Rubius Therapeutics, a company focused on creating Red-Cell Therapeutics, has bolstered its senior team with the addition of four new hires.
Dr Chris Carpenter (pictured right) takes up the position as chief medical officer, and he will oversee Rubius’ clinical and regulatory strategy as the company prepares to enter human clinical trials in 2018.
He most recently served as the senior vice president and head of the cancer epigenetics department at GlaxoSmithKline, where he was responsible for overall strategy, as well as identification and validation of new epigenetic targets and advancing novel therapies.
Prior to GSK, Dr Carpenter was at Merck, where he led the development of Tesaro’s Zejula.
Joanne Protano moves from her previous role as senior vice president of finance, new ventures, from Flagship Pioneering and she takes up the role of vice president of finance at Rubius.
Protano has a background in public technology and biotechnology and has also served Cellectar Biosciences as its chief financial officer.
Also joining the group as its new vice president of regulatory affairs is Mark Boshar, who brings more than 25 years’ of biotechnology experience.
His experience includes establishing the legal department at Millennium Pharmaceuticals – now Takeda Oncology – and served as its associate general counsel and chief patent counsel for several years.
Completing the line-up is Theo Proukou, who joins as Rubius’ vice president of human resources, bringing nearly 20 years’ of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields to the group.
He has spent 16 years at Novartis holding roles in human resources, marketing, and sales, and he has also served Vertex Pharmaceuticals in various positions.
Torben Straight Nissen, president, Rubius Therapeutics, said: “We are delighted to welcome Chris, Joanne, Mark and Theo to the team, and look forward to their leadership and leveraging their decades of pharmaceutical and biotech experience as we work to lead the next generation of cellular therapies.
“Chris and the rest of the team will play a pivotal role in bringing the promise of red cell therapeutics to the clinic in 2018.”