Synlogic has named Aoife Brennan as its permanent CEO. Brennan took up the position on an interim basis in May when Jose Carlos Gutiérrez-Ramos resigned.
The appointment caps Brennan’s quick rise through the ranks of the biopharma industry. Brennan, who trained as a doctor in Ireland, took up her first position in 2008 when she joined Tolerx as associate medical director. Within two years, Brennan was promoted to the role of medical director, and a year after that she joined Biogen as director of clinical research.
Brennan found her background as an endocrinologist opened doors for her at Biogen, which was in the middle of an attempt to expand beyond its traditional focus on neurological diseases. Biogen made Brennan senior director of medical research less than two years after hiring her, and promoted her to vice president of its rare disease unit about 18 months after that.
The prominent position set Brennan up to take on the chief medical officer role at Synlogic in September 2016. In keeping with the pace of events over the previous eight years, Brennan was soon presented with the opportunity to serve as interim CEO.
Synlogic began searching for a full-time CEO when Gutiérrez-Ramos left the company in May. But, with Brennan settling into the new role, the board ultimately decided it already had the right person in its ranks. The breadth of experience accrued by Brennan factored into the decision.
“Aoife stepped into the interim role and rapidly demonstrated her effectiveness,” Synlogic Chairman Peter Barrett said in a statement. “Her broad experience across multiple stages of drug development and therapeutic areas, her demonstrated leadership abilities and her ambitious vision for Synlogic make her uniquely qualified for the job.”
As CEO, Brennan will oversee the advance of Synlogic’s pipeline of engineering bacteria, the most advanced of which are in clinical testing in urea cycle disorder and phenylketonuria.