ERS Genomics appoints John E Milad as Chief Executive Officer

ERS Genomics Limited (‘ERS’), the CRISPR licensing company, today announced the appointment of John E Milad as CEO, with immediate effect. John brings over 25 years of experience as an executive leader, venture capitalist, and investment banker focused on the life sciences and medical technology sectors.

As CEO of Quanta Dialysis Technologies for nearly a decade, John led the development and commercial launch of an award-winning portable hemodialysis system designed to transform the delivery of kidney care to patients. He drove market entry into the UK and US, while raising a record-breaking $245 million private funding round and building an extensive intellectual property estate of over 40 patent families. Prior to this, he served as CFO of Nitec Pharma, where he headed up finance and business development activities, raising a pivotal funding round and securing a licensing partner to enable the company’s transition from clinical development to commercialization.

John also has significant experience as a venture investor, with previous roles as Partner and co-Head of Healthcare Ventures at Downing LLP and Investment Director at NBGI Ventures, as well as positions at Atlas Venture and Kirkland Investors. Successful exited investments include Symetis, ACT/Epix, BoneSupport and WebMD.

A graduate of the University of Chicago, John served on the i4i selection panel for translational research at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). John currently serves on the Boards of Kidney Research UK and Otivio AS and is a business mentor at the Royal Academy of Engineering’s accelerator programme. He was named in the Sunday Times Maserati List as one of the UK’s “Top 100 Game Changing Innovators and Entrepreneurs”.

Shaun Foy, Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors, ERS Genomics, commented: “On behalf of the Board and executive team, I would like to welcome John as CEO. His experience uniquely positions him to lead ERS Genomics through the next stage of its development. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Eric Rhodes for his leadership over the past eight years. During this time, ERS Genomics has been instrumental in providing access to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 patent portfolio, enabling research and commercialization across a broad range of applications within the life sciences, industrial biology, agriculture, and veterinary sciences sectors. We look forward to working with John as we continue to make this Nobel Prize winning gene editing technology widely available.”

Gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9 continues to gain momentum across a wide variety of applications, playing a vital role in ushering in a golden age for medical innovation and synthetic biology. ERS' mission is to broaden the secure use of CRISPR/Cas9 by enhancing and expanding accessibility, helping to drive the technology to its full potential. I am delighted to join ERS, with their decade of experience as a respected provider of CRISPR/Cas9 licensing, and look forward to working with the team to continue making CRISPR gene-editing available to the world.”

John E Milad, CEO, ERS Genomics

ERS Genomics provides licensing to CRISPR/Cas9 technology for companies interested in pursuing its use in their commercial programs. Comprising 100+ patents globally, ERS’ portfolio encompasses CRISPR/Cas9 usage in all cells, including eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells such as mammalian cells, bacteria, archaea, yeasts, algae, and insects. ERS Genomics licenses these patents via its direct license from Emmanuelle Charpentier and now has nearly 150 licenses in place worldwide.