Taysha Gene Therapies, Inc. announced Sukumar (Suku) Nagendran, M.D., a Director on Taysha’s Board of Directors, and an accomplished physician, drug developer, and biotech executive, has been appointed President and Head of R&D. Dr. Nagendran has more than 30 years of experience in key functional areas, including gene therapy development, clinical development strategy, medical affairs, and diagnostics. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer and President of R&D at Jaguar Gene Therapy. Prior to that, Dr. Nagendran was the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of AveXis Inc., a clinical-stage gene therapy company, from September 2015 to July 2018, prior to the company’s acquisition by Novartis.

At Quest Diagnostics, a provider of diagnostic information services, he served as Vice President of Medical Affairs from March 2013 to September 2015. Dr. Nagendran has also held key leadership positions at Pfizer, Novartis, Daiichi Sankyo, and Reata Pharmaceuticals. Prior to moving to the biotech industry, he practiced internal medicine, with a focus on diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Nagendran is a Mayo Alumni Laureate and founding member of the Robert Wood Johnson Legacy Society. He is also the sponsor for the Jerry Mendell award for Translational Science at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy which recognizes the extensive work required to bring gene and cell therapies to clinical trial, and the Fonseca-Nagendran Scholar award at the American Diabetes Association to enhance research in minority populations. Dr. Nagendran currently serves on the Board of Directors of SalioGen Therapeutics, Solid Biosciences, Cove, Medocity, Project Healthy Minds, and Taysha Gene Therapies.

He holds an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Rutgers University and earned his M.D. from Rutgers Medical School, and trained in Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester.