ONE GENETIC MEDICINE, THOUSANDS OF DISEASES.
Alltrna unlocks tRNA biology to treat disease.
Alltrna has an unprecedented opportunity to advance universal tRNA medicines and unify treatment across a wide range of diseases with the same underlying genetic mutations. The company’s platform incorporates AI/ML tools to develop and deliver diverse programmable molecules with broad therapeutic potential.
Leadership team
Michelle C. Werner
Chief Executive Officer & Director
Michelle C. Werner is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with more than 20 years in the industry spanning both commercial and research & development (R&D) responsibilities. Most recently, Michelle served as Worldwide Franchise Head, Solid Tumors at Novartis Oncology, where she was responsible for delivering the disease area strategies across multiple tumors and led business development efforts resulting in a doubling of long-term portfolio value for the franchise.
Previous to Novartis, Michelle was a senior leader at AstraZeneca, where she held multiple positions during her five-year tenure. As Global Franchise Head in Hematology, Michelle was critical in launching multiple indications worldwide for CALQUENCE® and was responsible for developing the mid- and long-term strategy for AstraZeneca in hematology. Prior to this role, Michelle served as Head of US Oncology, where she led the business through dramatic growth in both team and revenue through eight-plus product launches as well as Country President for the Nordics and Baltics, where she also served as an elected Board Member to Sweden’s pharmaceutical industry association.
Previous to AstraZeneca, Michelle was with Bristol Myers Squibb for 10 years in various positions of increasing responsibility including roles in sales, marketing, and market access in the US and UK, and above-market in Europe (based in France) and global almost exclusively in oncology. Michelle started her professional career in R&D, working hands-on with patients at the Oncology Clinical Trials Unit at Harvard Medical School before moving into industry in clinical operations.
Outside of her corporate responsibilities, Michelle is a wife and mother to three children and is a member of the rare disease community. She is currently serving a Board appointment for the non-profit organization Rare Disease Renegades, a purpose that fuels her passions both personally and professionally.
Michelle holds a B.A. in biology & anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the London Business School (UK). She also completed an Executive Education program for Women on Boards at Harvard Business School in 2018.
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Dave Hava, PH.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
David (Dave) Hava, Ph.D., is an accomplished biotech entrepreneur with nearly two decades of experience advancing innovative therapies across rare, inflammatory, metabolic, respiratory, and oncologic diseases. He brings deep expertise in drug delivery and complex product development, with a proven track record of translating novel science into clinical-stage programs.
Prior to Alltrna, Dave served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mass General Brigham Ventures (MGBV), where he was a founding CEO of a stealth startup and provided scientific expertise and leadership for new company formation efforts and existing companies in the MGBV portfolio. Previous to that, he was Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and Head of Research and Development at Synlogic, where he led the discovery and development of first-in-class engineered bacterial medicines and advanced a drug candidate for the treatment of phenylketonuria from nomination to Phase 2 and subsequently launched a global Phase 3 study. Earlier in his career, he held CSO roles at Pulmatrix Inc. and Metera Pharmaceuticals, companies advancing inhaled small molecule therapies for serious respiratory diseases.
Dave received his Ph.D. in molecular biology and microbiology from Tufts University and completed postdoctoral training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is an inventor on multiple patents and author of more than 40 peer-reviewed publications.
Joanne Protano
Chief Financial Officer
Joanne Protano has more than 25 years of experience in senior finance roles. Prior to Alltrna, she was Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations at Rubius Therapeutics, where she joined in 2017, led all financial aspects of the business and built the financial and operational infrastructure required for Rubius to grow substantially, advance four programs into clinical trials, establish a clinical manufacturing facility, raise nearly $800 million in capital, and evolve from a private to a public company with peak market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.
Prior to Rubius, Joanne was Senior Vice President of Finance, New Ventures at Flagship Pioneering, where she provided financial and operational oversight to multiple early-stage Flagship portfolio companies. Prior to Flagship, she served as Chief Financial Officer of Novelos Therapeutics, a publicly held biotechnology company developing small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer.
Previously, Joanne spent 10 years with Ascential Software and predecessor companies, serving in various senior finance roles through multiple merger, acquisition, and divestiture transactions with an aggregate consideration of more than $4 billion.
