Liberate Bio has expanded its leadership team by bringing on former AstraZeneca drug-delivery head Shawn Davis as CEO, the Boston biotech announced Wednesday. 

Davis started in April, as did fellow C-suite addition Walter Strapps, who came on board as chief scientific officer (CSO). Liberate, which was incorporated last year by four co-founders, Dr. Michael Mitchell, Dr. Stephen Scully, Dr. Theresa Reineke, and Dr. Nessan Bermingham, uses machine learning and other techniques to design new delivery vehicles for genetic medicines. 

Davis brings an extensive background in drug delivery, having joined from the British pharma giant, where he most recently served as head of drug delivery for R&D biopharma development. Before that, he held multiple R&D roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen, working on combination product development, technology strategy, and innovation.

He assumed the chief executive role from company co-founder Bermingham, who had been serving as interim CEO since its founding in 2022. In addition to his leadership responsibilities, Davis serves as a board member at the Subcutaneous Drug Development & Delivery Consortium.

“The field of genetic medicines is fascinating, not only for the potential to address the critical needs of patients but also as the next frontier of human medicine,” Davis said in a statement. “The opportunity to lead the talented team at Liberate Bio to realize the full potential of genetic medicines through targeted delivery to any organ of the body is thrilling. Our ability to rapidly and efficiently design new delivery vehicles has the potential to enable future pharmaceutical partners’ pipelines and address previously unreachable biologic targets liberating patients from their genetic disorders.”

Similar to Davis, Strapps is also an experienced biotech exec, most recently serving as CEO of Carver Biosciences. He currently serves as interim CSO of Deep Genomics. Previously, he held the CSO role at Gemini Therapeutics, a dry age-related macular degeneration-focused biotech.

Strapps is an alum of several other leading biotech companies, including Merck, Sirna Therapeutics and Intellia Therapeutics, where he focused his efforts on research involving oligonucleotide-based therapeutics.

The company said it’s pursuing a hybrid business model with an internal pipeline and partnered programs.