Exclusive: Former Genentech duo reunites to push Sonoma into the clinic; Ex-Magenta commercial chief heads to Editas

Joe Ar­ron and Mark Eis­ner worked to­geth­er for about a decade at Genen­tech, with broad re­mits but a shared pas­sion for in­ter­sti­tial lung dis­ease. They’d go their sep­a­rate ways a few years ago — Ar­ron to 23andMe as chief sci­en­tif­ic of­fi­cer of its ther­a­peu­tics push and Eis­ner to Fi­bro­Gen, where he led the med­ical op­er­a­tions.

Then, Re­gen­eron-part­nered Sono­ma Bio­ther­a­peu­tics came call­ing. When the two got word they were both look­ing to join the cell ther­a­py biotech, Ar­ron and Eis­ner met at Philz Cof­fee in Burlingame, CA. For Ar­ron, the meet­ing sealed the deal — he couldn’t pass up the role if that meant work­ing with an en­thu­si­as­tic Eis­ner again. Ar­ron had al­ready been on Sono­ma’s sci­en­tif­ic ad­vi­so­ry board, and now it was time to swap roles with sci­ence chief and co-founder Fred Rams­dell, who is re­tir­ing.

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