Alltrna Expands Leadership Team with Appointment of Joanne Protano as Chief Financial Officer

News provided by

Aug 02, 2022, 08:00 ET

Protano has broad operational and financial expertise with 25 years of leadership experience with innovative technology and biotech companies

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 2, 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 Joanne Protano as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Protano most recently served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations at Rubius Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is biologically engineering red blood cells to create a new class of cellular medicines for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

For the past five years, she led all financial aspects of the business and built the financial and operational infrastructure to 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.

"Joanne is an extraordinary leader and catalyst for strategically growing and financing biotech companies with transformational platforms," said Michelle C. Werner, CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering and CEO, Alltrna. "We welcome Joanne to the Alltrna team as we build on the foundation and momentum of RNA breakthroughs to boldly establish a first-in-field platform for the deep and systematic exploration of the tRNA universe."

"What intrigued me about Alltrna is the unmatched potential of tRNA medicines to unify the treatment of thousands of diseases, from rare to common, with a precision medicine approach," said Protano. "I look forward to building the financial and operational strategy and structure to support the company as Alltrna unlocks the nearly limitless potential of tRNA medicines."

About Joanne Protano

Prior to Rubius, Protano 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 CFO of Novelos Therapeutics, a publicly held biotechnology company developing drugs for the treatment of cancer. Previously, Protano served in various senior finance roles with Ascential Software and predecessor companies and started her career in the assurance practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP. She holds a B.S. in business administration from Bryant University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

About Alltrna

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.

About Flagship Pioneering

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).