We take a look at some of the people taking on top jobs in the biopharma industry this month.
We take a look at some of the people taking on top jobs in the biopharma industry this month.
Graphite Bio has appointed Jane Grogan, Ph.D., as its Chief Scientific Office and member of the company’s executive leadership team.
The company is a clinical-stage, next-generation gene editing company, harnessing high efficiency targeted gene integration to develop a new class of therapies.
Dr. Grogan is a renowned scientist in the fields of immunology, oncology and cell therapy with over two decades of biotech and life sciences industry experience, including a tenure of more than 15 years at Genentech advancing programs from discovery biology and target identification through to late-stage clinical development and approval.
At Graphite Bio, Dr. Grogan will apply this extensive relevant experience to lead robust research efforts, leverage the company’s targeted gene integration platform technology in new therapeutic areas to impact patients and guide the continued growth of the company’s world-class research group. She will also play a critical role in advancing research of targeted and safer bone marrow conditioning regimens to improve and expand the applications and impact of Graphite Bio’s hematopoietic stem cell therapies for patients with serious diseases.
Immediately prior to joining Graphite Bio, she served as Chief Scientific Officer and a member of the executive leadership team at ArsenalBio, a programmable cell therapy company, where she established the research organization and preclinical pipeline of cell therapies for solid tumors.
From 2004-2019, Dr. Grogan worked at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. As head of adaptive tumor immunity and principal scientist of cancer immunology discovery research, she oversaw discovery research programs from idea and target identification through clinical development, and managed in-licensing business partnerships and external development collaborations.
During her career, Dr. Grogan has published over 60 papers in a wide array of journals and is the inventor on over 20 patents. She obtained her Ph.D. from Leiden University, The Netherlands, and her BSci (Hons) degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Grogan completed her post-doctoral training as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the German Rheumatism Research Centre Berlin (DRFZ) and as a Howard Hughes Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Dr. Grogan is also known as the founder and original host of the popular podcast series "Two Scientists Walk into a Bar.”
Atara Biotherapeutics has appointed cell therapy and oncology expert Cokey Nguyen, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer.
Atara is an off-the-shelf, allogenic T-cell immunotherapy company developing novel treatments for patients with cancer, autoimmune and viral diseases. Dr. Nguyen joins the company from Fate Therapeutics, where, as Vice President, Innovation, Research and Development, he directed strategy for discovery and innovation efforts, and spearheaded the corporate collaboration program with ONO Pharma.
Prior to that, he was leader of the targeted immunotherapy group on the Oncology R&D team at Pfizer, producing bispecific antibodies for solid tumors and hematological malignancies and bringing them into the clinic.
Dr. Nguyen’s bench science experience includes work in tumor metabolism, gene expression and molecular biology. He holds numerous patents for iPSC and immune effector cells and has been published in various peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Nguyen has also been active in successful business development activities, including, while at Janssen, evaluating Legend’s BCMA-directed CAR T program and supporting the Janssen/Legend partnership.
Dr. Nguyen received his undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Washington University in St. Louis. He was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he focused on the identification and characterization of BRCT domains as novel phospho-binding domains in DNA damage pathways.
Magenta Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a focus on stem cell transplants, has appointed David Nichols as Chief Technical Officer.
Nichols will serve as a member of Magenta’s Executive Team and will lead all of the company’s CMC activities from early development through commercial products across the company’s pipeline, including driving strategic initiatives to improve efficiency, consistency, compliance and risk mitigation for Magenta’s antibody drug conjugate, cell therapy, and peptide manufacturing processes.
Nichols comes to Magenta with more than 25 years of experience in biologics process development across the life sciences industry. Most recently, Mr. Nichols served as Senior Vice President of Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for all process development and internal and external GMP manufacturing.
His past positions have included Head of CMC Biologicals Drug Substances at Tesaro Pharmaceuticals; Senior Director of Process Development at Operations at Teva Pharmaceuticals and Senior Director, CMC Integration at Shire Pharmaceuticals.
Nichols holds an MBA from Northeastern University and a Masters in Biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire.
Catamaran Bio, Inc., a biotechnology company developing allogeneic CAR-NK cell therapies, has appointed Scott Holmes, MS, MBA, as Chief Financial Officer.
Holmes has 20 years of experience in finance, strategy, and operations: including the role of CFO at other biotechs where he led high-value financings and transactions.
Most recently, Holmes was CFO of Disarm Therapeutics, where he was responsible for all financial operations and played a key role in the company’s acquisition by Eli Lilly in October 2020.
Previously, he was CFO of the publicly-traded cell therapy biotech, Kiadis Pharma, including leading the company’s acquisition of CytoSen Therapeutics.
He spent four years as CFO of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, where he executed multiple high-value financial offerings and oversaw the merger of Keryx into Akebia Therapeutics. Holmes was also previously SVP of Finance and Investor Relations at AMAG Pharmaceuticals.
Catamaran Bio is developing novel, off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell therapies designed to treat a broad range of cancers, including solid tumors. Its capabilities are designed to take the natural cancer-fighting properties of NK cells and enhance and tailor their effectiveness through synthetic biology and innovative non-viral cell engineering; led by its Tailwind Platform.
Himalaya Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with operations in California and Hong Kong, has appointed Brian Zhang, Ph.D, as CEO.
The company focuses on the development and commercialization in Greater China of a novel class of investigational antibody therapeutics for the treatment of solid tumor cancer, which are based on the Conditionally Active Biologics (CAB) technology platform.
Dr. Zhang has decades of experience in R&D, overseeing products from discovery to commercialization. On the corporate side, he has experience leading and founding healthcare companies; and on the investment side, as a venture partner and an angel investor.
During his time at Hoffmann-La Roche, he helped lead the development of Xenical and the discovery of Dorzagliatin, among others, and helped establish its bioinformatics group. More recently, he cofounded several biotechnology startups and invested in biopharmaceuticals.
He received his Ph.D. from the UCLA School of Medicine and his B.S. from Nanjing University. He also conducted brain research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, earning a grant for further study abroad.
