Californian biotechnology company Mammoth Biosciences has added a new general counsel from Intuitive Surgical.

Siang Chin has joined the company after nearly four years at as vice president and assistant general counsel at Intuitive. She has succeeded Gary Loeb, who left his role as Mammoth’s GC in September to be general counsel and chief compliance officer at Intuitive.

Over the course of her career Chin has guided legal strategy at life sciences and medtech as well as biotech companies – executing transactions and navigating regulatory and intellectual property matters. 

She was previously GC for biotech research company Affymetrix, where she was part of an executive team that oversaw the company’s acquisition by Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2016, after which she joined medical equipment manufacturer Varian as VP and assistant general counsel. Earlier in her career she was an associate at Shearman & Sterling and London firm Slaughter and May. 

Mammoth has also hired Phil Tinmouth as chief business officer from Pardes Biosciences. 

“We’re thrilled in welcoming Phil and Siang to lead two important functions, as they both bring business acumen and senior-level industry experience,” said Trevor Martin, PhD, co-founder and chief executive officer of Mammoth Biosciences. 

“Siang’s diverse legal expertise will help prepare us for the evolving needs of our company and industry,” he added. 

Mammoth became a unicorn late last year on the back of a $150m Series D round led by Redmile Group, with participation from other investors including Foresite Capital, Senator Investment Group, Sixth Street, Greenspring Associates, Mayfield and Decheng Capital. 

The company develops CRISPR systems, powerful tools for editing genomes – meaning they allow researchers to easily alter DNA sequences and modify gene function. It was co-founded by CRISPR pioneer and Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna along with Janice Chen, Lucas Harrington and Martin.