SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Senti Biosciences, the leading gene circuit company focused on outsmarting complex diseases with intelligent medicines, today announced that Brenda Cooperstone, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer (CDO) for rare disease in Global Product Development at Pfizer Inc., has joined the company as an independent member of its board of directors.
“We’re excited to have Brenda join us as an independent board member,” said Dr. Tim Lu, CEO of Senti Biosciences. “She‘s spent her career developing transformative therapies to help patients in need. Brenda’s wealth of medical expertise and experience in translating advanced medicines into the clinic will be critical as Senti moves our gene circuit therapies toward human trials.”
“I’m thrilled to join a team committed to building intelligent cell and gene medicines that can outsmart devastating diseases,” said Dr. Cooperstone. “Senti Biosciences is at a critical point in its organizational growth, and I look forward to working with the company to move its pipeline of oncology cell therapy programs into solid tumor clinical studies, while also exploring other therapeutic areas for the gene circuit technology platform.”
As Pfizer’s CDO, Dr. Cooperstone is responsible for advancing and managing the development portfolio of its rare disease business, including advanced technology platforms such as gene therapy. In addition, she is site leader for the company’s Collegeville campus.
Prior to her current role, Dr. Cooperstone held a variety of leadership positions at Pfizer in clinical development and global medical affairs, with oversight over a wide range of therapeutic areas, including small and large molecules in early through late phase development, and in-line support. She started her career in the pharmaceutical industry in 1999 at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and joined Pfizer in 2009.
Dr. Cooperstone earned her M.D. from McGill University, and completed her residency in pediatrics at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, her clinical fellowship in pediatric nephrology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania’s Renal Electrolyte division. Dr. Cooperstone then practiced pediatric nephrology at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital, a member institution of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, before joining the pharmaceutical industry in 1999.
Senti’s gene circuit platform enables next-generation cell and gene therapies. For example, Senti’s engineered promoters, untranslated regions and logic gates enable highly specific gene therapies with programmable specificity and high activity in defined cell types. In addition, Senti’s Pro-Dial™ platform allows for gene therapies to be titrated up or down in a rheostat fashion with FDA-approved small molecule drugs. These technologies have the potential to make cell and gene therapies controllable, targeted and dynamic, thus able to address indications not accessible by current therapies.
About Senti Biosciences
Senti Biosciences is a next-generation therapeutics company that is developing gene circuits and programming cells for tremendous therapeutic value. Our mission is to outsmart complex diseases with more intelligent medicines that will transform people’s lives. By programming cells to respond, adapt and make decisions, we are creating smarter therapies with computer-like logic, enhanced functionality and greater therapeutic control. Senti Biosciences is based in South San Francisco and was founded in 2016 by Drs. Tim Lu, Philip Lee, Jim Collins and Wilson Wong. Senti is proud to count NEA, 8VC, Amgen Ventures, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Pear Ventures, Allen & Company, Nest.Bio, Omega Funds, Goodman Capital, and LifeForce Capital among its investors. For more information on Senti Biosciences, please visit https://www.sentibio.com/.
