MONTPELLIER, FRANCE — Sensorion, a clinical-stage biotechnology company which specializes in the development of novel therapies to restore, treat and prevent within the field of hearing loss disorders, has announced the appointment of five renowned experts to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).
Sensorion’s SAB is chaired by Professor Christine Petit, MD, PhD, a globally renowned geneticist and neurobiologist with decades of hearing research leadership who has recently received the Kavzli Prize in Neuroscience and was appointed as Director of the French Hearing Institute, in addition to her other current roles.
The new members of the SAB are Professor Alain Fischer, Dr. Robert Dow, Professor Paul Avan, Dr. Diane Lazard and Dr. Hernán López-Schier.
“The appointment of these five experts will provide remarkable depth and expertise to the Sensorion Scientific Advisory Board, and will be bring significant value during this exciting phase in the company’s development. The combined Board has experience of a wide spectrum of research, gene therapy development and regulatory affairs as well as in hearing loss and we look forward to working closely with Nawal Ouzren and her team.”
–Christine Petit, MD, PhD
New Scientific Advisory Board Appointments
- Professor Fischer has an extensive scientific and medical career. He led pioneering research on gene therapy, primary immunodeficiency diseases, and the development of the lymphoid system. He is currently Professor at Collège de France and has held a number of other prestigious positions, including founding member and director of the Institute for Genetic Diseases (Imagine) at Necker University Hospital.
- Dr. Dow has more than 37 years’ experience in pharmaceutical and biotech industry, during which he has held a variety of senior executive positions at Syntex Corporation, Hoffman La Roche, Cell Genesys Inc and more recently as Chief Medical Officer at PPD Inc. He has substantial experience across a broad range of therapeutic areas in managing the transition of medicinal products from pre-clinical to clinical development and through Phase III. Dr Dow also has substantial experience in regulatory interactions in the USA and Europe.
- Professor Avan is both a physicist and a medical doctor in biophysics. He designed original objective methods of exploration of the cochlea and auditory pathways. The tests developed have been applied to diagnosis in patients and led to the design of novel electrophysiological equipment detecting formerly inaccessible parameters. He is currently head of the Center for Research and Innovation in Human Audiology (CERIAH) at the Institut de l’Audition in Paris, France.
- Dr. Lazard is an ENT surgeon with the main research topic of cortical plasticity induced by deafness, and its links to cochlear implantation outcome. She is Principal Associate Investigator in a team at the Hearing Institute in Paris, where she is currently pursuing research on deciphering language processing variability in deafness.
- Dr. López-Schier is Senior Group Leader and Research Unit Director at the Helmholtz Center in Munich, Germany. His research focuses on fundamental sensory biology and sensory dysfunction, and his group was the first to visualize the regeneration of mechanosensory hair cells in their natural context.
“I am very proud to welcome these five internationally respected experts to Sensorion’s Scientific Advisory Board, where they will add to and complement our chair, Professor Petit,” said Nawal Ouzren, Chief Executive Officer of Sensorion.
“It is a great honor for Sensorion to be able to work with scientists of this caliber, and they will be an invaluable source of expertise and advice as we advance our clinical product SENS-401 through Phase 2 clinical testing and develop our exciting gene therapies to treat rare monogenic forms of deafness.”
–Nawal Ouzren, CEO of Sensorion
About Sensorion
Sensorion is a pioneering clinical-stage biotech company, which specializes in the development of novel therapies to restore, treat and prevent within the field of hearing loss disorders. Its clinical-stage portfolio includes one Phase 2 product: SENS-401 (Arazasetron) for sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). Sensorion has built a unique R&D technology platform to expand its understanding of the pathophysiology and etiology of inner ear related diseases enabling it to select the best targets and modalities for drug candidates. The Company is also working on the identification of biomarkers to improve diagnosis of these underserved illnesses. In the second half of 2019, Sensorion launched two preclinical gene therapy programs aiming at correcting hereditary monogenic forms of deafness including Usher Type 1 and deafness caused by a mutation of the gene encoding for Otoferlin. The Company is uniquely placed, through its platforms and pipeline of potential therapeutics, to make a lasting positive impact on hundreds of thousands of people with inner ear related disorders, a significant global unmet medical need.
Source: Sensorion
