ProQR Appoints Yi-Tao Yu, Ph.D., to Its Scientific Advisory Board
23 May 2018 at 7:00 AM EDT
LEIDEN, the Netherlands, May 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProQR Therapeutics N.V. (Nasdaq:PRQR), a company dedicated to changing lives through the creation of transformative RNA medicines for the treatment of severe genetic rare diseases, today announced the appointment of Dr. Yi-Tao Yu to the company's scientific advisory board.
"Dr. Yu is a pioneer of targeted RNA editing to correct protein translation defects caused by premature termination codons,” said Daniel de Boer, chief executive officer of ProQR. "We welcome Dr. Yu to our scientific advisory board, where his expertise will help guide and inform our development of therapies for rare genetic diseases based on novel RNA editing technologies including our Axiomer® technology."
Dr. Yu is a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. His research focuses on understanding the role of post-transcriptional RNA editing in regulating cellular processes, such as telomere regeneration, pre-mRNA splicing and protein coding capacity of mRNAs. He is the author of over 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and he has served as a member or reviewer in a number of scientific, government and patient organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Gilbert Family Foundation and the RNA Society. Dr. Yu received his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University and conducted his postdoctoral studies at Yale University School of Medicine.
"Targeted RNA editing technology has the potential to develop transformative therapies for genetic conditions," said Dr. Yu. "I look forward to working with ProQR as they continue to develop new therapeutics for patients with rare diseases that do not currently have treatment options."