CAMBRIDGE, England & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wren Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company transforming drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Bart Henderson as Chief Executive Officer. Wren’s unique drug discovery platform harnesses advances in the biophysics of protein assembly dynamics to target the toxic fleeting protein intermediates, the oligomers, in neurodegenerative disease pathways, and discover small molecules that can block their generation with precision.
Bart brings broad leadership experience in the biotechnology industry as a founder and co-founder of several companies including Torque (now Repertoire Immune Medicines), Rhythm (Nasdaq: RYTM) and its subsidiary Motus (acquired by Allergan) and has been an operating partner at Flagship Pioneering as well as an entrepreneur-in-residence at MPM Capital. He joins Wren at a time of significant advancement of its two lead programs targeting amyloid-β for Alzheimer’s disease and α-synuclein for Parkinson’s disease and other synucleinopathies.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors and our investors, I want to thank Dr. Samuel Cohen, scientific co-founder and founding CEO of Wren, for his many exceptional contributions to the company. Wren has made substantive progress under his leadership, advancing the drug discovery platform and pipeline, establishing our first discovery collaboration, and bringing together a world-class team and group of investors. Sam will continue to contribute to the Company’s future direction as a member of the board of directors”, said Kelly Martin, Chairman of the Board, “As we pivot toward the future, I enthusiastically welcome Bart to the Wren team as our next CEO. We are fortunate to have a leader with such an outstanding and unique track record for creating value and advancing companies. His leadership will be a huge asset for the company as we expand and advance our pipeline into the clinic.”
“I am excited and highly energized to lead and work alongside this outstanding team at Wren and to build on what has already been accomplished with the Company’s proprietary technology platform for previously intractable diseases,” commented Mr. Henderson. “This technology has the ability to deliver unparalleled predictive capability for creating breakthrough drugs for major neurologic and other diseases that involve protein aggregation - a dynamic and complex biophysical process that is beyond the reach of conventional drug discovery approaches.”
About Wren
Wren is a biopharmaceutical company transforming drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases, targeting the fleeting protein intermediates central to many disease pathways that are beyond the reach of conventional drug discovery approaches. We have built a unique drug discovery platform to assay and target the transient protein intermediates in these disease pathways, the oligomers, to interrupt the molecular mechanisms that are the source of oligomer generation with small molecule therapeutics. We are focusing this platform first on two of the greatest unmet medical needs of our time: Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. For more information, please visit www.wrentherapeutics.com.
