Ocugen Appoints Dr. Mohamed Genead as Chair of Retina Scientific Advisory Board

MALVERN, Pa., June 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ocugen, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCGN), a clinical-stage company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing transformative therapies to treat rare and underserved eye diseases, today announced the appointment of Dr. Mohamed Genead as chair of the Ocugen, Inc. Retina Scientific Advisory Board, which is comprised of prominent experts who provide strategic advice, clinical and regulatory support, and scientific and industry expertise.

Shankar Musunuri, Ph.D., MBA, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder remarked, “We welcome Dr. Genead as Chair of Ocugen’s Retina Scientific Advisory Board.  His deep experience in ophthalmology and gene therapy will be instrumental as we advance our breakthrough modifier gene therapy platform into the clinic next year.”

“Ocugen has a strong product portfolio to address a variety of retina diseases that lead to vision loss and blindness.  Their novel gene therapy platform has the opportunity to transform our drug development process and provide one product to address many inherited retinal diseases.  I am excited about the opportunity to lead this esteemed scientific advisory board and support Ocugen’s development strategy,” said Dr. Genead.

Mohamed Genead, M.D.

Dr. Genead is an ophthalmologist/retina specialist/serial entrepreneur, inherited retinal disease expert, and clinical investigator with over 20 years’ experience in ophthalmology and gene & cell therapy drug development. Prior to co-founding two ophthalmic companies, Dr. Genead served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President for GenSight Biologics, where he led the clinical development and medical affairs organization in multiple phase I-III trials, leveraging disruptive ocular gene therapy and optogenetics platforms for patients with ocular degenerative diseases. Prior to GenSight, Dr. Genead was Biogen’s ophthalmology and ocular gene therapy lead in collaborations with Jean Bennett, M.D., Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania (inventor of Luxturna®, the scientific foundation for Spark Therapeutics) and Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation in the execution of multiple retina gene therapy programs intended for regulatory approvals of ophthalmic gene therapy products. Dr. Genead spent years in academic medicine serving as a physician/scientist, co-director of the Center of Retina Degenerative Diseases and as an Investigator, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, at the University of Illinois in Chicago. His area of academic interest focused on retinal novel therapeutics from ocular gene therapy to retina regenerative stem cell therapies for orphan retina diseases such as Stargardt disease and Retinitis Pigmentosa. His team were pioneers in using topical eye drops to treat macular edema associated with retinal dystrophies. In collaboration with researchers at McGill University and other research institutions, he discovered a new gene mutation in patients with Leber congenital amaurosis. He is a member of numerous professional and honorary societies. He was the primary and key author for numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts in highly impact factor scientific journals focusing on ophthalmics clinical research and novel therapeutics. Dr. Genead completed his vitreoretinal fellowship at the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Illinois in Chicago and a retinal research fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

About Ocugen, Inc.

Ocugen, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing transformative therapies to treat rare and underserved eye diseases. Our breakthrough modifier gene therapy platform has the potential to treat multiple retinal diseases with one drug – “one to many” and our novel biologic product candidate aims to offer better therapy to patients with underserved diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema and diabetic retinopathy. For more information, please visit

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