CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sigilon Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company creating functional cures for chronic diseases using Shielded Living Therapeutics, today announced the appointment of four new members of its senior management team as the company prepares to advance its lead therapeutic candidate into clinical trials. Deya Corzo, M.D., FACMG, joins the company as Chief Medical Officer; Olivia G. Kelly, Ph.D., is Vice President of Islet Cell Therapy Research; Martha Rook, Ph.D., is Head of Manufacturing; and Vanya Sagar joins as Vice President of HR.
“Sigilon’s rapid growth and numerous achievements over the past year and a half have been thanks to our exceptionally talented team — and the addition of Deya, Olivia, Martha and Vanya will deeply enrich our efforts and accelerate our progress,” said Rogerio Vivaldi, M.D., MBA President and Chief Executive Officer of Sigilon. “Their wealth of experience in cell therapy drug development, clinical operations, corporate growth and culture, and cell and gene therapy manufacturing will be assets in our work to create functional cures for chronic diseases using Shielded Living Therapeutics.”
Deya Corzo, M.D., FACMG
Dr. Corzo, Sigilon’s Chief Medical
Officer, is a board-certified physician of clinical genetics with
decades of experience in directing clinical development of novel
therapeutics. Most recently, Dr. Corzo served as Senior Vice President
of R&D and Chief Medical Officer at Sojournix, a privately held company
focused on developing women’s health products. Before Sojournix Dr.
Corzo held leadership positions at uniQure, Celgene, Takeda and
Sanofi/Genzyme, in which capacities she directed the development of
numerous therapeutics through clinical trials. Dr. Corzo is an
instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending
physician in clinical genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Corzo
received a cum laude M.D. degree from the Universidad Industrial de
Santander (Colombia) and she completed a research fellowship in
immunogenetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a clinical
fellowship in genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical
School. Her residency in pediatrics took place at Maimonides Medical
Center (Brooklyn, NY).
Olivia G. Kelly, Ph.D.
Dr. Kelly brings to the role of Vice
President of Islet Cell Therapy Research over 13 years of experience in
the biotechnology industry developing cell therapies. Prior to joining
Sigilon, Dr. Kelly served as the Senior Director of Cell Biology at
ViaCyte, a clinical stage company focused on developing stem
cell-derived therapies for diabetes. Dr. Kelly earned a B.S. in
molecular biology from the University of Texas at Austin and then
pursued a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard
University, where her research focused on molecular mechanisms of early
embryonic patterning and pancreas development. Dr. Kelly’s postdoctoral
fellowships at the University of California at Berkeley/San Francisco
and Baylor College of Medicine focused on signaling mechanisms that
regulate the development of various tissues and stem cell
differentiation.
Vanya Sagar
Ms. Sagar joins Sigilon as Vice President of HR
with more than a decade of experience in HR and operations in industry
and academia. Most recently, Ms. Sagar served as HR Business Partner for
the Research and Early Development organization at Biogen and prior to
that, as the HR Business Partner for the global Finance organization.
Before her time at Biogen, Ms. Sagar spent 10 years at Massachusetts
General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in
various roles supporting the department of Neurology, including
recruitment, on-boarding, training, performance evaluations and program
administration, among others. Ms. Sagar holds a bachelor’s degree in
Counseling from Dominion College and a Master’s of Public Administration
from Suffolk University.
Martha Rook, Ph.D.
Dr. Rook, Sigilon’s Head of
Manufacturing, brings to the role more than 20 years of academic and
industry experience in molecular biology, diagnostics development and
cell and gene therapy manufacturing. Prior to joining Sigilon, Dr. Rook
was VP and Head of the Gene Editing & Novel Modalities Business of
MilliporeSigma. There she led a team developing and providing tools and
services for cell and gene therapies from discovery to manufacturing.
Dr. Rook received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from MIT and holds a B.S. in
chemistry from Texas A&M University. She pursued post-doctoral studies
in neuroscience as a Lefler Fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Center
for Neurologic Diseases.
About Sigilon Therapeutics
Sigilon Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company creating functional cures for chronic diseases using Shielded Living Therapeutics. To create Shielded Living Therapeutics, we engineer novel human cells that we encase in a proprietary immune-shielding matrix and place in the body. These Shielded Living Therapeutics then produce therapeutic proteins in a programmable and durable fashion, without generating fibrosis or immune rejection. Sigilon was founded and created by Flagship Pioneering in conjunction with Daniel Anderson, Ph.D., and Robert Langer, Sc.D., of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
