Editas Medicine, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to Editas Medicine's second quarter 2021 conference call. All participants are now in a listen-only mode. There will be a question and answer session at the end of this call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded at the company's request. I would now like to turn the call over to Ron Waldader, Investor Relations at Editas Medicine.

Thank you, Daryl. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter 2021 conference call. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release providing our financial results and corporate updates for the second quarter of 2021. A replay of today's call will be available on the investors 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.

Thanks, Ron, and good morning, everyone. I'm joined today by several members of the Editas executive team, including Mark Sherman, our new chief scientific officer, Lisa Michaels, our chief medical officer, and Michelle Robertson, our chief financial officer. I want to start off by providing some highlights from the second quarter and reviewing our upcoming milestones. Editas has had a strong first half of the year with excellent momentum across our platforms and lead programs. The EDIT 101 brilliance trial for LCA 10 is proceeding very well with the independent data monitoring committee recently endorsing enrollment of the first of two planned pediatric cohorts. And we've also started enrolling patients in the adult high dose cohort. We are also expected to share initial clinical data from the EDIT 101 trial this September. This will mark the company's first ever clinical data readout. The Ruby study of EDIT301 for sickle cell disease is screening patients, and we remain on track to begin dosing by the end of the year. And the pre-IND work for EDIT301 and beta thalassemia is progressing, and we remain on track to file the IND before year end. Additional data supporting the unique properties of our proprietary Cas12A enzyme was recently published in Nature Communications. and we plan to present new data on our multi-transgene knock-in proficiency at upcoming Cold Spring Harbor meeting. These accomplishments further support the incredible potential of our gene editing platform. Our manufacturing capabilities for lead programs have advanced nicely, and we're ready to manufacture all clinical supplies for the Ruby trial. We continue to progress our oncology programs, including our iPSC-derived NK cell program that we are advancing in preclinical studies, And finally, we continue to make headway on our remaining preclinical programs, including ocular diseases. Additional updates on those programs will be provided later this year. On the leadership side, we had several important announcements last quarter. Dr. Mark Sherman joined the company 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. Mark is two months into his new position. I'm pleased to have him on the call with us today. We're also delighted that Dr. Chi Lee joined us as Chief Regulatory Officer. Chi brings an extensive resume guiding over 30 development programs through regulatory processes. including multiple U.S. and global submissions, and he will be a critical part of our leadership team as we advance our pipeline. And finally, we're pleased to announce the promotion of Bruce Eaton to our executive team as chief business officer. Bruce has been involved with Editas in various capacities since 2015, starting as a consultant, then a research collaborator, and as a full-time leader of our Boulder site. He brings a successful track record, including more than 30 years of scientific operations, business development, and corporate strategy experience in both public and private companies. He has a deep understanding of biochemistry and biophysics for the innovation and development of medicines. Bruce's expertise at the executive table will have a critical impact on how Editas continues to evolve. So overall, I'm extremely happy with the progress through the first half of the year, and with our expanded executive team, I have the utmost confidence that we have the right people in place to lead Editas to the next phases of the company's growth and towards long-term success. With that, let me turn the call over to Mark for his first earnings call as Editas Chief Scientific Officer. Mark.