Nutcracker Therapeutics appoints Cynthia Collins, biopharma veteran and former Editas Medicine CEO, to board of directors

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nutcracker Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company dedicated to developing transformative RNA therapies through its proprietary technology platform, today announced the appointment of Cynthia Collins to the company’s board of directors.

Collins joins Nutcracker Therapeutics with more than four decades of experience working in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. She currently is the lead director at Panavance Therapeutics Inc., a clinical stage pharmaceutical oncology company. Prior to her role at Panavance, she was the CEO of Editas Medicine from 2019 to 2021, where the first clinical trial administration of an in vivo CRISPR gene editing therapy took place under her leadership. Additionally, she is a board member of Poseida Therapeutics (PSTX), Certara (CERT), DermTech (DMTK), Draper Laboratories and Triumvira Immunologics.

“We are delighted to welcome Cindy to the board,” says Igor Khandros, Ph.D., CEO of Nutcracker Therapeutics. “Her career-spanning leadership and business experience in oncology, cell and gene therapies, and cutting-edge modalities, such as CRISPR, will be an instrumental asset to the team as we prepare for our first clinical trial with our lead candidate, NTX-250.”

Collins graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology, and later went on to obtain her MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her previous executive roles in biopharma include CEO of Human Longevity; CEO/general manager of various life science businesses at GE Healthcare; president and CEO of GenVec; group vice president at Beckman Coulter; CEO and president of Sequoia Pharmaceuticals; and president of Global Oncology at Baxter Healthcare.

She joins Dr. Khandros, Robert Nelsen of ARCH Venture Partners, Michael Bigham of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, and Dr. Thomas J. Dietz of Waypoint Holdings (recently appointed) on Nutcracker Therapeutics’ board of directors.

About Nutcracker Therapeutics, Inc.

Nutcracker Therapeutics, Inc. is an RNA therapeutics company that has combined the power of advanced engineering with high-precision biosynthesis to deploy a complete RNA platform that encompasses the design, delivery, and manufacturing of RNA medicines. Armed with this high-tech advantage, the company has initiated multiple therapeutic programs with the support of clinical investigators at leading institutions. Nutcracker Therapeutics’ technology platform has the potential to significantly reduce costs and cycle times for RNA therapeutic development, with dramatic advantages in speed and capacity scaling over other RNA manufacturing approaches.

For more information, visit www.nutcrackerx.com.