Beam Therapeutics Inc. announced that Gopi Shanker, Ph.D., has been appointed as chief scientific officer (CSO). Dr. Shanker is a scientific leader with more than 20 years of drug development experience as well as experience with novel genetic medicine modalities. Dr. Shanker will report to Giuseppe Ciaramella, Ph.D., president of Beam, who has broad oversight of Beam's research, manufacturing, regulatory, quality and pharmaceutical sciences organizations.

Dr. Shanker has an extensive background across all stages of drug development as well as multiple drug modalities, including small molecules, biologics and gene therapies for both common and rare disorders. He joins Beam from Tevard Biosciences, where he served as CSO. Prior to Tevard, he spent eight years at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where he most recently served as head of neuroscience.

In this role, he was responsible for strategic oversight of the entire neuroscience portfolio, which included developing a portfolio of gene therapy programs targeting neurodevelopmental disorders. During his tenure at Novartis, Dr. Shanker advanced multiple new therapeutic programs through late preclinical and clinical development, including the global regulatory approval of Aimovig®. He was also instrumental in several key partnerships, including with the Stanley Center (Broad Institute), Amgen, Sangamo, as well as the acquisition of Cadent Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Novartis, Dr. Shanker led several drug discovery programs at Amgen and Regeneron. He completed his Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and earned his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.