Dr Gloria Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza, Chief Scientific Officer of Vivet Therapeutics Receives the Rosalind Franklin Society Special Award in Science

• Recognition of her pioneering gene therapy research

• Coordinated the first ever gene therapy clinical trial utilizing AAVs as a vector for the treatment of an inherited liver metabolic disease for acute intermittent porphyria

• Her work on AAVs has been instrumental in creating Vivet’s research platform and advancing development of Vivet’s lead gene therapy for Wilson’s Disease 

Paris, France, July 16, 2024 – Vivet Therapeutics (“Vivet”), a clinical stage biotech company developing novel and long-lasting gene therapies for rare inherited liver metabolic disorders, is delighted to announce that its Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Gloria Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza, PhD, has been honored with the Rosalind Franklin Society (RFS) Special Award in Science given by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. and the Rosalind Franklin Society. The prestigious award recognizes Dr Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza’s remarkable contributions and dedication to advancing scientific knowledge.

The RFS Special Award in science is awarded annually to recognize the contribution of women or under-represented minorities in science. Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was a British x-ray crystallographer whose extraordinary work, though largely overlooked and under-appreciated at the time, was crucial to the discovery of DNA’s structure by James Watson and Francis Crick. She also made important advances in the understanding of the structure of viruses and coal. 

Dr Gloria Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza, Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Vivet Therapeutics, said: “This is a tremendous honor, and I am very pleased that the RFS Society recognizes my dedication and work in the field of gene therapy. Rosalind Franklin remains an inspiration to scientists around the world and I am delighted to be working with the team at Vivet to develop gene therapies with the potential to transform the lives of patients with inherited liver metabolic disorders.”

Dr Jean-Philippe Combal, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Vivet Therapeutics, commented: “We are extremely proud of Gloria and her pioneering work which has been instrumental in the development of AAV-based gene therapies. At Vivet, Gloria has been the driving force behind the pharmacological proof of concept and together with the rest of the leadership and development team, the translational development of our lead program VTX-801, an AAV-based gene therapy for the treatment of Wilson Disease. VTX-801 is currently progressing in a Phase 1/2 GATEWAY trial with clinical data read out expected later this year. With Gloria and the rest of the leadership team, we will continue to expand and strengthen the team to advance Vivet’s gene therapy research platform as we strive to bring novel treatments with long lasting therapeutic benefits a step closer to patients.”

Vivet Therapeutics, co-founded in 2016 by Dr Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza and Dr Combal, is creating gene therapies with long lasting therapeutic benefits for rare inherited liver metabolic disorders. 

Dr Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza began her career working on the development of gene-based vaccines against parasitic infections like malaria at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas in Madrid, Spain, and the University of New York, USA. She then moved into rare diseases and has been working on rare hepatic diseases for the last two decades, with a focus on the development of advanced therapies. Since 2014, Dr Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza has been head of the Gene Therapy Program at the Centro Investigación Médica Aplicada (CIMA), Universidad de Navarra, in Spain. From 2019 to 2023 she was the president of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (SETGyC) and is the current General Secretary of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT). Dr Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza earned her PhD in Science from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain.