MONTPELLIER, FRANCE — Sensorion, a pioneering clinical-stage biotechnology company which specializes in the development of novel therapies to restore, treat and prevent within the field of hearing loss disorders, today announces the appointment of Nora Yang, Ph.D., a leader in gene therapy and rare diseases with extensive leadership experience in industry, academia, and government, as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).
Dr Yang joins from Stratify Therapeutics, LLC, where she was Co-Founder and CSO, having previously held senior roles at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Amgen Inc., and Eli Lilly & Co. In particular, she was instrumental in the development of clinical stage gene therapies to treat monogenic diseases. In her new role, Nora Yang will be based in the U.S. and will lead the preclinical organization at Sensorion Research Laboratories in Montpellier, France.
She will also spearhead the development of collaborations between fundamental and clinical research, including working with Sensorion’s partner, Institut Pasteur.
“I am delighted to welcome Nora Yang to Sensorion as our new CSO. Nora brings a wealth of highly relevant experience from pharmaceutical industry, academia and government. She will play a vital role in the expansion of Sensorion’s unique gene therapy platform, step-up innovation in our R&D organization and support us as we take our gene therapy programmes closer towards first clinical studies, in addition to spearheading our expansion in the U.S. market”
–Nawal Ouzren, CEO of Sensorion
“I am excited to join Sensorion and to play a role in the development of its transformative therapies for hearing loss and beyond,” said Nora Yang, CSO of Sensorion. “Sensorion, in partnership with world-renowned Institut Pasteur and Necker Hospital, is leading the field in understanding the pathophysiology and etiology of inner ear related disorders and developing potentially life-changing therapies, including gene-based therapies. I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead Sensorion’s exceptional preclinical team to continue to build its product pipeline with innovative therapies and work with leading global experts to bring much needed medicines to patients suffering from inner ear related disorders globally.”
About Nora Yang
Nora Yang, CSO
Nora Yang, Ph.D., has 20 years of executive and scientific leadership experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, venture capital industries, academia and government, building up a unique blend of expertise in biomedical research, drug development, regulatory sciences, finance, portfolio and pharmaceutical projects management. She is a leader in gene and cell therapies for treating monogenic rare diseases, including expertise in developing three clinical stage gene therapies to treat monogenic rare disorders.
Noteworthy, she has been a founding member of the leadership team that built the Therapeutic Development Branch and the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases Program and founded the Gene Therapy Platform for Rare Diseases at the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and developed close working relationship with the FDA Office of Orphan Product Development.
Dr. Yang is an internationally recognized expert and leader in rare and ultra-rare disease translational research with deep domain knowledge and broad network in orphan drug development. She is a proven leader of multidisciplinary matrix teams to develop therapies with various modalities, including small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, peptides, oligonucleotides, and gene therapies, in a wide range of therapeutic areas. These include oncology, metabolic diseases, endocrine disorders, neuromuscular diseases, CNS diseases, and other rare indications. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry, from the University of California, San Diego and the Gene Expression Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Dr. Yang also holds a master’s degree in Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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. Sensorion has launched three gene therapy programs, currently at preclinical stage, aimed at correcting hereditary monogenic forms of deafness including deafness caused by a mutation of the gene encoding for Otoferlin, hearing loss related to gene target GJB2 as well as Usher Syndrome Type 1 to potentially address important hearing loss segments in adults and children. The Company is potentially 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.
