Genialis Appoints Renowned Oncology Expert Krista McKerracher as New Chairperson

Genialis, an RNA-biomarker company, announced that Krista McKerracher has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors. McKerracher is an experienced biopharmaceutical leader dedicated to developing new medicines for patients with serious illnesses.Her career spans nearly thirty years at Johnson & Johnson and Novartis Oncology, where she held significant roles in commercial and research and development. She successfully launched multiple pioneering drugs in hematology/oncology. Krista McKerracher concluded her drug development journey at CRISPR Therapeutics, leading the team that introduced the first CRISPR Cas9 ex-vivo gene editing product to clinical trials, focusing on HbF edited stem cells for hemoglobinopathies.

Krista McKerracher said “Throughout my career, I’ve worked on a lot of firsts. Genialis has a promising opportunity to be the first to harness the vast amount of data contained in a small tumor sample and use that to bring reality to truly personalized medicine – delivering the right drug for the right patient at the right time.”

She further added, “When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, tumor sequencing was still brand new, and despite working in the field, many of my colleagues were skeptical about the value of sequencing for my tumor type because links to specific mutations were not well understood. With the Genialis approach to RNA-based biomarkers, I believe that in the future, all patients will have their tumors sequenced as standard of care. Genialis is on the leading edge of precision medicine, driving innovation and hope for patients globally.”

Ms. McKerracher is a seasoned public company board member recognized for her strong commercial focus in the drug development process. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Health Sciences with honors from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from York University.

Dr. Rosengarten said in statement, “When we started our search for a board chair, we focused on finding someone who embraced our company value of ‘people first’ and committed to improving outcomes for patients globally. Krista brings the perspective of someone who has overseen the entire drug development life cycle on a global scale for some of the preeminent pharma companies, helping Genialis direct its biomarker algorithms to the most critical pain points in the process.”