UN
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The fight against cancer is our life’s work. We’re united by a shared purpose and fueled by our determination to maximize the therapeutic potential of T cells for cancers.
The fight against cancer is our life’s work. We’re united by a shared purpose and fueled by our determination to maximize the therapeutic potential of T cells for cancers.
For over 30 years, Dr. Carl June and his team have been leaders in the field of immunological research, with a particular focus on the development of novel immune cell therapies. After developing the first CAR* T cells for HIV in the 1990s, they turned their attention to cancer, which helped lead to the first FDA-approved CAR-T therapy, for hematologic cancers.
At Tmunity, our scientific co-founders’ dedication, expertise, and collaborative approach has positioned the company to advance T cell medicine for all cancers.
*CAR = chimeric antigen receptor.
Tmunity and the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Carl June, MD, have a unique collaborative relationship that infuses our company with the innovative spirit of an academic research center.
The foundational collaboration, announced in 2015, includes options and license(s) to certain cell engineering and manufacturing technologies, invented and developed in Penn laboratories with deep domain expertise in cell therapies. This partnership enables Tmunity to efficiently apply cutting-edge insights gained in the labs to further the development of next generation T cell therapies for various cancers and facilitate their rapid clinical testing.
It is everything, to see a kid die of cancer, it breaks your heart. It motivates all of us, every day.
Dr. Carl June is a pioneer in CAR T cell therapy and currently serves as the Richard W. Vague Professor of Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania. The CAR T cells invented in the June laboratory were awarded “Breakthrough Therapy” status by the FDA for acute leukemia in children and adults in 2014 and were approved by the FDA for acute leukemia in 2017 and afterwards, for diffuse large B cell lymphoma.
It is everything, to see a kid die of cancer, it breaks your heart. It motivates all of us, every day.
Dr. June has published more than 500 manuscripts and is the recipient of numerous honors, including recognition by the White House (on several occasions) and election to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
We have the experience, the procedures, and the facilities to establish T cell therapy as a new pillar of medicine.
Dr. Bruce Levine currently serves as the Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy and is the Founding Director of the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility (CVPF) in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Levine has led several first-in-human clinical trials employing adoptive immunotherapy, including the first use of a lentiviral vector, the first infusions of gene-edited cells, and the first use of lentivirally modified cells to treat cancer. Dr. Levine is co-inventor on 30 issued U.S. patents, including the first FDA-approved gene therapy (Kymriah), a chimeric antigen receptor T cells medication for the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma, licensed to Novartis. He is a Co-Founder of Tmunity Therapeutics and Capstan Therapeutics, both which are spinouts from the University of Pennsylvania.
We have the experience, the procedures, and the facilities to establish T cell therapy as a new pillar of medicine.
Dr. Levine serves as Immediate Past-President of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy and is a recipient of the William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award, the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation, and the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match ONE Forum 2020 Dennis Confer Innovate Award. Dr. Levine has authored >200 manuscripts and book chapters and has a Google Scholar citation h-index of 100. He has written for Scientific American and Wired and has been interviewed by the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, National Geographic, Bloomberg, Forbes, BBC, and other international media outlets. Dr. Levine received a BA in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from Johns Hopkins University.
We’ve trained the immune system to recognize and kill tumor cells.
Dr. James L. Riley is a Professor of Microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an expert in cell biology and the therapeutic use of primary human T cells. Over the past 23 years, his lab at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a number of T cell–based therapies for the treatment of HIV, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. He is currently leading a Beyond HAART initiative that, among other studies, proposes to infuse HIV resistant CD4 T cells.
We’ve trained the immune system to recognize and kill tumor cells.
Dr. Riley also co-leads a Martin Delaney Collaboratory (BEAT-HIV) that is proposing combination immunotherapy to cure HIV. As an officer in the U.S. Army, he received postdoctoral training in Dr. Carl June’s laboratory, where he developed an interest in T cell signaling pathways and therapeutic uses of primary human T cells. Dr. Riley graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BS in Molecular Biology, studying Dictyostelium discoideum, and subsequently earned his PhD from Emory University in Dr. Jeremy Boss’ laboratory, studying the gene regulation of Major Histocompatibility Complex class II genes.
We call our modified T cells ‘serial killers’—each one has the potential to kill over a thousand different tumor cells.
