Bart Henderson is President and Chief Executive Officer of Wren. Mr. Henderson brings extensive experience in company-building and developing innovative medicines. Previously, he was operating partner at Flagship Pioneering, where he led the build-out of Harbinger Health, developing a multi-cancer early-detection platform with leading-edge artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies. Prior to Flagship, he was CEO and co-founder of Torque (now Repertoire Immune Medicines) where, under his leadership, the company significantly advanced its cellular immunotherapy pipeline, initiating the company’s first clinical trial, receiving Fast Track designation from the FDA, and building a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for Torque’s T cell immunotherapies. Bart was founder and president of Rhythm and its subsidiary, Motus, where he acquired and completed successful Phase II clinical trials for two metabolic disease therapeutics: Imcivree™, which was granted Breakthrough Designation and is the first drug approved in the U.S. for genetic obesity; and relamorelin, which was acquired by Allergan (with Motus). He was a founding employee and chief business officer of Radius, where he built the pipeline, acquiring Tymlos™, now approved for the treatment of osteoporosis, and acquiring Orserdu™, now approved for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Previously, he was an entrepreneur-in-residence at MPM Capital. He led business development at Microbia (now Ironwood Pharmaceuticals) and was head of sales and marketing at Vertex, which launched its first product and significantly expanded its pipeline during his tenure. Mr. Henderson previously held marketing management positions at Amgen and Merck. He received an M.B.A. from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and a B.A. from Amherst College.

John Thomson was formerly Head of Research for Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ USA-based research operations, a company he helped to build from the ground up. During his 25-year tenure, he was involved with all Vertex research programs spanning antivirals and anti-infectives, immunoregulation, inflammation, neurological dysfunction, cystic fibrosis, and oncology research. He headed the Hepatitis C project that yielded INCIVEK® (telaprevir) and contributed to the discovery and selection of more than 40 development candidates—many first-in-class, and of which six were eventually approved as drugs.

Pat Connelly is a biophysics expert who created and led a number of specialized R&D business units at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he was a founding scientist and former employee. He established the unique Materials Discovery & Characterization development function at Vertex, where he, his staff, and colleagues co-invented three first-in-class medicines—INCIVEK® for hepatitis C, and KALYDECO® and ORKAMBI® for cystic fibrosis. Dr. Connelly also co-founded and led Vertex’s Corporate Innovation unit that catalyzed the company’s entry into sickle cell disease and was a member of the Vertex-CRISPR Therapeutics Joint Research Committee that brought forth Exa-cel, one of the first gene-editing medicines to be tested in humans, currently in Phase 3 clinical trials.

Dan Kaganovich joined Wren Therapeutics as Vice President, Neurobiology following more than 10 years as a Cell Biology Professor on the faculty of leading universities, where his lab became one of the world-leading groups studying protein aggregation in live cells. The Kaganovich lab published dozens of papers in peer-reviewed journals, including breakthrough studies in high-resolution 4D imaging of protein aggregation and dynamics in diverse cell models as well as physiological consequences of pathological protein aggregation. The Kaganovich lab has worked on cellular aging and pathophysiology in ALS, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases and on the adaptive functions of molecular condensates (i.e., how self-organizing protein super-structures can exhibit complex functionality in cells). Dr. Kaganovich is especially expert at applying genetic and biochemical interventions to elicit hidden disease-relevant phenotypes in diverse cellular systems, including neuronal cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generated from human patient samples and applying high-resolution cellular imaging and metabolomic profiling techniques in living cells to explore the causal chain of events in aberrant cellular disease processes. This work has led to a new hypothesis of the causal biology of ALS and generated a hitherto unexplored therapeutic strategy for human treatment. Dr. Kaganovich has an AB from Harvard University in Biochemistry and a PhD from Stanford University in Molecular Cell Biology.

Johnny Habchi is a Founder and Vice President, Early Discovery for Wren. Previously, he worked at the Centre for Misfolding Diseases, Cambridge, where his research focused on developing new methodologies in drug discovery for protein aggregation. Dr. Habchi’s research included the first proof-of-principle studies demonstrating the mechanism of action of a small molecule drug targeting the misfolding and aggregation process, driven by a conceptual shift from structure-based to kinetics-based drug discovery in protein misfolding diseases. Dr. Habchi completed his BSc in Biochemistry at the Lebanese University during which he became interested in understanding the protein folding process. He then obtained masters and doctoral degrees in protein science from Aix-Marseille University, France, where he studied the folding of unstructured (intrinsically disordered) proteins. Dr. Habchi has co-authored more than 40 publications, is a Cambridge University Fellow in Leadership and a Fellow at Hughes Hall College, Cambridge.

Bochong Li is Vice President, Innovation at Wren, with responsibility for science, technology platform, and company-building strategy as well as leading initiatives in external collaboration. Prior to joining Wren, Dr. Li was Senior Director of Strategy and Innovation at Cullinan Oncology, an investing and drug development company focused on oncology assets. As part of the founding team and through the company’s IPO, Dr. Li was responsible for investment identification, due diligence, business development, and internal new asset creation and was an inventor on multiple patents including multi-specific T cell engagers and cytokine fusion constructs. Dr. Li started his career at MPM Capital, where he led initiatives in company creation in synthetic biology and living medicine. Dr. Li holds a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, where he also received his BSE magna cum laude in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics.

