Moderna Therapeutics, developing messenger RNA therapeutics, a new treatment modality to enable the in vivo production of therapeutic proteins, has hired Joseph Bolen, Ph.D., as its president of R&D.

Bolen will oversee all aspects of R&D at Moderna, including discovery research, preclinical and clinical development and clinical operations. His team will drive the discovery and development of compounds to support Moderna's existing and future research partnerships, as well as its internal efforts in rare diseases and oncology.

Bolen, the former chief scientific officer and global head of oncology research at Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, has held senior leadership positions at Millennium since 1999. Previously, Bolen held senior R&D positions at Hoechst Marion Roussel, Schering-Plough and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He has more than 30 years of industry and research experience and has been at the forefront of cancer and immunology research since starting his career as a scientist at the NIH, where he spent 10 years making contributions to the discovery of a class of proteins known as tyrosine kinase oncogenes as key regulators of the immune system.