Joanne started her career in the assurance practice of the Boston office of Deloitte & Touche LLP. She holds a B.S. in business administration from Bryant University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Nerissa Kreher, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Nerissa has decades of expertise in rare disease drug development, including extensive experience in clinical development, medical affairs, and regulatory strategy across both early- and late-stage programs. She is an accomplished physician executive and pediatric endocrinologist with a distinguished career in biotechnology, spanning leadership roles in both private and public biotech companies. Nerissa has been instrumental in the development and commercialization of therapies for rare diseases across therapeutic areas, including neuromuscular, metabolic, and lysosomal storage disorders.
Prior to Alltrna, Nerissa served as CMO at Entrada Therapeutics, where she led clinical and regulatory strategy, medical affairs, and patient advocacy efforts. She has also held CMO roles at Tiburio Therapeutics and AVROBIO, where she oversaw clinical development for multiple gene therapy programs. Earlier in her career, she served as Global Head (VP) of Clinical and Medical Affairs at Zafgen and held key roles at Shire and Enobia Pharma. She also played a pivotal role in Alexion’s $1B+ acquisition of Enobia Pharma.
Nerissa currently serves as an independent board member of Rezolute Bio and holds an M.D. from East Carolina University School of Medicine, an M.S. in Clinical Research from Indiana University, and an Executive MBA from Northeastern University. She is certified in Pediatric Endocrinology by the American Board of Pediatrics.
William Kiesman, PH.D.
Chief Technology Officer
William Kiesman, Ph.D., has more than two decades of experience in the design, development, and manufacturing of small molecule and oligonucleotide therapeutics. Prior to joining Alltrna, Will served as the Vice President and Head of Oligonucleotide and Small Molecule Development at Biogen. During his 24 years with the company, he was responsible for a wide range of activities from medicinal chemistry research and automated parallel synthesis to building both the chemical development and the end-to-end oligonucleotide development and manufacturing teams.
Will and his teams have supported dozens of small molecule and oligonucleotide clinical programs and played pivotal roles in the successful worldwide regulatory CMC approvals of Tecfidera® (dimethyl fumarate) in multiple sclerosis and Spinraza® (nusinersen) for spinal muscular atrophy.
Will earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Connecticut and pursued his postdoctoral research at Duke University. He is co-author on more than 40 publications and patents and has contributed to five book chapters.
Caroline Kӧhrer, PH.D.
SVP, Discovery Platform
Caroline Kӧhrer, Ph.D., is an RNA biology professional with more than 25 years of experience in both academic and industrial research & development (R&D). She leads Alltrna’s Discovery Platform, utilizing high-throughput screening infrastructure and machine learning tools, to create tRNA therapeutics to treat thousands of diseases. Prior to Alltrna, Caroline served as the Director of RNA Science at Moderna, where she led the RNA Science Department within Moderna’s R&D Platform, developing mRNA-based technology for application as a new drug modality in infectious disease, personalized cancer medicine, oncology, autoimmune, and rare disease. Under her leadership, Moderna expanded the mechanistic understanding of mRNA design principles underlying current and future mRNA therapeutics, including Moderna’s SpikevaxⓇ mRNA vaccine for COVID-19.
Previous to Moderna, Caroline spent 20 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology performing research focused on protein synthesis across all kingdoms of life, with a particular emphasis on the role of transfer RNA (tRNA) and RNA modifications in translation, rules of mRNA decoding, genetic code expansion, and ribosome biogenesis.
She has co-authored more than 40 publications, book chapters, and patents. Her peer-reviewed publications include PNAS, Nature Communications, Cell Metabolism, and Nucleic Acid Therapeutics. She has co-edited a book on ‘Protein Engineering’ published by Springer and contributed a chapter entitled, ‘Specialized Components of the Translational Machinery for Unnatural Amino Acid Mutagenesis: tRNAs, Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases, and Ribosomes.’ Caroline earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
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Gale Cohen
VP, Head of People & Organization
Gale Cohen brings more than 20 years of strategic and broad experience in Human Resources (HR) in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Prior to joining Alltrna, Gale was the Head of HR for Cyteir Therapeutics. At Cyteir, she provided strategic human resources leadership to the development and implementation of HR strategy to support the growth of the company from a private to a publicly traded company.
Prior to Cyteir, Gale was at BMS, where she held two roles of Global Talent Management Lead and Head of HR as part of the Devens Biologics Manufacturing Campus. At BMS, she provided strategic human resources leadership to develop and implement transformative talent practices including strategic workforce planning, talent management & succession planning, organizational development, and leadership development. Her leadership contributed the successful achievement of strategic business objectives, growing the organization at both the local and global levels.
