Purespring Therapeutics strengthens scientific leadership with the appointment of Alice Brown as Chief Scientific Officer
London— 07 September 2022— Purespring Therapeutics, a pioneering gene therapy company focused on transforming the treatment of kidney diseases, today announces the appointment of Alice Brown as its Chief Scientific Officer, effective immediately.
Alice brings more than a decade of experience working in advanced therapies, spanning both large pharma and early-stage biotech companies. Prior to joining Purespring, Alice held the roles of VP Research and VP Gene Engineering at GammaDelta Therapeutics; she then briefly joined the Cell Therapy Innovation department at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, upon the acquisition of GammaDelta Therapeutics by Takeda at the beginning of 2022.
At GammaDelta Alice built and led the research team and was responsible for developing multiple cell therapy programs from discovery through to completion of pre-clinical development. Before GammaDelta, Alice was Director of Biology at PsiOxus Therapeutics. She has a degree and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol and carried out her post-doctoral research in Immunology at Imperial College London.
Alice will lead Purespring’s research team to oversee the progression of the Company’s therapeutic programmes. With a focus on building its pipeline, the Company has rapidly expanded its in-house team through a number of senior appointments. Alice will work closely with Purespring’s co-founder Moin Saleem in his new capacity as Chief Scientific Advisor to build Purespring’s unparalleled pipeline of AAV gene therapies for chronic kidney diseases.
Richard Francis, Chief Executive Officer of Purespring, said: “With an ambition to revolutionise the treatment of kidney diseases, we are moving at speed and a cornerstone of this is putting the right team in place. With decades of work on the podocyte, Professor Moin Saleem is a world leader in gene therapy for the kidney and his work has been critical to establishing Purespring. Combining this with Alice’s expertise in moving ATMPs through research and into the clinic, we are in the best possible position to move our innovative treatments closer to people suffering from kidney diseases.”
Prof. Moin Saleem, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of Purespring, said: “Over the last year, we have made tremendous progress in our preclinical work at Purespring. Expanding our in-house capabilities is a vital step in shifting our focus towards the clinic and Alice is a critical part of this. With an impressive track record working within similar-stage companies, I believe Alice is well positioned to lead the research team in this next phase of Purespring’s development, and I look forward to working with her.”
Alice Brown, Chief Scientific Officer of Purespring, commented: “Purespring is providing leadership in innovation which has been sorely lacking in the kidney space through its approach to using AAV therapy to target the podocyte. I can’t think of a more exciting company to work for at the moment and it’s a privilege to be working with Professor Moin Saleem, who has done so much to advance AAV gene therapy in the kidney. I am thrilled to be working with such a strong team.”
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For further information, contact:
Purespring:
Richard Francis, CEO
contact@purespringtx.com
+44 (0)20 3855 6324
LinkedIn
Consilium Strategic Communications:
Amber Fennell, Jessica Hodgson, Genevieve Wilson
purespring@consilium-comms.com
Notes to Editors
About Purespring
Purespring is the first company to treat kidney diseases by directly targeting the podocyte, a specialised kidney cell implicated in many kidney diseases, through AAV gene therapy.
Headed by former Sandoz CEO, Richard Francis, Purespring was founded on the work of Professor Moin Saleem, Professor of Paediatric Renal Medicine at the University of Bristol, where he heads a world leading group researching glomerular diseases. Purespring seeks to advance gene therapies for the treatment of both monogenic and non-monogenic chronic renal diseases that are currently poorly addressed with existing treatments.
The company also has a proprietary in-vivo pipeline engine, FunSel, which is a library of all biological factors that could be candidates for gene therapy, combined with a screening method to evaluate these factors in disease models. FunSel allows Purespring to discover new gene therapy candidates across all indications, unconstrained by genetics, to find the right candidate to make the best therapy.
An initial £45 million commitment to Purespring from Syncona Ltd is enabling Purespring to progress its assets to the clinic. Syncona’s Chief Investment Officer, Chris Hollowood, serves as Chairman. For more information please visit: purespringtx.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
