Management Team

Julianne Smith

Chief Development Officer

Julianne Smith is Chief Development Officer of Genespire. She has over 30 years of experience in scientific research, with 18 of those working in the biotech industry. She joins Genespire from Nasdaq listed Cellectis S.A., a global leader in gene editing and allogeneic CAR-T cells, where she held various senior roles, managing research teams responsible for the development of allogenic CAR T-cell products, working on product portfolio prioritization and shaping development strategies. While at Cellectis, Julianne also established and led the translational sciences department and interacted with regulatory authorities in both the US and Europe. Julianne holds a PhD in Genetics and Development from Columbia University and pursued her academic career as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institut Curie in Paris.

Julia Berretta

Chief Executive Officer

Julia Berretta is Chief Executive Officer of Genespire. She also holds an appointment as independent Board member of Treefrog therapeutics, an innovative stem cell company. Julia was formerly part of the Executive Committee of Cellectis S.A. a Nasdaq listed company developing allogeneic CAR-T cells in oncology, where she held various positions including VP of Business Development & Strategic Planning. While at Cellectis, she has been leading the business development department, and has been instrumental in setting up transformational strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. She also held a position as an independent Board member of Epsilen Bio srl, a biotechnology company developing novel therapies based on epigenetic silencing. Julia is french and italian and is a scientist by training. She holds a PhD in Molecular Biology, from Université Paris XI, as well as a Masters in Management from Neoma Business School.

Dr. Smaragda Angelidou

Head of CMC

Smaragda Angelidou is the Head of CMC of Genespire. She is a CMC subject matter expert with extensive industry experience in cell and gene therapies, from early phase development through to commercialisation. She joined Genespire from Autolus, a clinical stage autologous CAR T-cell therapy company, where she was the Senior Director of CMC projects and Tech Transfer. Prior to Autolus, she worked at GlaxoSmithKline, where she held positions in Cell and Gene Therapy Product Development and Medicine and Process Delivery. She was accountable for the strategic, technical, quality and regulatory aspects of CMC development and previously she was a process development technical lead. In her roles, she worked on a number of CGT programs, including autologous TCR T-cell therapies for cancer and ex vivo HSPC gene therapies for rare diseases, which included Strimvelis, the first approved ex vivo autologous gene therapy. Smaragda holds a BSc in Human Genetics and an MSc in Molecular Medicine from University College, London and a PhD in Molecular Oncology from Imperial College, London.

Sabah Sallah

Chief Medical Officer

Sabah Sallah, MD, PhD is Chief Medical Officer at Genespire.

Prior to joining Genespire, Sabah served as senior vice president in gene therapy, hematology and translational medicine at Freeline Therapeutics. In his capacity as senior vice president, he had the oversight of disease-target identification, translation of the pre-clinical evidence to clinical development and ensuring the alignment between the clinical, pre-clinical and regulatory and other functions across the company.

Prior to Freeline Therapeutics, he served as vice president, clinical development at uniQure where he had the responsibility of the design and implementation of the phase IIB and phase III clinical trials in treatment of hemophilia B with AAV5-FIX -Padua based liver targeted gene transfer.  In addition, he had the oversight of the design of the Pediatric Investigational Plan and the evaluation of translatability of in vitro and animal studies to human.

Prior to uniQure, Sabah was executive director in clinical development and medical affairs at Novo Nordisk with focus on the development of recombinant proteins in hemophilia and other rare disorders. Overall, his tenure in pharmaceuticals spanned the United States, Europe and several other international markets. He has contributed to the development and global approval of at least 6 products in various rare disorders.

Sabah is board certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and in Oncology and served as associate professor of medicine and pathology at the University of Tennessee and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He has published more than 100 papers, chapters and books.