Gyroscope Therapeutics, a company developing gene therapies and surgical delivery systems for retinal diseases, announces the strengthening of its leadership team with the hiring of Dr. Nadia Waheed from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and the promotion of Dr. Jane Hughes, formerly VP Translational Research, to Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).
These additions to the Gyroscope Executive Committee come as the company is currently enrolling its initial Phase I/II clinical trial for the lead investigational gene therapy GT005 and preparing to move into its proof of concept Phase II clinical program.
Khurem Farooq, Chief Executive Officer, Gyroscope Therapeutics said: “We are delighted to welcome Nadia as CMO and Jane to her new role as CSO. Nadia’s expertise in ophthalmology and understanding of the patient experience will be invaluable at this stage in our development, as we continue to move our clinical programme forward and broaden our reach across the United States and the rest of the world. Jane’s expertise has been critical in building the biological understanding to support our advancement into the clinic. She has a proven track record as a translational biologist who has effectively bridged between pre-clinical and clinical programs. I welcome both to the Gyroscope Executive Committee and look forward to working together to develop our gene therapy for one of the leading causes of vision loss, dry age-related macular degeneration.”
Dr Nadia Waheed said: “This is an exciting time for me to join Gyroscope. As a retinal surgeon, and a frequent collaborator with innovative companies, my passion has been to find meaningful solutions for patients facing retinal diseases. GT005 represents a unique approach as a one-time gene therapy that may slow the progression of a blinding disease for patients for whom currently there is no good option. I’m excited to be part of a team that I believe will make a difference for people with dry AMD.”
Dr Jane Hughes said: “Over the past year I’ve been privileged to work with the researchers and scientific founders at Gyroscope to better understand the complement system and its role in dry AMD to bring GT005 from an idea in a laboratory to an investigational gene therapy. I’m excited about the next phase of research growth that lies ahead in building the Gyroscope pipeline of medicines.”