Editas Medicine, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q1 2021 Adidas Medicine Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Ron Moldover, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Julianne. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2021 conference call. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release providing our financial results and corporate updates for the first quarter of 2021. A replay of today's call will be available on the investor's section of our website approximately two hours after its completion. After our prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A. As a reminder, various remarks that we make during this call about the company's future expectations, plans, and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the risk factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, which is on file with the SEC. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. Except as required by law, we specifically disclaim any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, even if our views change. Now I will turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Jim Mullen.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. In addition to Ron, I'm joined by Lisa Michaels, our Chief Medical Officer, and Michelle Robertson, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll start by providing some highlights from the first quarter and reviewing our broader corporate strategy. Then I'll hand it over to Lisa to discuss our clinical and preclinical progress, and then Michelle will provide an update on our financial results and cash position. We've had a strong start to the year. The brilliance trial for Edit 101 is progressing very well, and we expect to share clinical data by year-end. The first clinical site in the RUIDI trial for EDIT301 has been activated and has begun to screen and recruit patients. The pre-IND work for EDIT301 in beta thalassemia is advancing, and we expect it to be filed before year end. We've also made excellent headway in the manufacturing side as we prepare to involve patients in the RUIDI trial. We continue to progress our oncology platform with our longstanding partner, Bristol Myers Squibb, opting into another program this past quarter. And finally, our capital raise from January gives us a comfortable financial position to advance our clinical trials and preclinical pipeline. From an organizational leadership perspective, I'm pleased to announce that Dr. Mark Shearman will be joining us next month as our new chief scientific officer. Mark is an experienced executive who has brought multiple programs from ideation into and through the clinic and has led numerous successful partnerships. He brings an extensive track record of achievements in drug discovery and clinical development across multiple therapeutic modalities. There are two reasons why we believe Mark will be successful as Aditas' new CSO. First, his areas of expertise in ophthalmology, immunology, and neurology have considerable overlap with Aditas' current platform medications. Mark will advance our existing programs in these indications while utilizing our world-class gene editing technology to expand our preclinical pipeline into potentially other therapeutic areas. Second, and more importantly, Mark is a successful and respected leader of large global research teams. As Editas continues to grow, Mark's experience at companies like Merck and most recently at Applied Genetic Technologies will help facilitate the right structure to support our progress and allow us to attract the right talent. Mark's addition significantly strengthens our leadership team, and I look forward to having him join us on our next earnings call. In addition to recruiting Mark, I have spent time during the first months as CEO by meeting with every Editas employee, albeit mostly through a virtual format. These conversations help me appreciate what people draw to Editas and what we can do as an organization to attract and retain world-class talent. Speaking with every editor has only strengthened my confidence in our people and the technology and platforms that we are developing. By having these conversations across all levels of the organization, I had a chance to better understand the intricacies of our gene editing technology and our platforms and how we can synergistically leverage these existing assets towards further development. Both on top of our gene editing technology, we have three principal platforms. First, we have in vivo gene editing focused initially on ocular diseases. Next, we have the ex vivo platform focusing on sickle cell and beta thalassemia. And finally, we have our cellular therapeutic platform focusing on oncology. These three platforms have their own intrinsic values and they also provide us with building blocks for continued sustained growth. The programs within each of these vehicles serve within each of these platforms serve as vehicles for proof of concepts. Once we demonstrate that we can reduce our genetic technology to practical applications. Then we'll have actual products that could impact patients' lives in a way never seen before. These are not just three different areas of therapeutic indications. These are three different ways to use gene editing to solve different problems. And finally, being a leader in genomic medicine requires immense expertise and resources. As we continue to advance our programs, partnerships will be critical for development and commercialization. We will pursue opportunities to extend our leadership and accelerate, enable, and expand our pipeline. We believe we've been successful to date, as exemplified by our collaboration with Crystal Myers Squibb, a global leader in oncology. As mentioned, that partnership is progressing along, with BMS opting into an additional program this quarter. In addition to a declared development candidate at the end of last year, this marks another important milestone in the span of six months under this collaboration. further validating our technological expertise in the space. Overall, I'm extremely happy with our year-to-date progress. There are still challenges that we need to overcome, and I'm confident that we'll have the right people in place to accomplish our short-term milestones and our long-term objectives. With that, let me turn the call over to Lisa.