hC Bioscience Announces Program in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Reports In Vivo Data From tRNA-based Protein Editing Platform

Leslie J Williams, a 25-year biopharmaceutical industry veteran, is an experienced biotech CEO and board of directors’ member with demonstrated expertise in building companies, raising funds, and negotiating strategic collaborations.

Leslie is founding CEO, President & Director of hC Bioscience, Inc. an innovator and leader in protein editing with tRNA based therapeutics. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Ocular Therapeutix (OCUL), Windtree Therapeutics (WINT), and CSCRI (Coral Sea Clinical Research Institute). In addition, she serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Life Science Leader, the Advisory Board of Life Science Cares and serves as an EIR at UVA and University of Iowa. Ms. Williams was formerly the founder and CEO of ImmusanT, developing immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases and was CEO at Ventaira Pharmaceuticals developing therapies using the lung as a portal for delivery. Williams prior pharmaceutical experience includes INO Therapeutics, Merck and GSK. She was also a venture partner at Battelle Ventures where she sourced and evaluated deals and assisted early-stage technology companies with strategy, management, business development and M&A.

Williams holds an MBA from Washington University, John Olin School of Business, and a B.S. degree with honors in nursing from the University of Iowa. Before entering the industry, she was a critical-care nurse at Duke University, Medical College of Virginia and at the University of Iowa.

Jose M. Lora is a seasoned biopharmaceutical leader who brings 20+ years’ experience in Research and Development across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas. Most recently, Jose served as Chief Scientific Officer at Intergalactic Therapeutics, a non-viral gene therapy company focusing on multiple areas with a major emphasis in Ophthalmology. At Intergalactic, Jose was responsible for all aspects of Research, Preclinical Development and Manufacturing, and his team was able to demonstrate unprecedented safe and durable expression in the retina of a very large gene, ABCA4. Prior to Intergalactic, Jose was Chief Scientific Officer at enGene, a clinical-stage non-viral gene therapy company focused on gene delivery to mucosal surfaces. At enGene, he and his team contributed to the conception, development and advancement of EG-70, a plasmid-based nanoparticle therapeutic for the treatment of bladder cancer, to Ph1/Ph2 clinical trials. Prior to enGene, Jose was Vice President of Research at Synlogic, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the application of synthetic biology to the discovery and development of therapies for metabolic and immune-mediated diseases, and cancer. At Synlogic, Jose built and led the Immunomodulation therapy area, and he led a multidisciplinary team to conceive, develop and advance SYNB1891, an engineered bacterial cell therapy designed to engage the STING pathway in solid tumors, to Ph1 clinical trials. Prior to Synlogic, he served in several biotech and pharmaceutical companies in positions of increasing impact and responsibility (Constellation -acquired by MorphoSys-, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Millennium -acquired by Takeda).

Jose received his PhD from the University of Seville, Spain, and was a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University and The University of Utah. He has authored numerous patent applications, as well as publications including papers in Journal of Experimental Medicine, PNAS, Nature, Nature Immunology, Nature Communications and Nature Reviews.