Translate Bio Appoints Richard Wooster as Chief Scientific Officer

LEXINGTON, Mass., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Translate Bio, Inc. (Nasdaq: TBIO), a clinical-stage messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics company developing a new class of potentially transformative medicines to treat diseases caused by protein or gene dysfunction, today announced the appointment of Dr. Richard Wooster as chief scientific officer.  Dr. Wooster brings more than three decades of experience in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development and academic research, with expertise in genetics, oncology and translational medicine.  In this role, Dr. Wooster will lead Translate Bio’s scientific strategy and research efforts to support current pipeline programs while also identifying and delivering new programs to expand the Company’s pipeline of mRNA therapeutics.

The Company’s scientific founder and current chief scientific officer, Dr. Michael Heartlein, will continue serving as chief technical officer, focusing on next-generation innovations with the Company’s proprietary mRNA therapeutic (MRT) platform expanding beyond the core capabilities of the technology, including novel delivery and mRNA construct design approaches to optimize all areas of the MRT platform. Dr. Wooster is expected to join the Company in May.

“As the scientific founder of our MRT platform, Mike’s vision and direction has been instrumental to the success of the Company,” said Ronald Renaud, chief executive officer, Translate Bio. “Mike’s dedication to this technology enabled rapid advancement from discovery to a first-in-human clinical trial of MRT5005, our mRNA therapeutic product candidate that is designed to treat all patients with cystic fibrosis by addressing the underlying cause of the disease. We are grateful that Mike will continue to provide technical leadership as we seek to drive further platform innovations.”

Renaud continued, “We are also delighted to welcome Richard to the Translate Bio team as we continue to build our pipeline of mRNA therapeutics with a focus on rare genetic diseases. Richard’s notable scientific achievements and proven track record of successfully leading discovery-stage programs into clinical candidates makes him an outstanding addition to our leadership team at this time of significant progress. We believe his expertise enhances the company’s leadership in the mRNA therapeutics space.”

“Translate Bio is a pioneer in developing mRNA therapeutics and I’m excited to work with the leadership team to build on the foundational work that has enabled the MRT platform to advance from discovery through to the Company’s first mRNA therapeutic in the clinic,” said Dr. Wooster. “I have been fortunate to spend my career working in teams that made exceptional discoveries and developed innovative therapeutics. I look forward to bringing together scientific excellence with the power of the MRT platform to drive additional programs to clinical development with the goal of expanding the pipeline of potentially transformative medicines from Translate Bio’s novel technology.”

Dr. Wooster has three decades of experience with a focus on cancer genetics and pharmaceutical drug discovery and development. In his most recent role as President of Research & Development and Chief Scientific Officer at Tarveda Therapeutics Inc., he was responsible for the company’s R&D strategy, successfully developing an innovative platform with multiple pipeline programs at different stages of development, from discovery to clinical-stage. Previously, he was Vice President and Discovery Performance Unit Head in Oncology at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he led the evaluation of the metabolic pathways that are deregulated in cancer and the PI3K portfolio of and other protein kinase inhibitors. Before this, Dr. Wooster led the translational medicine group in Oncology at GSK and worked on Tykerb®, Mekinist® and Tafinlar®. During his academic career, Dr. Wooster discovered the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA2, was one of the founders of the Cancer Genome Project at the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute where mutations in BRAF were first discovered and developed the COSMIC mutation database and website. He has more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and papers in scientific journals.  Dr. Wooster has a First Class BSc in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in drug metabolizing enzymes, both from the University of Dundee, Scotland.

About Translate Bio
Translate Bio is a clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company developing a new class of potentially transformative medicines to treat diseases caused by protein or gene dysfunction. The Company’s MRT platform is designed to develop product candidates that deliver mRNA carrying instructions to produce intracellular, transmembrane and secreted proteins for therapeutic benefit. Translate Bio believes that its MRT platform is applicable to a broad range of diseases caused by insufficient protein production or where production of proteins can modify disease, including diseases that affect the lung, liver, eye, central nervous system and lymphatic system. The Company also believes its MRT platform may be applied to various classes of treatments, such as therapeutic antibodies or vaccines in areas such as infectious disease and oncology. Translate Bio’s two lead programs are being developed as treatments for cystic fibrosis (CF) and ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency. For more information about the Company, please visit www.translate.bio or on Twitter at @TranslateBio.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those regarding:  Translate Bio’s expectations regarding the timing of Dr. Wooster’s employment and the anticipated contributions of the leadership team to the Company’s platform and new programs to expand the Company’s pipeline of mRNA therapeutics; the potential for MRT5005 to treat all patients with cystic fibrosis; the benefits and broad applicability of the Company’s MRT^TM platform; and Translate Bio’s plans, strategies and prospects for its business, including its lead development programs. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “would” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Such statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from current expectations and beliefs, including but not limited to: Translate Bio’s ability to advance the development of its platform and programs under the timelines it projects, demonstrate the requisite safety and efficacy of its product candidates and replicate in clinical trials any positive findings from preclinical studies; the content and timing of decisions made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, other regulatory authorities and investigational review boards at clinical trial sites, including as it relates to ongoing and planned clinical trials; Translate Bio’s ability to obtain, maintain and enforce necessary patent and other intellectual property protection (for example, two of our patents issued in Europe are under opposition); the availability of significant cash required to fund operations; competitive factors; general economic and market conditions and other important risk factors set forth under the caption “Risk Factors” in Translate Bio’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 21, 2019 and in any other subsequent filings made by Translate Bio. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Translate Bio specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.