Moderna Therapeutics, one of the country's largest biotechnology startups, has hired an in-house veteran as its new general counsel.

In addition to serving as GC, Lori Henderson will be the messenger RNA-based therapeutics company's corporate secretary and a member of its executive committee. She most recently was senior vice president, GC, corporate secretary and head of business development at Albany Molecular Research Inc. (AMRI). Henderson is Moderna's second top lawyer, succeeding a GC who left last year, according to a company spokesman, who declined to name that previous legal leader.

Henderson could not be reached for comment, but in a company statement announcing her appointment, she referenced Moderna's evolution.

“I look forward to helping build an organization that supports the long-term demands of Moderna's evolving business, its science and development programs, and efforts to bring mRNA medicines to patients where there is an urgent need for new therapies and vaccines,” she said.

Moderna seeks to use a patient's genetic instructions—known as messenger RNA, or mRNA—to develop drugs that would cure cancer and other diseases. Since its 2010 founding in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company has raised $1.9 billion from investors, according to a November 2017 Bloomberg LP report. And in February, Moderna announced that it had raised $500 million in another round of financing, bringing the company's value to $7.5 billion, news reports said.

Henderson joined AMRI in 2011 and participated in the acquisition of multiple companies, according to the Moderna statement. Prior to joining that pharmaceutical contract research and manufacturing organization, she was GC, corporate secretary and chief administrative officer at Rand Worldwide Inc., a technology sales and services organization, and prior to that, GC, corporate secretary and chief administrative officer at software company Moldflow Corp., which was acquired by Autodesk Inc.

She began her legal career in the corporate practice of Boston law firm Goodwin Procter, where she was an associate for six years, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Henderson holds a law degree from The George Washington University Law School.