Asgard Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Three Members to its Newly Formed Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)
Lund, Sweden, November 9th 2022 – Asgard Therapeutics AB (“Asgard”), a private biotech company pioneering in vivo direct reprogramming approaches for cancer immunotherapy, today announces appointment of Axel Schambach, MD PhD, Johanna Olweus, MD PhD, and Joshua Brody, MD, to its newly formed scientific advisory board (SAB). The SAB will serve as a strategic resource to Asgard as it continues to develop its gene delivery program to reinstate anti-tumor immunity. The SAB inaugural meeting was held in Lund on 24th October, at SmiLe incubator, Medicon Village.
Cristiana Pires, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Asgard Therapeutics, said: “We are delighted with the addition of these lead experts to our team of advisors. The SAB members have a deep background and experience in basic and translational immune-oncology, development of cancer immunotherapies both in exploring antigen presentation and T-cell approaches, gene delivery platforms, reprogramming, preclinical and clinical trial design. This collective breath of knowledge is going to be invaluable as we move our gene delivery program into more advanced pre-clinical stages”.
Filipe Pereira, PhD, Co-Founder and Head of Innovation of Asgard Therapeutics, commented: “The launch of Asgard’s SAB, which I proudly chair, underscores our commitment to developing our off-the-shelf product that reprograms tumors in-situ and kick starts personalize anti-tumor immune responses. On our recent inaugural SAB meeting, we were happy to leverage the expertise of these highly accomplished advisors in a productive day of strategic discussions, and we are looking forward to working together to expedite our long-term goal of improving cancer patients’ lives”.
Axel Schambach, MD PhD
Axel Schambach is the Director and Full Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Institute of Experimental Hematology at Hannover Medical School. His research focuses on the investigation of the biology of blood cell formation and function with a primary focus on genetic cell modification as a new therapeutic modality. Axel is also a Visiting Scientist and Lecturer at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is the lead author on more than 320 scientific papers, is the inventor of several patents for gene therapy vector systems, and has received multiple awards, including ERC Consolidator and ESGCT Young Investigator Award.
Johanna Olweus, MD PhD
Johanna Olweus is Head of the Department of Cancer Immunology at the Oslo University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center and a Full Professor at the University of Oslo. Her research group is focusing on translational studies of T cell-based cancer immunotherapies, focusing on the identification of novel immune receptors for application in gene- and cell therapies. She was Director of the K.G. Jebsen Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, and will be co-Director of a Center of Excellence in cancer immunotherapy awarded by the Norwegian Research Council, starting in 2023. She was awarded an ERC Consolidator grant, her work has been published in top-tier journals, and she is the inventor of several patents.
Joshua Brody, MD
Joshua Brody is the Director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai and a member of the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer, among others. Dr. Brody has developed a robust clinical program, as well as a translational Cancer Immunotherapy Lab which investigates basic and applied tumor immunology for the development of novel therapies with results published in top-tier journals. Dr. Brody has pioneered a therapeutic vaccine approach—in situ vaccination—that activates professional antigen presenting cells to induce anti-tumor immunity at the tumor site and in addition can cause regression of tumors throughout the body.
In-person meeting of the newly formed scientific advisory board. Top row from left to right: Fábio Rosa (Asgard Therapeutics), Philipp Müller (Asgard Therapeutics’ director, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund), João Ribas (Asgard Therapeutics’ director, Novo Holdings), Lars Hedbys (Asgard Therapeutics’ director). Middle row from left to right: Fritiof Åkerström (Asgard Therapeutics), Michele Tavecchio (Asgard Therapeutics), André Rosa (Asgard Therapeutics), Martin Bonde (Asgard Therapeutics’ chair of the board), Johanna Olweus (Oslo University Hospital, SAB member). Bottom row from left to right: Axel Schambach (Hannover Medical School, SAB member), Emilie Renaud (Asgard Therapeutics), Xiaoli Huang (Asgard Therapeutics), Cristiana Pires (Asgard Therapeutics), Filipe Pereira (Asgard Therapeutics, chair of the SAB).
For more information:
Asgard Therapeutics
Cristiana Pires, Co-founder, and CEO
+46 (0) 731 566 072
cristiana.pires@asgardthx.com
About Asgard Therapeutics
Asgard Therapeutics is a private biotech company exploring the application of direct cell reprogramming technologies for cancer immunotherapies. Formed as a spin-off from Lund University, the Company is pioneering a gene therapy approach based on its proprietary reprogramming technology, designed to set in motion immune responses based on the biological properties of professional antigen-presenting cells. Backed by Novo Holdings, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, and Industrifonden, Asgard Therapeutics aims to build a pipeline of personalized cancer immunotherapies optimized for each unique patient. For more information, please visit: www.asgardthx.com.