Renee Wegryzn Tapped to Head ARPA-H

President Joe Biden will appoint Renee Wegryzn as the primary director of the Superior Analysis Tasks Company for Well being, a brand new company meant to speed up the tempo of biomedical analysis, in keeping with a statement issued by the White Home in the present day (September 12). Wegryzn, who presently works on the biotechnology firm Ginkgo Bioworks, is a biologist who was beforehand a program supervisor within the Organic Applied sciences Workplace of the Protection Superior Analysis Tasks Company (DARPA) and has served on a number of scientific advisory boards for the Nationwide Academies of Science, the assertion goes on to say.

“I’m deeply honored to have the chance to form ARPA-H’s bold mission and foster a imaginative and prescient and strategy that may enhance well being outcomes for the American folks, together with President Biden’s Most cancers Moonshot,” says Wegrzyn in a statement issued by Ginkgo Bioworks.

The brand new company will assist a broad vary of packages geared toward stopping, detecting, and treating a wide range of illnesses, together with most cancers, in keeping with the White Home’s assertion. Nonetheless, moderately than specializing in early analysis, STAT stories that ARPA-H will examine higher-level options equivalent to commercializing expertise. Modeled on DARPA, the brand new company is meant to hurry the event of therapy and cures for illnesses.

Earlier this yr, ARPA-H acquired $1 billion in congressional funding to satisfy these targets, and US Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra determined it might be a part of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. As director of ARPA-H, Wegryzn will report on to Becerra.

Wegryzn shall be leaving her present function as a vp of enterprise improvement at Ginkgo Bioworks. In line with the White Home assertion, her profession accomplishments embody receiving a Superior Public Service Medal for her DARPA work, which addressed biosecurity, gene therapies, and rising infectious illnesses.

“President Biden couldn’t have chosen a greater inaugural Director for ARPA-H. With Dr Wegryzn on the helm, ARPA-H is poised to drive well being innovation and launch daring and bold analysis packages,” Becerra says in a statement. “She is going to lead us in tackling among the most urgent well being challenges of our time.”