Network, and Trustee of the UK Stem Cell Foundation. Chris is on a number of national and international committees, working groups and initiatives related to the academic, clinical translation and commercialisation of cell and gene therapies including; the UK-Israel Science Council, the Scientific Advisory Panel of the UK Cell Therapy Catapult, and the Strategic Advisory Board of the Canadian Centre for the Commercialisation of Regenerative Medicine. He is a general spokesperson for the cell and gene therapy sector including frequent newspaper, radio and TV interviews. Chris is Senior Editor of the journals; “Regenerative Medicine” and “Cell and Gene Therapy Insights”.
Developmental Neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology. Mahendra Rao is internationally known for his research involving human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and other somatic stem cells and has worked in the stem cell field for more than twenty years with stints in academia, government and regulatory affairs and industry. Dr Rao has an extensive background teaching medical and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral fellows at institutions including The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, The National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, and the University Of Utah School Of Medicine. Dr Rao has published more than 300 papers on stem cell research and is the co-founder of a neural stem cell company Q therapeutics based in Salt Lake City (Utah) and more recently NxCell based in California. Until 2010 Dr Rao led the Stem Cell and Regnerative Medicine division at LiFE Technologies and served on the Board of Thermogenesis (CESCA), Aastrom and Q therapeutics all companies involved in stem cell processing and therapy. Dr Rao also served as the Chair of the CBER (FDA) advisory committee (CTGTAC). Dr Rao serves on several scientific advisory boards to Pharma, journal editorial boards and oversight committees and advisory panels on large scale projects related to stem cell biology. He continues to work with the FDA and other regulatory authorities on PSC related issues most recently as the CIRM and ISSCR liaison to the ISCT. Dr. Rao was the founding Director of the NIH Center of Regenerative Medicine and also the Chief of the Laboratory of Stem cell Biology at the NIH until 2013. Dr Rao is currently the VP of strategic Affairs at Q therapeutics and serves as a consultant on Regenerative Medicine for the New York Stem Cell Foundation which has provided more than 100M dollars in research funding for cutting edge research in Regenerative Medicine. Dr Rao continues to provide consultant and advisory services to biotechnology companies in the regenerative medicine field and most recently was appointed as faculty at the Wake Forest School of Medicine.
Lee Rubin has a broad experience in both academia and industry, particularly in the realms of cell-based assays and drug discovery. Prior to joining Harvard, he was Chief Scientific Officer of Curis, Inc., a Cambridge-based biotechnology company, where his group identified the first small molecule regulators of the hedgehog signalling pathway. One of these antagonists was developed by Genentech and is now (as Erivedge) approved as the first oral treatment for metastatic basal cell carcinoma. At Harvard, much of his work is focused on finding key molecular mediators of different neurodegenerative diseases and on searching for effective preclinical therapeutic candidates. His research takes advantage of his group’s ability to produce large numbers of patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell lines and of effective means of deriving differentiated neurons from them. They have set up an array of techniques that allow them to identify early cellular and physiological changes in neurons as they become diseased. For example, they have identified new targets for the treatment of the motor neuron disorders Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. They are also studying Psychiatric disorders, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Recently, his group discovered that a circulating protein, GDF11, has the ability to reverse some of the changes in the CNS associated with aging. They are actively exploring the therapeutic implications of these observations as well.
Dr José-Alain Sahel is the chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, of the UPMC Eye Center, and the Eye and Ear Foundation Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology. He founded and still heads the Institut de la Vision (Sorbonne Université-Inserm-CNRS) in Paris, one of the largest Vision Research Centres worldwide. Dr Sahel is known worldwide for his expertise in vision restoration techniques. He has led pioneering efforts in neuroprotection, prosthetic and optogenetic vision restoration, a technique in which cells in the retina are genetically modified to express light sensitive proteins. Dr Sahel founded Fovea Pharmaceuticals, which later became the Ophthalmology Division of Sanofi Aventis. He is also a scientific co-founder of GenSight Biologics, Pixium Vision and Sparing Vision. He is a member of the French and German National Academies of Science.
Dr Sinden is a scientific co-founder of ReNeuron and from 1998 to 2019 was its Chief Scientific Officer.
Prior to cofounding ReNeuron and becoming its first employee, he was Reader in Neurobiology of Behaviour at the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London. He graduated in Psychology from the University of Sydney and completed a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie at the Collėge de France. He subsequently held post-doctoral appointments at Oxford University and the Institute of Psychiatry prior to joining the permanent staff of the Institute in 1987. He holds honorary professorships at University College London (UCL) and the University of Exeter and has over 140 scientific publications and book chapters. In 2017 he co-founded Glialign Ltd, a tissue engineering company with James Phillips at UCL.
He holds Fellowships of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Society of Biology
Dr Sally Temple is the Scientific Director of the Neural Stem Cell Institute in New York. She leads a team of 30 researchers focused on using neural stem cells to develop therapies for eye, brain, and spinal cord disorders. In 1989, she discovered that the embryonic mammalian brain contained a rare stem cell that could be activated to proliferate in vitro and produce both neurons and glia. Since then, her team has continued to make pioneering contributions to the field of stem cell research. Their research on the characterisation of neural stem and progenitors brings closer the prospect of effective clinical treatments for central nervous system damage in which tissue is lost, for example, due to neurodegenerative diseases or trauma.
