20 April 2022 - - Paul Laikind, serial entrepreneur and former CEO of cell therapy company ViaCyte, has joined US-based private biotechnology company Stemson Therapeutics Corp's board of directors, the company said.

Paul brings significant company building and therapeutics development experience to the Stemson Board.

Paul Laikind, PhD, was CEO of ViaCyte from 2012 until 2020, where he lead the development of the first stem cell-derived cell therapies designed to replace pancreatic beta cells for the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes.

Paul led the company from the preclinical stage through the introduction of two product candidates into clinical trials before retiring at the end of 2020.

A third product that Viacyte developed in collaboration with CRISPR Tx recently also entered clinical development.

Dr. Laikind served as chief business officer and senior vice president of the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute from 2009 2011, focusing on enhancing the translational capabilities of the institute.

From 1999 - 2009, Paul was cofounder and CEO of Metabasis Therapeutics, which concentrated on therapeutics development for metabolic and liver diseases.

He took Metabasis from founding through IPO, and from preclinical to clinical stage development, with five products in the clinic.

From 1986 1999, Paul cofounded and served as vice president of Corporate Development at Gensia Pharmaceuticals where they developed small molecule therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular, neurological and inflammatory diseases.

During that time, he cofounded and served as an advisor to Viagene from 1988 1994, the first commercially focused gene therapy company developing proprietary gene delivery technology to treat HIV, cancer and inherited disorders.

Gensia, Viagene and Metabasis each completed successful initial public offerings and were eventually acquired for combined proceeds of over USD 3.5bn.

He serves or has served on the board of industry organizations including BIO, BIOCOM, CONNECT, and Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.

Stemson Therapeutics is a pre-clinical stage cell therapy company founded in 2018 with a mission to cure hair loss by leveraging the regenerative power of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

Based on the innovation by Stemson Therapeutics co-founder, Dr. Alexey Terskikh, Stemson uses iPSC to regenerate the critical cells required to grow hair and which are damaged or depleted in patients suffering from hair loss.

The iPSC-derived cells are used to grow de novo hair follicles, offering a new supply of hair to treat people suffering from various forms of Alopecia. Today, there are no available treatments capable of growing new hair follicles.