Bayer arm AskBio elects Independent Director Dr Laura Sepp Lorenzino to Board
Research Triangle Park: AskBio Inc., a gene therapy company wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG, has announced that its Board of Directors has elected Independent Director Laura Sepp-Lorenzino, PhD, to the Board, effective April 4, 2025.
“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Sepp-Lorenzino to our Board of Directors,” said Gustavo Pesquin, CEO, AskBio. “Laura’s extensive experience as a scientist and adviser will support AskBio’s efforts to stay at the cutting-edge of innovation. She brings to our Board broad expertise across modalities and therapeutic areas, including gene therapy and editing, from discovery through late-stage development. Her contributions will be invaluable as we move our clinical programs through and beyond Phase 2 and advance our next pre-clinical candidates.”
Dr. Sepp-Lorenzino brings to AskBio’s Board over 30 years of executive and academic experience and leadership skills. She currently serves as Scientific Advisor, Executive Vice President, at Intellia Therapeutics, where she is helping develop and execute Intellia’s strategic vision and plan, positioning the company as the leader in systemic CRISPR medicines. She is also the company’s former Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to her work at Intellia, Dr. Sepp-Lorenzino served as Vice President, Research and External Innovation, Head Nucleic Acid Therapies, at Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Vice President, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; and held roles of increasing responsibility at Merck & Co., Inc. In addition, she serves on the Boards of Taysha Gene Therapies and Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), as well as the Scientific Advisory Boards of Thermo Fisher Scientific; Arsenal Capital Partners; and UK Medical Research Council, Nucleic Acid Therapy Accelerator. Dr. Sepp-Lorenzino began her career as Assistant Attending Molecular Biologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute.
She received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Pharmacy from the University of Buenos Aires and her PhD in Biochemistry from New York University. Her recent awards include 2023 Rosalind Franklin Award in Science, 2022 Women in Biopharma, and 2019 Fiercest Women in Life Sciences. Further, Dr. Sepp-Lorenzino currently sits on the editorial boards of the following scientific journals: Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids, and Cell & Gene Therapy Insights.
“Laura is a trail-blazing leader in the industry whose transformational impact on companies and their programs has been widely acknowledged,” said Mansuo Shannon, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Member of the Board of Directors, AskBio. “Her decades of innovative leadership in drug discovery and the development of small molecules, biologics, oligonucleotides, and CRISPR-based medicines have resulted in the successful translation of disruptive, enabling technologies into new therapeutic modalities with differentiated products. Her in-depth knowledge of what it takes to steer therapies from research to commercialization will uniquely position the Board to support AskBio through the next phase of its development. We welcome Laura and look forward to her contributions.”
“I am excited to join AskBio’s Board,” said Dr. Sepp-Lorenzino. “This is a special time for the company, which is known and respected for its long history of pioneering science and innovation, as it begins to move its clinical pipeline and pre-clinical candidates toward key milestones. I look forward to joining my fellow Directors and the management team in helping the company realize the full promise of what I believe can be life-changing gene therapies for patients living with some of the world’s most devastating diseases.”
