Fate Therapeutics Announces the Appointment of Karin Jooss, Ph.D. to its Board of Directors
18 March 2019 - 11:00PM
Fate Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FATE), a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of
programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer and immune
disorders, today announced that Karin Jooss, Ph.D. has been
appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors. Dr. Jooss has more
than 20 years of experience in oncology and immunology research and
development, and is currently the Executive Vice President of
Research and Chief Scientific Officer of Gritstone Oncology, Inc.,
a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation
cancer immunotherapies targeting tumor-specific neoantigens.
“Karin is an accomplished leader in the research and development
of novel therapeutic modalities for the treatment of cancer, and we
are excited to welcome her to our Board of Directors,” said Scott
Wolchko, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fate
Therapeutics. “We look forward to benefiting from her immunology
expertise and operational experience as we continue to leverage our
proprietary iPSC product platform and bring our pipeline of
universal, off-the-shelf NK cell and T-cell product candidates to
patients.”
Prior to joining Gritstone in April 2016, Dr. Jooss served as
head of Cancer Immunotherapeutics and Immunopharmacology at Pfizer,
Inc. While at Pfizer, she built and led immuno-oncology teams
within the Vaccine Immunotherapeutics department, was a member of
the Vaccine Immunotherapeutics leadership team, and served as the
head of the Immunopharmacology team. She launched Pfizer's first
clinical cancer-vaccine program deploying a variety of vaccine
platforms and immune modulators to build multi-component
vaccine-based immunotherapy regimens. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr.
Jooss was at Cell Genesys from July 2001 to April 2009, most
recently as Vice President of Research.
“Fate Therapeutics is at an exciting inflection point, advancing
the first-ever iPSC-derived cell product into clinical development
in the U.S.,” said Dr. Jooss. “The Company has built a deep
pipeline of off-the-shelf cellular immunotherapies that can be
delivered using novel multi-dose, multi-cycle treatment regimens
and which are designed to synergize with well-established agents,
such as checkpoint inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies. I am
delighted to be joining the Company’s Board of Directors and to
help bring these first-of-kind cell-based cancer immunotherapies to
patients.”
Dr. Jooss received her diploma in theoretical medicine and a
Ph.D. in molecular biology and immunology from the University of
Marburg in Germany, and performed postgraduate work in gene therapy
and immunology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is on the
editorial board of Molecular Therapy and the Journal of Gene
Medicine and is a member of the Immunology and Educational
Committee of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy and
the Industry Task Force of the Society for Immunotherapy of
Cancer.
About Fate Therapeutics’ iPSC Product
PlatformThe Company’s proprietary induced pluripotent stem
cell (iPSC) product platform enables mass production of
off-the-shelf, engineered, homogeneous cell products that can be
administered in repeat doses to mediate more effective
pharmacologic activity, including in combination with cycles of
other cancer treatments. Human iPSCs possess the unique dual
properties of unlimited self-renewal and differentiation potential
into all cell types of the body. The Company’s first-of-kind
approach involves engineering human iPSCs in a one-time genetic
modification event and selecting a single iPSC for maintenance as a
clonal master iPSC line. Analogous to master cell lines used to
manufacture biopharmaceutical drug products such as monoclonal
antibodies, clonal master iPSC lines are a renewable source for
manufacturing cell therapy products which are well-defined and
uniform in composition, can be mass produced at significant scale
in a cost-effective manner, and can be delivered off-the-shelf to
treat many patients. As a result, the Company’s platform is
uniquely capable of addressing the limitations associated with the
production of cell therapies using patient- or donor-sourced cells,
which is logistically complex and expensive and is fraught with
batch-to-batch and cell-to-cell variability that can affect safety
and efficacy. Fate Therapeutics’ iPSC product platform is supported
by an intellectual property portfolio of over 100 issued patents
and 100 pending patent applications.
About Fate Therapeutics, Inc. Fate Therapeutics
is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the
development of first-in-class cellular immunotherapies for cancer
and immune disorders. The Company is pioneering the development of
off-the-shelf cell products using its proprietary induced
pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) product platform. The Company’s
immuno-oncology pipeline is comprised of FATE-NK100, a
donor-derived natural killer (NK) cell cancer immunotherapy that is
currently being evaluated in three Phase 1 clinical trials, as well
as iPSC-derived NK cell and T-cell immunotherapies, with a focus on
developing next-generation cell products intended to synergize with
checkpoint inhibitor and monoclonal antibody therapies and to
target tumor-associated antigens. The Company’s immuno-regulatory
pipeline includes ProTmune™, a pharmacologically modulated, donor
cell graft that is currently being evaluated in a Phase 2 clinical
trial for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease, and a
myeloid-derived suppressor cell immunotherapy for promoting immune
tolerance in patients with immune disorders. Fate Therapeutics is
headquartered in San Diego, CA. For more information, please visit
www.fatetherapeutics.com.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis release contains
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 including statements
regarding the Company’s advancement of and plans related to its
product candidates, and the therapeutic and market potential of the
Company’s product candidates. These and any other forward-looking
statements in this release are based on management's current
expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such
forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include,
but are not limited to, the risk that the Company may cease or
delay preclinical or clinical development of any of its product
candidates for a variety of reasons (including requirements that
may be imposed by regulatory authorities on the initiation or
conduct of clinical trials or to support regulatory approval,
difficulties or delays in subject enrollment in current and planned
clinical trials, difficulties in manufacturing or supplying the
Company’s product candidates for clinical testing, and any adverse
events or other negative results that may be observed during
preclinical or clinical development). For a discussion of other
risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which
could cause the Company’s actual results to differ from those
contained in the forward-looking statements, see the risks and
uncertainties detailed in the Company’s periodic filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to
the Company’s most recently filed periodic report, and from time to
time in the Company’s press releases and other investor
communications. Fate Therapeutics is providing the information
in this release as of this date and does not undertake any
obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in
this release as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Contact: Christina Tartaglia Stern
Investor Relations, Inc. 212.362.1200 christina@sternir.com
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