GAINESVILLE, Fla. and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: AGTC), a biotechnology company conducting human clinical trials of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapies for the treatment of rare diseases, today announced it has appointed William Aliski to the company’s Board of Directors.

“Bill will be an invaluable addition to the AGTC Board of Directors and leadership team,” said Sue Washer, President and CEO of AGTC. “His deep knowledge of biotechnology and the rare disease space, coupled with his consistent record of providing strategic counsel to clinical-stage companies, will be beneficial to AGTC as we continue to advance our lead candidates through clinical trials.”

Mr. Aliski has extensive leadership and management experience in the life sciences industry, and has contributed to the commercialization of a number of rare disease products. His professional experience includes roles as Chief Commercial Officer for FoldRx, an orphan drug development and discovery company later acquired by Pfizer, General Manager for BioMarin Europe, and executive-level positions at Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. and Genzyme Corp. He also has served as a commercial consultant for numerous biotechnology companies. He currently serves on the board of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, and was formerly a board member of Edimer Pharmaceuticals and Scioderm Pharmaceuticals. He earned an undergraduate degree in economics and a Master of Social Planning from Boston College as well as an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

“Gene therapy is a rapidly developing field and has shown real promise in treating some genetic diseases. AGTC is a company at the forefront of gene therapy and is in an exciting phase of its development,” said Mr. Aliski. “I look forward to working alongside AGTC’s leadership team and the rest of the Board as we continue to make progress developing novel gene therapies for inherited retinal conditions with significant unmet need.”

About AGTC

AGTC is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that uses a proprietary gene therapy platform to develop transformational genetic therapies for patients suffering from rare and debilitating diseases. Its initial focus is in the field of ophthalmology, where it has active clinical trials in X-linked retinoschisis (XLRS), X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP), and achromatopsia (ACHM CNGB3 & ACHM CNGA3). In addition to its clinical trials, AGTC has preclinical programs in optogenetics, adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), which is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS), and otology. The clinical-stage XLRS and XLRP programs, the discovery program in ALD and two additional ophthalmology programs are being developed in collaboration with Biogen, and the optogenetics program is being developed in collaboration with Bionic Sight. In addition to its product pipeline, AGTC has a significant intellectual property portfolio and extensive expertise in the design of gene therapy products including capsids, promoters and expression cassettes, as well as expertise in the formulation, manufacture and physical delivery of gene therapy products.