Assembly Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, has appointed Luisa Stamm, MD, PhD, as chief medical officer. Dr. Stamm is an infectious disease specialist focused on the development of therapeutics for hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV.

“We are excited to have Luisa joining the Assembly team. Her clinical training, research experience, and track record in drug development make her ideally suited to lead clinical activities across our HBV and microbiome programs,” said John McHutchison, AO, MD, Chief Executive Officer and President. “Luisa has in the past repeatedly demonstrated her ability to execute both effectively and efficiently on clinical development strategy from early trials through to registrational studies, including regulatory filings. Her expertise and leadership will be particularly important as we advance our core inhibitors into later stage development for the treatment of HBV.” 

“I am excited to join Assembly’s leadership team and to help the company pursue potentially curable, finite treatments for the 250 million patients worldwide living with chronic HBV infection,” said Dr. Stamm. “I’m encouraged by the potential for core inhibitors to be a cornerstone of transformative therapeutic regimens and by the data we have shown to date with our portfolio candidates. I also look forward to advancing and expanding our pipeline of microbiome candidates from our differentiated platform for oral live biotherapeutics.”

Dr. Stamm joins the company from Gilead where she was a senior member of the HCV and HIV clinical research teams with responsibility for scientific and clinical development activities and overall research strategy. She was executive director in the Liver Diseases Therapeutic Area, serving as project team leader of the development of two HCV therapeutics which are now marketed (VOSEVI and EPCLUSA), and executive director in the HIV and Emerging Viruses Therapeutic Area, focusing on the development of broadly neutralizing antibodies for HIV cure. Previously she was a Clinical Fellow and Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.