Occam Places Amber Salzman as CEO of Epic Bio

As CEO of Epic, Salzman, who just raised $55M in a series A financing, will work closely with Stanley Qi, Ph.D., a renowned bioengineer and co-inventor on the CRISPR patent held by the University of California, to further develop his vision to use the smallest known Cas protein in epigenetic engineering.

Epic has developed the GEMS platform to precisely modify gene expression. GEMS includes the largest known library of novel modulators combined with advanced functional and computational genomics capabilities to rapidly design guide RNAs that are highly specific to the targeted genes.

The company additionally launches with an exclusive license from Stanford University to the ultracompact DNA-binding protein CasMINI for human use. CasMINI is the smallest Cas protein created to date, developed in the lab of Dr. Qi. It is less than half the size of Cas9 and Cas12a and is engineered to function robustly in mammalian cells. The small size of CasMINI enables delivery of Epic’s therapeutic candidates in vivo via a single AAV vector to a wide range of target organs.

Prior to joining Epic Bio, Amber served as the President and CEO of Ohana Biosciences, pioneering the industry’s first sperm biology platform. Before Ohana, she served as the President and CEO of Adverum Biotechnologies and was co-founder of Annapurna, SAS before its merger with Avalanche Biotechnologies to become Adverum.

Amber received her bachelor’s degree from Temple University and holds a PhD in mathematics from Bryn Mawr College.

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