CAMBRIDGE, England– Transine Therapeutics today announced the appointment of Andy Billinton as Chief Scientific Officer as it triples its facility footprint at The Babraham Research Campus.
Transine Therapeutics is developing a novel class of therapeutic RNAs (SINEUPs®) capable of upregulating protein expression with a superior level of control and specificity across an unprecedented range of hard-to-treat diseases, which have been beyond the reach of small molecules, conventional biologics, or gene therapies.
The appointment of Andy as CSO comes at a time of rapid growth for the company following its successful £13.7m extended seed financing to accelerate its platform and portfolio development, plus a three-fold expansion of its lab and office facilities in the heart of the Cambridge life science cluster at the Babraham Research Campus.
Andy has more than 20-years’ experience in drug discovery and early development, driving programmes from inception, though candidate selection and into clinical development. He joins Transine from NodThera, where he led translational efforts on multiple molecules which entered Phase 1 for indications related to innate immunity, including neuroinflammation.
Prior to this, Andy led the Neuroscience Discovery Group at MedImmune/AstraZeneca, worked with GSK targeting neurological and pain indications from idea through to Phase 2, and co-founded Transpharmation; a boutique CRO which works with academic, biotech and pharma clients to deliver bespoke in vivo model solutions. Andy holds a PhD in neuropharmacology from the University of Birmingham.
Jan Thirkettle, CEO of Transine, said: “We are thrilled and very fortunate to have Andy join Transine. His experience, skill and passion bring innumerable benefits to the team and to our mission to develop life-changing therapeutics for serious, underserved diseases.
“Our robust seed financing, with the addition of a new investor, and recent hiring of a number of talented individuals from academia and industry has put us in a strong position to progress our pipeline. With Andy on board to pilot our next phase of scientific progression and the fantastic facilities we now have; we are set to assess new opportunities to further leverage our unique SINEUP® platform.”
Andy adds: “I am delighted to be joining such an outstanding and visionary team to help realise the incredible potential of this technology and to achieve meaningful benefit for patients.
“I’m intrigued and motivated by the prospect of dialling up protein translation in a specific, controlled manner and believe that Transine has a real and exciting opportunity to bring SINEUPs forward as a novel therapeutic modality for hard-to-treat diseases.”
