Asgard Therapeutics Strengthens Scientific Advisory Board with Two Appointments
Lund, Sweden – September 12th, 2023 – Asgard Therapeutics AB (“Asgard”), a private biotech company pioneering in vivo direct reprogramming for cancer immunotherapy, proudly announces the addition of Dr. Ulrich Lauer, MD and Dr. Aurélien Marabelle, MD PhD to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The addition of these two leading experts in clinical immuno-oncology is a timely complement to Asgard’s SAB, given the recent milestone of achieving preclinical proof-of-concept to AT-108 lead program. The SAB’s second annual meeting took place on September 4th at the SmiLe incubator in Medicon Village, Lund.
Cristiana Pires, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Asgard Therapeutics, said: “We greatly appreciate the valuable discussions with our SAB members who were enthusiastic with the thorough progress achieved during the last year. They were highly supportive of our strong pre-clinical package demonstrating proof-of-concept for AT-108 in both ex-vivo translational and in-vivo models, including strong anti-tumor immunity as single agent and complete tumor regressions. The addition of leading clinical experts to our SAB also enabled validation and strategic input to the upcoming IND-enabling studies, associated with Series A closing, and the design of First in Human trial.”
Filipe Pereira, PhD, Co-Founder and Head of Innovation of Asgard Therapeutics, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Ulrich Lauer and Aurelien Marabelle, given their clinical and translational expertise in virotherapies and intra-tumoral immunotherapies. During our second annual SAB meeting, the advisory board, further constituted by Joshua Brody and Johanna Olweus offered broad constructive feedback and strategic recommendations to further improve the development and strategic positioning of our off-the-shelf programs that reprograms tumors in-situ. We eagerly anticipate ongoing collaboration to bring our first-in-class immunotherapy to cancer patients in need.”
Ulrich Lauer, MD
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Lauer is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Tübingen and Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Oncology and Pneumology. He is also a medical oncologist at the German National Center for Tumor Diseases SouthWest (NCT-SW) and heads several clinical initiatives, including the Virotherapy Center Tübingen (VCT), the Early Clinical Trials Unit Tübingen (ECTU), and the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society Center of Excellence Tübingen (ENETS). Ulrich carried out the first German clinical virotherapy trial employing a recombinant oncolytic virus. He graduated from medical school at the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg and completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in oncology at the University of Tübingen. He furthered his expertise through postdoctoral training at the Department of Virology at Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Germany, and specialized in virotherapy of solid tumors and gene therapy of monogenetic diseases.
Aurélien Marabelle, MD PhD
Prof. Aurélien Marabelle is a physician-scientist with expertise in oncology (MD) and immunology (PhD). His clinical practice is dedicated to early phase clinical trials of cancer immunotherapies within the Drug Development Department (DITEP) of Gustave Roussy Cancer Center in France. He leads a translational research laboratory (LRTI) with a focus on mechanisms of action of immune targeted therapies. He is also the director of the Clinical Investigation Center BIOTHERIS dedicated to intratumoral immunotherapies. He is a full professor of Clinical Immunology at the University of Paris Saclay. Dr Marabelle was initially trained as a scientist at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon and King’s College London and as a clinician at the Léon Bérard Cancer Center in Lyon, France. He did his post-doctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Prof Ronald Levy at Stanford University on strategies to overcome the resistance to immune checkpoint therapies. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, with an H-index of 60.
Second in-person meeting of scientific advisory board. Top row from left to right: Lars Hedbys (Asgard’s ’ director), Xavier Catena (Asgard ), Ulrich Lauer (University Hospital Tübingen, SAB member), André Rosa (Asgard), Johanna Olweus (Oslo University Hospital, SAB member), Ervin Ascic (Asgard). Middle row from left to right: Jonas Jendi (Asgard’s director, Industrifonden), Martin Bonde (Asgard chair of the board), Emilie Renaud (Asgard), Joshua Brody (Mount Sinai, SAB member), Filipe Pereira (Asgard, chair of the SAB), Iveta Mikalajūnaitė (Asgard). Bottom row from left to right: Philipp Müller (Asgard director, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund), Cristiana Pires (Asgard ), Fábio Rosa (Asgard), Xiaoli Huang (Asgard).
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.