Allyson Berent, DVM, DACVIM

Chief Science Officer

Foundation For Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST)

Dr. Allyson Berent is a veterinary internist and interventional radiologist with extensive experience designing and leading clinical trials in animals with naturally occurring disease, translating clinical medical device data to inform human therapeutics. In 2014, her daughter Quincy was diagnosed with Angelman syndrome (AS), a rare nondegenerative neurogenetic disorder, which led Dr. Berent to focus on rare disease drug development.

She joined the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) in 2015 and currently serves as its Chief Science Officer. Through FAST’s venture philanthropy model, Dr. Berent co-founded GeneTx Biotherapeutics, advancing the first antisense oligonucleotide therapy for AS, which was acquired by Ultragenyx Pharmaceuticals in 2022.

Dr. Berent is currently Chief Development Officer at AS2Bio, a drug development accelerator launched by FAST. At AS2Bio, she helps to lead non-clinical and clinical development programs including an AAV gene therapy currently in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for AS, as well as an autologous ex-vivo hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy and an in vivo non-viral CRISPR-based gene editing program advancing through IND-enabling studies toward first-in-human evaluation.

In addition, Dr. Berent serves as co-director of the Angelman Syndrome Biomarker and Outcome Measure Consortium (ABOM), working to advance the development and validation of biomarkers and outcome measures to support clinical protocol design in this rare population. She brings a unique perspective to regulatory and development discussions, integrating scientific, clinical, and patient-centered considerations in decision making for rare disease drug development.