WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Selecta Biosciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing novel targeted vaccines and immunotherapies, announced today that Takashi Kei Kishimoto, Ph.D., has been appointed as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Kishimoto brings more than 20 years of experience as a pharmaceutical and biotechnology scientist and leader. He will report directly to Werner Cautreels, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Selecta Biosciences.
"We are extremely pleased that Kei will be joining our team to lead Selecta's scientific activities," said Werner Cautreels, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Selecta Biosciences. "Kei’s experience will help to accelerate the advancement of our broad platform of Synthetic Vaccine Particle (SVP™) product candidates, which we view as central to leveraging the vast potential of Selecta's novel technology platforms."
Selecta's breakthrough technology based on self-assembling, synthetic nanoparticles creates a new paradigm in vaccine development, enabling completely new therapeutic applications with improved efficacy and safety profiles.
"I am excited to have this opportunity to help develop the next-generation of therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines. Selecta's unique Synthetic Vaccine Particle (SVP™) platform has the potential to radically change how serious diseases, such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, allergies, and chronic infectious diseases are treated," said Dr. Kishimoto. "Selecta’s broad technology platform has the power to both stimulate potent and protective immune responses as well as dampen deleterious immune responses in an antigen-specific manner."
Prior to joining Selecta, Dr. Kishimoto was Vice President of Research at Momenta Pharmaceuticals where he led a multidisciplinary team in advancing both novel and complex generic products for inflammation, oncology, and cardiovascular disease. Previously, he was Senior Director of Inflammation Research at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he provided the scientific leadership for four programs in clinical development, and was an Associate Director of Research at Boehringer Ingelheim. Dr. Kishimoto has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Kishimoto received his doctoral degree in Immunology from Harvard University and his post-doctoral training at Stanford University.
About Selecta
Selecta Biosciences, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing an entirely new class of targeted vaccines that induces an antigen-specific immune activation or antigen-specific immune tolerance for therapeutic and prophylactic applications. Selecta's proprietary Synthetic Vaccine Particle (SVP™) platform creates a new paradigm in vaccine development, enabling completely new therapeutic applications while offering the potential of improved efficacy and safety profiles. Selecta’s fully synthetic engineering of novel vaccines offers a number of compelling benefits, including flexible modular vaccine design and accelerated development timelines using robust manufacturing processes. Selecta’s SVP™ platform technology is flexible to enable diverse vaccines and the company has created targeted antigen-specific Synthetic Vaccine Particles (tSVP™) and targeted antigen-specific tolerogenic Synthetic Vaccine Particles (t2SVP™).
Targeted Synthetic Vaccine Particles (tSVP™) activate immune responses to a wide array of relevant antigens, including small molecules, peptides, oligosaccharides, and proteins. These particles can target humoral or cellular pathways of the immune system. Examples for applications include cancer, infectious diseases and addiction. Targeted tolerogenic Synthetic Vaccine Particles (t2SVP™) are designed to induce antigen-specific immune tolerance. Examples for applications include autoimmune diseases, allergies and transplant rejection.
Selecta’s pipeline currently contains a vaccine for smoking cessation and relapse prevention, a vaccine for Type 1 Diabetes, vaccines for several infectious diseases (universal influenza, universal human papillomavirus, and malaria), and research approaches with cancer vaccines and in the field of allergies.
Building on the company’s novel approach, Selecta’s product candidates have the potential to become first-in-class or best-in-class therapeutics to treat and prevent diseases. Selecta Biosciences is based in Watertown, Massachusetts, USA. For more information, please visit www.selectabio.com.