Alltrna Appoints Caroline Kӧhrer, Ph.D., Vice President, Discovery Platform

Dr. Kӧhrer has more than 25 years of RNA research and development experience, including pioneering novel RNA-based technologies into new drug candidates and deciphering transfer RNA (tRNA) biology

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alltrna, a Flagship Pioneering company unlocking transfer RNA (tRNA) biology and pioneering tRNA therapeutics to regulate the protein universe and resolve disease, today announced the appointment of Caroline Kӧhrer, Ph.D., as Vice President, Discovery Platform. 

Dr. Kӧhrer most recently served as 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.

"Caroline has an extraordinary combination of expertise having dedicated the past five years at Moderna to bring RNA to life as a new drug modality, in addition to 20 years of research experience uncovering the fundamental mechanisms of tRNA biology," said Michelle C. Werner, CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering and CEO, Alltrna. "We are excited to have Caroline join us as we boldly establish a first-in-field platform to advance tRNA as a new modality with exceptional and unique therapeutic potential."

"I'm impressed with how Alltrna has built their platform to not only query the hundred-plus different modifications that are key to tRNA structure, function, and stability but also design, modify, produce, and deliver tRNA molecules as new therapeutics," said Dr. Kӧhrer. "I look forward to working closely with the team to leverage Alltrna's platform to turn tRNA's sophisticated biology into programmable therapeutics with desired properties from both a payload and delivery perspective to advance a whole new class of medicines."

Prior to Moderna, Dr. Kӧhrer spent 20 years at 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.

Alltrna unlocks tRNA biology to correct disease. The company's platform incorporates AI/ML tools to learn the tRNA language and deliver diverse programmable molecules with broad therapeutic potential. Alltrna has an unprecedented opportunity to advance a single tRNA medicine to unify treatment across a wide range of diseases with the same underlying genetic mutation. Alltrna was founded in 2018 by Flagship Pioneering. For more info, visit www.alltrna.com.

Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category bioplatform companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $100 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $2.9 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $19 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 41 transformative companies, including Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA), Rubius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RUBY), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), and Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB).

SOURCE Alltrna