Laura Sepp-Lorenzino, PhD leads Research and Early Development at Intellia Therapeutics in her role as Chief Scientific Officer. Intellia’s leading CRISPR/Cas9-based platform supports a full-spectrum strategy, which deploys differentiated, modular solutions across in vivo and ex vivo therapeutic applications. Before joining Intellia, Laura was VP, Head of Nucleic Acid Therapies and member of the External Innovation team at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, with previous positions as VP and entrepreneur-in-residence at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Executive Director RNA Therapeutics at Merck & Co., Inc. In addition to her extensive experience in nucleic acid therapies, Laura has expertise in oncology drug discovery and development acquired earlier in her career by leading the Cancer Research Department at Merck West Point and working as an assistant attending molecular biologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She received her professional degree in Biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and both her MS and PhD in Biochemistry from New York University. Laura is a member of the board of directors of Taysha Gene Therapies, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine and the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society and sits on the scientific advisory boards of Thermo Fisher Scientific, the U.K. Nucleic Acid Therapy Accelerator, Arsenal Capital Partners.  Laura is a member of the Editorial Board of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics (NAT).