Gale spent over 10 years at AstraZeneca before joining BMS. She was the HR Lead at the company’s R&D facility in Waltham, Massachusetts. At AstraZeneca, Gale was instrumental in the growth and expansion of the R&D site, through strategic talent management, talent acquisition, leadership development, organizational development, and performance management.
Gale holds a B.S. in Management from Bentley University and a Master of Science in Human Resources Development from Villanova University.
Taleen Afeyan
Sr Director, Strategy & Operations
Taleen Afeyan brings experience in early-stage biotech investing and operations to her Strategy & Operations role at Alltrna. In her role, she works across the organization on fundraising, business development, and program management.
Prior to Alltrna, Taleen worked for Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., investing in early-stage biotech companies as part of their strategic investment arm, which collectively managed a $1.6B portfolio. Additionally, she helped open their coworking lab space in Kendall Square, Alexandria LaunchLabs, which provides biotech founders with the environment and resources to build companies. Her previous roles included Associate, Science & Technology and Head of Proprietary Products.
Taleen received an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in Biological Engineering at MIT.
Board of directors
Lovisa Afzelius, PH.D.
Chairperson & Founding CEO
Lovisa Afzelius is an origination partner at Flagship Pioneering and the former SVP of Strategy & Operations at Flagship-founded Cogen Immune Medicines, now known as Repertoire Immune Medicines. A computational scientist by training, she has two decades of leadership experience and a passion for data-driven drug discovery, from early inception to clinical development across multiple therapeutic areas.
Previously, Lovisa built and led Pfizer’s systems immunology function and served as executive director of clinical programs. In this role, she launched several Phase II studies across autoimmune indications and as a member of the Inflammation & Immunology Research Unit leadership team, Lovisa co-managed the portfolio from early target discovery to Phase II clinical trials across all immunological assets. In addition, she served on Pfizer’s Worldwide R&D Data Strategy Committee.
In 2017, Lovisa co-founded Elsa.science, a digital health company in the rheumatoid arthritis space where she serves as chairman of the board. She also serves on the board of the Swedish New England Chamber of Commerce. Before moving to the US in 2013, Lovisa was CEO of BioChromix Pharma.
Lovisa began her career at AstraZeneca as Project Director, Global In Vitro Metabolism Leader and Computational Chemist across cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Lovisa has received numerous accolades for her work: she was included in the top 100 “most influential persons under age 40 in Sweden” by Affärsvärlden, and “scientist of tomorrow” at the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations’ 30th anniversary. Lovisa received the Rosenön Award for best thesis of the year within the field of pharmacodynamics/pharmacokinetics in Sweden.
Lovisa holds a Ph.D. in computational chemistry from Uppsala University, a Master of Science in integrative pharmacology from Gothenburg University as well as an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
David Khougazian
Director
David Khougazian is Executive Partner, Growth and Head of Global Engagement at Flagship Pioneering. In this role, he helps scale and grow Flagship-founded companies, working together with leaders at Flagship and its ecosystem of companies on long-term value creation strategy, financing, business development, partnerships, and organizational development. David also serves as Head of Global Engagement helping lead Flagship's global activities and connecting Flagship and its ecosystem of companies to life science ecosystems in multiple geographies.
David brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in the global healthcare industry including over two decades at Sanofi where he held a diverse set of responsibilities during his tenure. He most recently led Sanofi's work in global emerging markets including China, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East. He also served as the CEO of Sanofi Pasteur MSD, a joint venture between Sanofi and Merck, and was previously Chief of Staff to the Sanofi CEO, leading Sanofi's Transformation Office and serving as a member of the Executive Committee and Global Leadership Team.
Prior to joining Sanofi, David was Vice President and Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at Aventis Pharmaceuticals, a company he participated in creating as part of his finance and corporate development work at Rhône-Poulenc. David started his career at HSBC where he managed a portfolio of diversified financial assets.
David is an engineer by training and graduated from ENSAE and holds an MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs.
Lynne Parshall
Director
Lynne Parshall is a seasoned biotechnology leader with more than 35 years in the industry. An attorney by training, she spent more than 30 years as the founding Chief Operating Officer of Ionis Pharmaceuticals and subsequently as a Strategic Advisor to the CEO, overseeing legal, finance, business development, portfolio management, strategic planning, manufacturing, regulatory, alliance management, and other functions. While at Ionis she was responsible for raising more than $6 billion in financing from equity-based securities and corporate partner transactions.
