Dr. Freedland has served as a member of our Board since December 2023 and as Lead Independent Director since January 2026. He also served on the board of directors of Neurogene OpCo from February 2019 to December 2023. Dr. Freedland is an independent consultant for biopharmaceutical companies. He was previously a Partner at Samsara BioCapital ( Samsara ), an investment company focused on the life sciences industry, from October 2017 until May 2025. Dr. Freedland has over 20 years of experience, leading multiple successful life science investments in his role. Prior to Samsara, Dr. Freedland was a Principal at Sofinnova Ventures, a biopharmaceutical venture capital firm, where he focused on biopharmaceutical investments. He played a central role in Sofinnova s investments in Civitas Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by Acorda Therapeutics, Inc.), Principia Biopharma, Spark Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by Roche), Ziarco Pharma Ltd. (acquired by Novartis AG), and ZS Pharma, Inc. (acquired by AstraZeneca plc). Prior to Sofinnova, Dr. Freedland was a Principal at Novo A/S. Before his transition to healthcare investing, Dr. Freedland was a Vice President in the healthcare investment banking practice at Morgan Stanley. Prior to transitioning to life sciences finance, Dr. Freedland worked as a research scientist for Roche focusing on preclinical drug discovery and novel target identification for psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Freedland served on the board of directors of Jiya Acquisition Corp. from November 2020 to November 2022. Dr. Freedland has also served on the board of directors of multiple private companies. Dr. Freedland received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management and his B.A. in Psychology and Religious Studies from Connecticut College. We believe Dr. Freedland is qualified to serve on our Board because of his extensive leadership, investment and business development experience in the life sciences sector, as well as his experience as a director of several biotechnology company boards.