ST. LOUIS, Nov. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Wugen Inc., a biotechnology company developing a novel, universal allogeneic CAR-T therapy platform, today announced the appointment of Ryan Sullivan, Ph.D., as Vice President and Head of NK Research. Dr. Sullivan will be overseeing Wugen’s Natural Killer (NK) Cell-based therapy programs targeting leukemias and lymphomas, including Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Multiple Myeloma (MM).
“Ryan has a deep understanding of Natural Killer cells and a decade of outstanding oncology research experience. We are pleased to welcome a highly experienced talent of Ryan’s caliber to our team,” said John McKearn, Ph.D., CEO of Wugen. “Ryan is joining us at an exciting time, as we are ramping up our initiatives to strengthen and diversify our therapeutic platform targeting leukemias and lymphomas and dedicating our research to help change the lives of patients with chronic, untreatable diseases.”
Dr. Sullivan added “I am delighted to join Wugen’s impressive team and look forward to leading the company’s NK research programs. Natural Killer cells have shown a great deal of promise in the treatment of cancer and we plan to develop this new cellular therapy to its full potential.”
Prior to joining Wugen, Dr. Sullivan was a Principal Scientist and Investigator at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where he led a group responsible for developing drugs to improve the anti-cancer response of natural killer cells, overseeing the progression of a portfolio of therapeutics across multiple mechanisms of action. Dr. Sullivan performed his post-doctoral research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Glenn Dranoff and received his Ph.D. in Immunology from Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Sullivan has published extensively on natural killer cells and has multiple patent applications related to the use of natural killer cells in cancer treatment.
About Wugen
Wugen Inc., is a biotechnology company developing a novel CAR-T therapy platform including an “off-the-shelf” fratricide-resistant CAR-T cell therapy for T-cell malignancies. Wugen’s state-of-the-art gene editing technologies and cutting-edge CAR-T cell therapy address some of the challenges that have limited the clinical development of allogeneic CAR-T cells. Wugen was founded based on technology licensed from Washington University in St. Louis. For more information please visit www.wugen.com.
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SOURCE Wugen Inc.