Ms. Parshall has sat on numerous public and private company Boards of Directors and has extensive Audit Committee and corporate governance experience. She currently is on the Boards of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IONS), Cytokinetics (NASDAQ: CYTK), Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Ring Therapeutics, Repertoire Immune Medicines, and Celdara Medical. She was previously Chair of the Board of Akcea Therapeutics prior to its acquisition.
Prior to working in industry, she was a partner at the Cooley law firm with a practice focusing on securities law and biotechnology corporate partnering.
Ms. Parshall received her B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard College and her J.D. from Stanford University. She is a Certified Corporate Director by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).
Robert Plenge, M.D., PH.D.
Director
Robert Plenge, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Research Officer and Head of Research at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). He leads scientific activities across eleven research sites around the world all focused on transforming patients’ lives through science. Prior to his current role, Dr. Plenge served as head of Discovery & Translational Sciences at BMS, which spanned all therapeutic areas at the company.
He joined BMS as part of the acquisition of Celgene in November 2019. At Celgene, he served as Vice President, Immunology & Inflammation portfolio, Research & Early Development. Prior to joining Celgene, Dr. Plenge was Vice President and Head of Translational Medicine at Merck.
Prior to his roles in industry, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute while practicing clinical rheumatology and running a research laboratory at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Plenge is an author of more than 125 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals, and frequently posts updates to his personal blog, Plenge Gen, commenting on critical discovery moments with a focus on the resulting patient impact. He is a recipient of several academic and corporate awards and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the PhRMA Foundation.
Nancy Simonian, M.D.
Director
Nancy Simonian, M.D., is a physician-scientist who has dedicated her career to developing drugs for people with serious diseases. She was the founding CEO and a member of the board of directors of Syros Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company committed to advancing novel approaches to treating cancer based on altering gene expression.
Prior to Syros, she was Chief Medical Officer at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Vice President of Clinical Development at Biogen. At Millennium, Dr. Simonian oversaw the successful development of VELCADE® to treat multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma, NINLARO® to treat multiple myeloma and ENTYVIO® to treat inflammatory bowel disease. At Biogen, she played a central role in developing AVONEX® and TYSABRI® for multiple sclerosis.
Dr. Simonian started her career as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She currently serves as a director of Syros (NASDAQ: SYRS) and the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. She previously served as a director of Seagen (NASDAQ: SGEN; acquired by Pfizer in 2023), Evelo (NASDAQ: EVLO), and Arqule (NASDAQ: ARQL; acquired by Merck in 2020).
She trained in medicine and neurology at MGH and received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in biology from Princeton.
Scientific Advisory Board
Chris Henderson, PH.D.
Chairperson
Chris Henderson, Ph.D., was previously Chief Scientific Officer of Alltrna, which he joined in 2023 and where he oversaw the declaration of Alltrna's first development candidate. Prior to Alltrna, Dr. Henderson worked for nine years at Biogen, where in his final position as as SVP, Head of Research he led a multidisciplinary team responsible for preclinical programs from target validation to IND across the company’s core disease areas of neurodegenerative diseases, multiple sclerosis and immunology, neuromuscular and muscle diseases, ophthalmology, and genetic and neurodevelopmental disorders. In an earlier role as VP, Research and Early Development, Neuromuscular and Movement Disorders, he worked with a team of clinicians and scientists to take programs from early research to clinical proof of concept.
Prior to moving to Biogen, Dr. Henderson held multiple academic positions in France (1979-2005) and in the US (2005 onward), focused on translational neuromuscular and stem cell research, as well as its direct application through start-ups Trophos and Anagenesis. At Columbia University Medical Center, he co-founded and led the Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease, and the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative. He was also co-founder of Target ALS, a foundation that has been highly successful in bringing together academic and industry researchers to foster true collaborative research focused on better therapeutic targets and biomarkers for this devastating disease. He continues in his role as Chair, Science Committee on the Board of the Target ALS Foundation.
Dr. Henderson has more than 90 scientific research publications and has been an editor and reviewer for top-tier scientific journals. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.
Rachel Green, PH.D.
