US-based ReCode Therapeutics Inc has strengthened its ties with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as it progresses an experimental messenger RNA (mRNA) therapy for the disease through the clinic. Simultaneously, it promoted Heather Clark on 1 July to the role of chief executive from vice president and head of the company’s cystic fibrosis franchise. Ms Clark joined ReCode in 2022. She has nearly 30 years of experience in rare disease drug development of which more than half were spent at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, developer of five marketed cystic fibrosis products. Ms Clark succeeds Shehnaaz Suliman who has become the new executive chair of the company’s board of directors.
The management shuffle comes as ReCode drills down on its cystic fibrosis strategy. On 6 August, the company announced the start of a new research collaboration with an unnamed gene editing company to focus on developing genetic medicines for cystic fibrosis.
It also announced new funding from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation which has been supporting the company since 2023. The size of the new funding wasn’t disclosed. However as of September 2025, the foundation had committed up to $33 million to support ReCode’s ongoing research into messenger RNA (mRNA) and gene correction therapeutics. The company says that its delivery technology is different. It is based on lipid nanoparticles which have been engineered to direct the company’s therapies to organs other than the liver.
ReCode has two lead products in clinical development: RCT2100 for cystic fibrosis, and RCT1100 for primary ciliary dyskinesia, a rare genetic disorder leading to chronic respiratory infections. ReCode is taking two approaches to the cystic fibrosis challenge. One is to try and correct the mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene using CRISPR gene editing technology.
A collaboration dating from 2024 with Intellia Therapeutics Inc is investigating this. The second approach is to direct an mRNA therapy to lung cells in order to produce a functional CFTR protein. This prospective therapy is in a Phase 2a study and is designed to be inhaled.
Under the terms of the new collaboration with the unnamed partner, ReCode will contribute its lipid nanoparticle delivery planform to the project and the partner will contribute its gene editing technology. They have set a goal of advancing one or more candidate drugs towards clinical development and commercialisation.
Ms Clark holds a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Auburn University, both in the US. She is a member of the American Chemical Society and has supported local chapters of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for nearly 25 years.
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