Janeta Popovici-Muller is Wren’s Head of Drug Discovery. She is a seasoned biotech/pharma executive with more than 20 years of experience in early and late-stage drug discovery. Before joining Wren, Dr. Popovici-Muller was founding employee and Senior Vice President, Head of Drug Discovery at Rectify Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on developing disease-modifying precision therapies that restore ABC transporter function to address the underlying cause of serious genetic diseases. Prior to her work with Rectify, Dr. Popovici-Muller was Vice President, Head of Chemistry at Decibel Therapeutics, a biotechnology company discovering and developing transformative treatments to restore and improve hearing and balance. Previous to that, Dr. Popovici-Muller co-led drug discovery programs at Agios Pharmaceuticals that delivered clinical-stage molecules in the areas of cancer metabolism (co-inventor of Tibsovo®) and rare genetic metabolic disorders (Pyrukynd®). Preceding her tenure at Agios, Dr. Popovici-Muller spent 10 years at Merck Research Labs in Cambridge, MA (through merger with Schering-Plough) focused on small-molecule drug discovery in oncology, inflammation, and anti-viral therapeutic areas. Dr. Popovici-Muller is the author of more than 75 peer-reviewed publications and patents and has presented numerous invited lectures and scientific presentations. She has been actively involved in the Gordon Research Conferences and American Chemical Society and served as the 2021 Chair of the Medicinal Chemistry GRC. Dr. Popovici-Muller holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Dartmouth College.

Rajeev Sivasankaran, PhD joined Wren as Head of Translational Development after an 18-year tenure at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research (NIBR) leading drug discovery programs ranging from small molecules to gene therapy, most recently as Executive Director and Head of Rare Diseases in the Neuroscience Division. His group initiated and advanced drug discovery programs focused on a broad range of monogenic neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases including spinal muscular atrophy, Huntington’s disease, Friedreich’s ataxia, and autism spectrum disorders, and other conditions. Dr. Sivasankaran’s leadership at NIBR included the advancement of numerous innovative drug discovery programs from early ideation to human clinical trials and publishing seminal research, including a groundbreaking paper that described the mechanism of action of a sequence-selective, small-molecule splicing modulator, LMI070 / Branaplam. At NIBR, he also initiated and led collaborations with external academic and clinical groups as well as with patient foundations, and he helped to shape work culture by serving as a mentor to scientists and promoting inclusion, collaborative teamwork, and talent development. Dr. Sivasankaran earned a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Zurich working on the TGFbeta and WNT signaling pathways. As a postdoctoral fellow, he was a recipient of a Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation award and a Lefler Fellowship at Children’s Hospital, Boston where he co-authored several key publications detailing signaling pathways involved in spinal cord injury.

Mike Dey is Head of Manufacturing and Technical Operations at Wren, responsible for development of chemical and drug product processes, production, quality control & assurance, and clinical supply to support the Wren portfolio. He brings extensive experience in development, industrialization, and manufacturing innovative medicines, with more than 40 NDA/BLA approvals. Previous to joining Wren, Dr. Dey held senior R&D, manufacturing, and commercial positions at large and small pharmaceutical companies as well as start-up companies, including 10 years leading his own consulting company supporting multiple clients in these areas. He was Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development and Vice President, Endocrinology Strategy team at Ipsen, where he supported Somatuline in becoming a $1 billion product as well as multiple out-licensing partnerships on early products that are now approved life-changing therapies. Dr. Dey held senior manufacturing and R&D positions in Aventis (now Sanofi) in various mergers, including Fisons and RPR, for which he led integration of industrialization and R&D teams to accelerate new products, including delivery systems such as SoloStar. He has developed novel equipment and built facilities in the U.S., EU, and Asia to secure supply from earliest clinical trials to global launches. Dr. Dey has led both multisite global organizations and “virtual,” fully outsourced operations with a global network of development and manufacturing partners, from early research through all clinical stages and regulatory approvals, with multiple successful FDA pre-approval inspections. He is an inventor of multiple formulation and drug delivery patents supporting several approved products. Dr. Dey has a BSc in Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology/Engineering from Robert Gordon University, UK.

Suzanne Brewerton is Wren’s Head of Data and Analytics. Previously, she worked at AstraZeneca where she was a senior leader in the R&D IT organisation, responsible for Data, Analytics and IT strategy for Oncology and Precision Medicine. Dr. Brewerton is a proven leader with more than 20 years’ experience working with teams in data engineering, data management, software engineering and analytics, including ML and AI, across various domains such as genomics, multi-omics and structure-based drug discovery. She has led multiple, matrixed, multi-disciplinary teams in both start-ups and pharma to build data and analytics platforms and has worked and lived in both the UK and Singapore. Dr. Brewerton completed her BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Manchester during which she became interested in computational biology and analytics. She then completed her PhD in protein structural bioinformatics at the University of Cambridge, where she studied the prediction of domain boundaries, repeating motifs and unstructured regions in proteins.