Nuredis Appoints Julie Anne Smith as Chief Executive Officer to Lead Neurodegenerative Disease Company

MENLO PARK, Calif., July 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Nuredis, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel therapies to treat inherited neurodegenerative diseases caused by nucleotide repeat expansions, today announced the appointment of Julie Anne Smith as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  Ms. Smith brings more than two decades of experience in the life sciences, with a strong track record of successfully developing and commercializing therapies for rare diseases. 

"We are excited that Julie is joining the Nuredis team as our CEO," said Stanley N. Cohen, Professor of Genetics at Stanford University and a Nuredis founder. "Her experience, expertise and outstanding track record of developing and advancing therapies for orphan diseases will be important to Nuredis's goal of making disease-modifying treatments for Huntington's Disease and other horrific diseases caused by nucleotide repeat expansions available to patients."

"I am delighted to join Nuredis and to lead the advancement of disease-modifying therapies into the clinic for an important group of devastating neurodegenerative diseases," said Ms. Smith.  "Beyond Huntington's Disease, the innovative discoveries of Doctors Cohen and Tzu-Hao Cheng have the potential for treating forms of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Spinocerebellar Ataxia, and Muscular Dystrophy that are caused by nucleotide repeat expansions." 

Ms. Smith will serve as President and CEO and join the Board of Directors of Nuredis. She most recently served as the CEO of Raptor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired by Horizon Pharmaceuticals in 2016. Previously, she served as Chief Commercial Officer of Enobia Pharmaceuticals prior to the company's acquisition by Alexion in 2012. From 2000 – 2008 Ms. Smith served in positions of increasing responsibility at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Genzyme and Novazyme. Ms. Smith began her industry career at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Ms. Smith serves on the Board of Directors of Exelixis, a biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel cancer therapies, as well as Audentes, a biotechnology company developing gene therapies for rare diseases.  Previously Ms. Smith served on the Health and Emerging Companies Sections of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) board. She received her Bachelor of Science in biological and nutritional sciences from Cornell University.

About Nuredis
Nuredis, a pre-clinical stage company, is developing small molecule therapies to treat a group of inherited neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases caused by the expansion of normally-short nucleotide repeats sequences in human genes, with Huntington's Disease as the first indication. 

Nuredis' investigational therapies target a regulatory mechanism involved in the transcription of expanded repeats.  The technology is based on inhibiting the process that enables cells to make the toxic gene products that cause nucleotide repeat diseases.  The closely-held company is exclusively funded by Alafi Capital Company, LLC.  The therapeutic approach was invented by Nuredis co-founders Stanley N. Cohen, Professor of Genetics at Stanford University and Tzu-Hao Cheng, Professor of Molecular Biology at National Yang Ming University (NYMU) in Taiwan, and their colleagues. 

SOURCE Nuredis, Inc.