Stoke Therapeutics, Inc. announced the expansion of its leadership team to enhance its deep expertise in oligonucleotide chemistry and rare disease research and development. Gene Liau, Ph.D., a veteran biopharma executive who has led research and development programs at Pfizer and Novartis, joins Stoke as executive vice president and head of research and preclinical development. Meena, Ph.D., an oligonucleotide chemist with 20 years of research experience in nucleic acids therapeutics, comes aboard as vice president of bioanalytical, DMPK and biomarker development. Gene joins Stoke after three years as senior vice president and head of gene therapy R&D at Precision BioSciences in Durham, N.C. Before that, he led external R&D efforts in rare disease and hematology at Pfizer and spearheaded the Pfizer gene therapy initiative. Prior to Pfizer, Gene helped Shire build an innovative rare disease portfolio. Meena comes to Stoke from Wave Life Sciences in Cambridge, Mass., where she was a founding employee and senior director of bioanalytical, pharmacology and biomarker development. Meena played a pivotal role in building Wave’s stereopure oligonucleotide chemistry platform and helping to guide the clinical entry of three antisense programs.