A Message from Dr. Allyson Berent:
It is a tremendous honor to share with you some great news.
In the last year, numerous programs in the Angelman syndrome drug development pipeline have matured to the point where they are ready for further development, exploration, and acceleration toward clinical trials. This means we have crossed a threshold with numerous programs, requiring me to focus on this particular area of research, which is what I am most passionate about. This involves assessing whether each potential therapeutic can advance from a promising drug candidate in animals to the next stage of evaluation in a human clinical trial, and then ensuring programs are rigorously designed and executed to achieve this goal. We have been dreaming about getting to this point for a long time, and we are finally here.
To this end, I’ll be splitting my time between FAST and our new accelerator, AS2Bio, which you can read more about HERE. I will continue to serve as FAST’s Chief Science Officer, focusing on IND-enabling studies and getting numerous programs farther through the pipeline toward human application, but in partnership with Dr. Edwin Weeber as head of research and discovery.
Ed has a long history not just with Angelman syndrome, but with FAST. To start with, he led pioneering initiatives aimed at ameliorating the symptoms in the Angelman syndrome mouse model. Through a multifaceted approach encompassing genetic interventions, protein supplementation strategies, and gene therapy techniques, his groundbreaking work shed light on the underlying mechanisms of the disorder and the potential for therapeutic intervention. In addition, he helmed the first AS consortium of scientists from different specialties and academic laboratories to collaborate and focus on discovering potential therapies for AS. This collaborative effort was dedicated to the development of promising therapeutic avenues. Please join us in extending a warm welcome back to FAST for Ed as he continues his valuable contributions to the AS community!