Member
Rachel Green, Ph.D., is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard Medical School, where she studied RNA and primitive self-replicating systems in Jack Szostak’s lab. These studies developed in vitro selection approaches that have been broadly used for the analysis of functional RNAs in many systems. Her postdoctoral work was performed in the laboratory of Harry Noller at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she defined ribosomal RNA elements essential for binding the universally conserved CCA-ends of the tRNA to orient these substrates for catalysis.
Her current research at JHU focuses on mechanisms of mRNA translation, ribosome-mediated quality control, and their intersection with cellular signaling pathways. Recent work has broadly focused on defining the molecular mechanisms of mRNA surveillance in bacteria and eukaryotes, using a combination of biochemical, structural, genetic, and genomic approaches. Her research has also revealed a central role for ribosome collisions in the activation of stress response signaling pathways in eukaryotes critical to cell fate.
She currently is director of the BMCB graduate program at JHU and values her time as a mentor to students and postdocs. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. She consults for numerous biotech companies and serves on the scientific advisory board for Moderna, Initial Therapeutics, and Alltrna.
Sally John, PH.D.
Member
Sally John, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President of Informatics and Predictive Sciences at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), where she leads the integration of advanced data science, artificial intelligence, and human genetics into research and development to improve the probability of success in drug discovery. Since joining BMS in 2024, she has overseen the strategy to harness multi-modal molecular data and computational insights to guide decision-making across the R&D pipeline.
Prior to BMS, Dr. John spent a decade at Biogen, where she was most recently Head of Translational Medicine. In this role she led the organization to routinely adopt genetics and human data as a core means of establishing causal disease mechanisms, to inform both the design of preclinical models and patient selection and translational biomarkers.
Dr. John began her industry career by establishing the statistical genetics team at AstraZeneca, followed by roles of increasing responsibility in Clinical Development at Pfizer. Before moving into industry, she was a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of the Centre for Integrated Genomic Medicine at the University of Manchester. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Manchester and completed post-doctoral training in genetic epidemiology.
Tracy L. Johnson, PH.D.
Member
Tracy Johnson, Ph.D., is the Dean of the UCLA Division of Life Sciences, Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Professor. She brings to this position more than 25 years of experience studying the biochemistry of RNA. Dr. Johnson earned her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley under the mentorship of Michael Chamberlin, where she studied the role of interactions between RNA and RNA polymerase II in transcription elongation. She moved to the California Institute of Technology, where she worked with one of the pioneers of RNA splicing, John Abelson. At Caltech, Dr. Johnson was a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral research fellow and studied the dynamic RNA-RNA interactions involved in splice site recognition. Dr. Johnson began her first faculty position at UC San Diego and moved in 2013 to join the faculty of UCLA, where she was appointed Dean of Life Sciences in 2020. Her laboratory utilizes a combination of molecular genetics, bioinformatic, and biochemical approaches to understand mechanisms of gene regulation, particularly RNA splicing and chromatin modification, and the intersection between these reactions.
Dr. Johnson has served on a variety of scientific boards including the RNA Society Board of Directors, the HHMI Professors Executive Board, and the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Counselors, and has served as both a standing member and chair of the National Institute of Health’s Molecular Genetics study section. In addition to running a dynamic research program at UCLA, Dr. Johnson is a leader in educational innovation at UCLA and beyond and is particularly engaged in educational initiatives to support the development and success of students from underrepresented groups. In recognition of the impact of her work, she is the recipient of the 2022 Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Dr. Johnson is the recipient of numerous awards including the National Science Foundation’s CAREER and PECASE Award and was named one of the Top 20 Women Professors in California in 2013. Since 2014, she has been a HHMI Professor. Dr. Johnson is the Dean of Life Sciences at UCLA and the Senior Associate Dean at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
the world’s first tRNA platform company
2018
Alltrna founded by Flagship Pioneering
2021
Flagship Pioneering launches Alltrna to unlock transfer RNA biology and treat thousands of diseases with a single tRNA medicine
2022
Alltrna forms Scientific Advisory Board with world-leading RNA experts
2023
Alltrna engineers tRNA oligonucleotide with improved potency and activity for in vivo readthrough of premature termination codons
2023
Alltrna raises $109 million in a Series B financing to advance tRNA medicines for Stop Codon Disease
2024
Alltrna applies machine learning to engineer tRNA oligonucleotides with significantly improved activity and potency and demonstrates in vivo readthrough of the two most common premature termination codons in genetic disease
2024
Alltrna pioneers new processes to synthesize chemically modified tRNAs
Life at Alltrna
We are transforming medicine, boldly building a new future for patients.
