LEXINGTON, Mass., April 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Translate Bio, Inc. (Nasdaq: TBIO), a clinical-stage messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics company developing a new class of potentially transformative medicines to treat diseases caused by protein or gene dysfunction, today announced the appointment of Robert Plenge, M.D., Ph.D., vice president, research and early development and head of the Inflammation and Immunology Thematic Center of Excellence Unit at Celgene, to its Board of Directors.

“On behalf of the Translate Bio team, I’m thrilled to welcome Dr. Plenge to our board of directors,” said Ronald Renaud, chief executive officer, Translate Bio. “Robert has dedicated his career to bringing innovative medicines to patients through cutting-edge research. His aspiration of establishing an entrepreneurial research and development community that puts patients first makes him an exceptional addition to our board.”

“My personal mission is to perform discovery research that starts and ends with the patient, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to further pursue this objective by joining Translate Bio’s board of directors,” said Dr. Plenge. “Translate Bio has already accomplished a great deal in bringing the first mRNA therapeutics for a genetic disease into clinical trials, and I am excited to contribute to their goal of bringing mRNA therapies to patients in need of novel, disease-modifying treatment options.”

Dr. Plenge spent over 20 years in academic medicine before transitioning to a career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2013. He is currently vice president, research and early development and head of the Inflammation and Immunology Thematic Center of Excellence Unit at Celgene. In this role, he is responsible for the strategic vision, implementation and partnership of novel therapies for immune, inflammatory and fibrotic disorders. Prior to joining Celgene in May 2017, Dr. Plenge was vice president and head of translational medicine at Merck & Company. Prior to transitioning to the pharmaceutical industry, he was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute while practicing clinical rheumatology and running a research laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 2007 to 2013. Dr. Plenge completed his internal medicine residency as a Molecular Medicine Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco in 2002, served as rheumatology fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 2002 to 2006 and post-doctoral research fellow at the Broad Institute from 2003 to 2007. Dr. Plenge’s original research has been published in top-tier medical journals. In recognition of his accomplishments, he has received numerous awards, including: Pre-doctoral Clinical Award from The American Society of Human Genetics (1995), The Young Investigator Award from the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (2008), Career Award for Medical Scientists from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (2008), and election to The American Society for Clinical Investigation (2012). Dr. Plenge graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, San Diego in 1992, and received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Case Western Reserve University in 2000.

About Translate Bio

Translate Bio is a clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company developing a new class of potentially transformative medicines to treat diseases caused by protein or gene dysfunction. The Company’s MRT platform is designed to develop product candidates that deliver mRNA carrying instructions to produce intracellular, transmembrane and secreted proteins for therapeutic benefit. Translate Bio believes that its MRT platform is applicable to a broad range of diseases caused by insufficient protein production or where production of proteins can modify disease, including diseases that affect the lung, liver, eye and central nervous system. The Company also believes its MRT platform may be applied to various classes of treatments, such as therapeutic antibodies or vaccines in areas such as infectious disease and oncology. Translate Bio’s two lead programs are being developed as treatments for cystic fibrosis (CF) and ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency. For more information about the Company, please visit www.translate.bio or on Twitter at @TranslateBio.