STRASBOURG, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:
Transgene (Euronext Paris: TNG) (Paris:TNG), a biotech company that designs and develops virus-based immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, announces the appointment of Dr. John C. Bell and Dr. Pedro Romero as key scientific advisors.
“John and Pedro are world leaders in cancer immunotherapy, and will bring considerable expertise to Transgene,” said Hedi Ben Brahim, Transgene’s CEO. “We’re privileged to have them on board and look forward to working with them as we take the next important steps in the clinical development of our oncolytic virus and therapeutic cancer vaccine candidates.”
John C. Bell is an internationally renowned expert in using oncolytic viruses (OVs) to treat cancer. He formed, and continues to lead, the Canadian Oncolytic Virus Consortium, a trans-Canadian, multidisciplinary group developing virus-based cancer therapeutics. He is the Scientific Director of BioCanRx, a Network of Centers of Excellence developing and clinically testing novel immunotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer. He is a co-founder of OV biotechs Jennerex and Turnstone Biologics. John is a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), a research institution affiliated with the University of Ottawa and the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital. John launched his independent research career in the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University. His research program has been continuously funded by peer-reviewed grants for over 30 years and he has authored over 400 publications.
He completed his post-doctoral studies at the Medical Research Council in London, England and received his PhD in virology and immunology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
Pedro Romero is Professor at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, where he has worked since 2003, focusing on tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy, particularly on the biology and dynamics of cytolytic CD8 T lymphocyte (CTL) responses. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.
Previously, Pedro researched at the Department of Medical and Molecular Parasitology at New York University School of Medicine before joining the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), Epalinges, Switzerland, in 1989. In 2001, he became division Head of Clinical Onco-Immunology at the LICR in Lausanne.
Pedro holds a number of patents and has coauthored more than 320 original research articles describing his scientific works in peptide-based immunotherapy and T cell responses, several of them in Science or Nature.
In 2001, Pedro won the Robert Wenner prize from the Swiss Cancer League on Applied Cancer Research, to complement other honors he received.
Pedro obtained his MD at the School of Medicine of the National University of Colombia in Bogota.
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About Transgene
Transgene (Euronext: TNG) is a biotechnology company focused on designing and developing targeted immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Transgene’s programs utilize viral vector technology with the goal of indirectly or directly killing cancer cells.
The Company’s clinical-stage programs consist of two therapeutic vaccines (TG4001 for the treatment of HPV-positive cancers, and TG4050, the first individualized therapeutic vaccine based on the myvac® platform) as well as three oncolytic viruses based on the Invir.IO™ viral backbone (TG6002, BT-001 and TG6050).
With Transgene’s myvac® platform, therapeutic vaccination enters the field of precision medicine with a novel immunotherapy that is fully tailored to each individual. The myvac® approach allows the generation of a virus-based immunotherapy that encodes patient-specific mutations identified and selected by Artificial Intelligence capabilities provided by its partner NEC.
With its proprietary platform Invir.IO™, Transgene is building on its viral vector engineering expertise to design a new generation of multifunctional oncolytic viruses. Transgene has an ongoing Invir.IO™ collaboration with AstraZeneca.
Additional information about Transgene is available at: www.transgene.fr
Follow us on social media: Twitter: @TransgeneSA – LinkedIn: @Transgene
Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. The occurrence of any of these risks could have a significant negative outcome for the Company’s activities, perspectives, financial situation, results, regulatory authorities’ agreement with development phases, and development. The Company’s ability to commercialize its products depends on but is not limited to the following factors: positive pre-clinical data may not be predictive of human clinical results, the success of clinical studies, the ability to obtain financing and/or partnerships for product manufacturing, development and commercialization, and marketing approval by government regulatory authorities. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company’s actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors (“Facteurs de Risque”) section of the Universal Registration Document, available on the AMF website (http://www.amf-france.org) or on Transgene’s website (www.transgene.fr). Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and Transgene undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
