Biden names Wegrzyn to lead ARPA-H
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The White House announced President Joe Biden’s intent to appoint Renee Wegrzyn as the first director of Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency created to fund high-impact, high-risk life sciences projects using approaches similar to those used by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to jump-start the Internet and make fundamental advances that laid the groundwork for mRNA vaccines and the rapid discovery of therapeutic mAbs.
Wegrzyn, who will report to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, will join the agency from Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings Inc. (NYSE:DNA), where she is VP, business development. Since joining the company in August 2020, she helped build its biosecurity pipeline, with a focus on infectious disease. Earlier in her career, she was program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, having previously advised the agency as senior lead technologist for consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. ...