SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Asher Biotherapeutics, a biotechnology company developing precisely-targeted immunotherapies for cancer, autoimmune, and infectious diseases, today announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board, with the appointment of five leading scientists in the fields of immunology, oncology and protein therapeutics. The initial members of Asher Bio’s Scientific Advisory Board are:
George Georgiou, Ph.D., Professor and member of the faculties of Chemical Engineering, Molecular Biosciences, Biomedical Engineering as well as the Department of Oncology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin.
Miriam Merad, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Director of the Mount Sinai Human Immune Monitoring Center.
Robert D. Schreiber, Ph.D., Bursky Distinguished Professor and Interim Head, Immunobiology Division, Department of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine; Director, Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs
Ton Schumacher, Ph.D., Principal Investigator at The Netherlands Cancer Institute and Oncode Institute and Professor of Immunotechnology at Leiden University.
Mario Sznol, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine, Leader of the Melanoma-Renal Cancer Disease-Associated Translational Research Team, and Co-Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Yale Cancer Center.
“We are excited to welcome these highly accomplished scientists to our Scientific Advisory Board,” said Craig Gibbs, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Asher Bio. “Their experience and expertise will complement that of our management team and scientific founders. We look forward to working together to advance our lead program, AB248, into oncology indications and to apply our cis-targeting platform to additional immunomodulators and immune cell types to improve therapeutic outcomes.”
“Asher’s approach to targeting the most important immune cells in a wide range of range of diseases holds enormous therapeutic promise,” said Dr. Schumacher, who will serve as chair of the SAB. “As a co-founder of Asher and member of the SAB, I see the potential of this entirely new biotherapeutic class we are creating and look forward to the benefit it can bring to patients.”
George Georgiou, Ph.D.
Dr. Georgiou is the Dula D. Cockrell Centennial Chair Professor at University of Texas at Austin where he serves on the faculties of Chemical Engineering, Molecular Biosciences, Biomedical Engineering and in the Department of Oncology at the Dell Medical School. His research is focused on the discovery/preclinical development of protein therapeutics, the molecular level understanding of the serological antibody repertoire in human health and disease, and engineering second generation therapeutic antibodies. Dr. Georgiou founded GGMJD in 1999 (acquired by Maxygen in 2000), Aeglea Biotherapeutics in 2013 (NASDAQ: AGLE) and Kyn Therapeutics Inc. in 2016 (renamed Ikena Oncology, NASDAQ: IKNA). He served as Director of Aeglea Biotherapeutics and Ikena Oncology. He is co-inventor on the foundational patents for one approved and four clinical-stage protein therapeutics.
Miriam Merad, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Merad is the Director of the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and founded the Human Immune Monitoring Center at Mount Sinai, one of the world’s most sophisticated research centers, which uses cutting-edge single-cell technology to understand the contribution of immune cells to major human diseases or treatment responses. Dr. Merad is a leader in the fields of dendritic cell and macrophage biology. She identified the tissue resident macrophage lineage and established the contribution of this macrophage lineage to cancer progression and inflammatory diseases. Dr. Merad is also known for her work on dendritic cells, a group of cells that control adaptive immunity. She identified a new subset of dendritic cells, which is now considered a key target of antiviral and antitumor immunity.
Robert Schreiber, Ph.D.
Dr. Schreiber is the Bursky Distinguished Professor and Interim Head, Immunobiology Division, Department of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is also Director of the Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs, Co-Leader of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Siteman Comprehensive Cancer Center at Washington University, an Extramural Member Researcher of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, an Associate Director of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Cancer Research Institute, and a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors to the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Schreiber has made significant contributions to the understanding of the role of the immune system in controlling and shaping cancer. His work has focused on elucidating the biochemistry and molecular cell biology of cytokines and defining the role they play in promoting immune responses to cancer.
Ton Schumacher, Ph.D.
Dr. Schumacher is Principal Investigator at The Netherlands Cancer Institute and Oncode Institute and is Professor of Immunotechnology at Leiden University. In his academic role, he has made seminal contributions to the understanding of how T cells recognize human cancer and the central role of cancer neoantigens in cancer immunotherapies. Dr. Schumacher has been the founder of several biotech companies, including T Cell Factory (acquired by Kite Pharma), Neon Therapeutics (acquired by BioNTech), Neogene Therapeutics, and is a Venture Partner at Third Rock Ventures.
Mario Sznol, M.D.
Dr. Sznol is Professor of Internal Medicine, Leader of the Melanoma-Renal Cancer Disease-Associated Translational Research Team, and Co-Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Yale Cancer Center. He spent twelve years in the Biologics Evaluation Section (BES), Investigational Drug Branch (IDB), Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the National Cancer Institute, and was Head of the BES from 1994-1999. From 1999-2004, he served as Vice President of Clinical Development and Executive Officer of Vion Pharmaceuticals and joined the faculty at Yale in 2004. Dr. Sznol is a past President of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC).
About Asher Bio
Asher Bio is a biotechnology company developing precisely targeted immunotherapies for cancer and other diseases. Our cis-targeting platform aims to enable selective activation of specific immune cell types, addressing the inherent limitations of otherwise pleiotropic immunotherapies that act on multiple cell types. Our approach has the potential to precisely direct different immune mediators against a range of target immune cell-types and create best-in-class immunotherapies in cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases. Asher Bio is backed by Third Rock Ventures and is located in South San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.asherbio.com and follow us on Twitter @AsherBio and on LinkedIn.
