CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kytopen, an MIT-spin out and biotechnology company leading advancements in high-throughput cellular and genome engineering platforms, today announced it is assembling a group of experts in the diverse fields of immunology, synthetic biology, engineering, and manufacturing for its newly formed Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The SAB will provide technical and strategic guidance for ongoing research and development programs at Kytopen and influence plans for both current and future innovations. The Board will collaborate with Kytopen scientists, engineers, and leadership towards realizing Kytopen’s mission to expand patients’ access to engineered living medicines.
SAB members were selected based on their leadership and expertise in their respective fields, and for their shared vision of building a future with broader access to potentially curative therapies for patients in need. The inaugural members of Kytopen’s SAB will consist of the following experts:
- Chair: Cullen Buie, Ph.D.-- Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Kytopen Co-Founder
Cullen Buie, Ph.D. is currently an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He completed his B.S. from The Ohio State University and obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford. Prior to joining MIT, Cullen was a President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Cullen’s laboratory explores flow physics at the microscale for applications in biotechnology. With funding from DARPA, NSF, and NIH, his team has made advances in numerous areas including genetic engineering of bacteria and chemical communication in microbial communities. Cullen received many awards for his research and service including the NSF CAREER Award, the DuPont Young Professor Award, the DARPA Young Faculty Award, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He co-founded Kytopen in 2017 with his postdoc Paulo Garcia, Ph.D.
- Omid Veiseh, Ph.D. -- Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering at Rice University
Dr. Omid Veiseh is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded Sigilon Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SGTX), Avenge Bio, Pana Bio, and Curada Bio. He is also a professor of Bioengineering at Rice University where he leads a research program aimed at engineering next generation treatments for a wide range of human diseases by leveraging the latest techniques in synthetic biology, immunoengineering, and materials science to develop innovative cell-based platforms for real-time production of biologics.
- Stanley Qi, Ph.D. -- Associate Professor, Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University
Stanley Qi, Ph.D. did fundamental work in genome engineering, including the invention of CRISPRa (activation) and CRISPRi (interference). Dr. Qi is a co-inventor on the University of California’s Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR patent. He is an associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering and ChEM-H at Stanford University, where his lab has invented numerous technologies combining genome engineering with synthetic biology to probe biological processes and discover new therapeutic approaches.
- Katie Galloway, Ph.D. -- M. Keck Career Development Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Katie Galloway, Ph.D. is the W. M. Keck Career Development Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering at MIT. Her research focuses on elucidating the fundamental principles of integrating synthetic circuitry to drive cellular behaviors. Through a combination of systems and synthetic biology approaches, her lab develops integrated gene circuits and elucidates the systems-level principles that govern complex cellular behaviors. Her goal is to leverage quantitative tools to transform how we understand cellular transitions and engineer cellular therapies. Galloway earned a PhD and an MS in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from University of California at Berkeley. She completed her postdoctoral work at University of Southern California Stem Cell. Her research has been featured in Science, Cell Stem Cell, Cell Systems, and Development. She has won multiple fellowships and awards including the NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award R35, the NIH F32, and Caltech’s Everhart Award.
- Ahmad S. Khalil, Ph.D. -- Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Associate Director, Biological Design Center at Boston University; Visiting Scholar, Wyss Institute at Harvard University
Ahmad (Mo) Khalil, Ph.D. is the Dorf-Ebner Distinguished Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Founding Associate Director of the Biological Design Center at Boston University. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and Co-Director of a NIH/NIGMS T32 PhD Training Program in synthetic biology. His research has pioneered synthetic biology and laboratory evolution approaches to learn fundamental principles and mechanisms of biological circuits, with the goal of using this understanding to engineer cells with new therapeutic behaviors. He is recipient of numerous awards, including a Schmidt Science Polymath Award, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), DoD Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, NIH New Innovator Award, NSF CAREER Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award, and Hartwell Foundation Biomedical Research Award, and he has received numerous awards for teaching excellence. Mo earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his B.S. from Stanford University.
- Jared Auclair, Ph.D. -- Vice Provost, Research Economic Development and Director of Bioinnovation in the Office of the Provost at Northeastern University
Jared R. Auclair, Ph.D. is currently the Vice Provost, Research Economic Development and Director of Bioinnovation at Northeastern University. Dr. Auclair works to strengthen the bonds between the education and research missions through work-integrated credentialed learning and use-inspired research, co-creating with communities and partners while expanding the global mindset. He also leverages University biotechnology activities to bring together multi-disciplinary experts to advance and expand the life sciences programs. In addition, Dr. Auclair holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology where he collaborates with academic researchers, industry and government in biopharmaceutical development and analysis.
“The future of medicine is here and needs help scaling solutions to save more lives," added Kytopen’s CEO and Co-Founder, Dr. Paulo Garcia. “We are honored to have Scientific Advisory Board members who will leverage their exceptional scientific expertise and join our mission to fuel innovation in drug discovery and better meet the needs of more patients.”
The SAB will be chaired by Dr. Cullen Buie. “I am delighted to be appointed Chair of this Scientific Advisory Board and applaud Kytopen for bringing together renowned experts from diverse fields to formulate this panel,” said Dr. Buie. “I look forward to collaborating with this distinguished board and Kytopen to increase patient access to the next generation of living medicines on a global scale.”
“This group of advisors builds and expands on the capabilities of our technical team and will help and challenge us to innovate for tomorrow’s solutions,” added Bethany Grant, Chief Technology Officer at Kytopen. “We are very excited and honored to bring this group together.”
ABOUT KYTOPEN
Kytopen is an MIT startup developing platforms to accelerate the discovery, development, and manufacturing of gene-modified cell therapies. The scalable Flowfect® solution combines microfluidics and automation to make this process easier, faster, and more cost-effective than the state-of-the art solutions. In 2017, Dr. Paulo Garcia co-founded Kytopen with Dr. Cullen Buie. Together they co-invented Kytopen’s proprietary Flowfect® technology for high-throughput genetic modification of cells. For more information, visit www.kytopen.com and follow @kytopen on Twitter and LinkedIn. Kytopen products are provided for Research Use Only.