Dr. Anne Chew is the Chief Operating and Strategic Officer for the University of Pennsylvania Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (CCI). She is responsible for overall strategic and operational leadership of all CCI-sponsored research programs and translational development initiatives in cell and gene therapy. Since 2006, she has served in senior regulatory, clinical operations, manufacturing operations, and translational science roles at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Chew has more than 15 years of translational research and development experience in both industry and academic settings. Dr. Chew received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College–Columbia University and her PhD in Genetics from the Yale School of Medicine.
We call our modified T cells ‘serial killers’—each one has the potential to kill over a thousand different tumor cells.
Dr. Yangbing Zhao is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CSO of UTC Therapeutics Inc. Prior to co-founding UTC Therapeutics, Dr. Zhao served as Director of the T Cell Engineering Laboratory (TCEL) and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Zhao’s research and development work has led to multiple clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors with genetically engineered T cells against mesothelioma, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer and glioblastoma. Before he joined the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Zhao was a senior research fellow in the lab of Dr. Steven Rosenberg at the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute, where his research directly led to clinical trials for the treatment of cancer with TCR- or CAR-engineered T cells against NY-ESO-1, Her2/Neu, CD19 or VEGFR. Prior to this,
Dr. Zhao was a research associate at Duke University Medical Center, where he worked on RNA-transfected dendritic cell vaccines against tumors. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Zhao was a visiting scientist at The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, where he studied tolerance induction through genetically engineered T cells for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Dr. Zhao received an MD and PhD in Immunology from the Third Medical University in Chongqing, China.
We are driven to completely transform the future of CAR-T therapies and make cures a reality for patients living with cancer.
Mr. Kango is an experienced executive with more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He has been instrumental in successfully transforming earlier-stage organizations into later-stage development and commercial global biotech companies. Prior to Tmunity, Mr. Kango served as Chief Commercial Officer at Acceleron Pharma, where he played a key role in the company’s $11.5 billion acquisition by Merck.
We are driven to completely transform the future of CAR-T therapies and make cures a reality for patients living with cancer.
His other previous roles included Vice President of Global Commercial Development for oncology at AbbVie, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, and several leadership positions at Onyx, Merck, Ortho-Biotech, and Schering-Plough. Mr. Kango currently serves as a member on the Boards of Directors of MEI Pharma and Infinity Pharmaceuticals.
Our collective faith in the power of T cells drives our passion and our urgency—we know we have something.
Vijay Reddy Peddareddigari, MD, is the Chief Research & Development Officer at Tmunity. Dr Reddy is a highly experienced executive who has been developing transformative cancer therapies for over 12 years. Dr. Reddy’s research focus includes oncology targeted molecules, immuno-oncology, and cell therapy. Previously, he was the Chief Medical Officer at Autolus Ltd, where he developed the CAR T cell clinical program with several first-in-class targets. Prior to Autolus, he held pivotal roles and had the responsibility to advance new therapies at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and GlaxoSmithKline. His work helped gain marketing authorizations for Mekinist (Trametinib) for melanoma, Tafinlar (Dabrafenib) for lung cancer, and Balversa (Erdafitinib) for bladder cancer.
Our collective faith in the power of T cells drives our passion and our urgency—we know we have something.
He is credited for several scientific publications and patent filings. Dr Reddy was also an adjunct faculty member in thoracic oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Sri Venkateshwara Medical College, and a Doctor of Medicine in Biochemistry from All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He completed a Residency in Internal Medicine at the Albert Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, and a fellowship in Medical Oncology, at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
At Tmunity, we are united by the fact that we all care deeply about the patients.
Dr. Karen Chagin is highly experienced in clinical development including extensive experience in cellular therapy. She spent nearly a decade building cellular therapy programs from proof of concept to the late-stage clinical setting. Previously, Dr. Chagin was Vice President of Clinical Development at Adaptimmune LLC, where she was responsible for the strategy and execution of global clinical development programs studying novel engineered T-cell receptor therapies in cancers on a global platform. Prior to that, she served as a Scientific Director in Oncology Early Development at Janssen leading development activities for Phase 1 assets. Dr. Chagin began her career in the pharmaceutical industry at GlaxoSmithKline. As Medical Director in clinical development at GSK, she was responsible for the development and execution of multiple Phase 2 and 3 clinical studies in a variety of solid and hematologic malignancies. Dr. Chagin also led and contributed to the registration of several oncology products and indications globally.
At Tmunity, we are united by the fact that we all care deeply about the patients.
Dr. Chagin trained as a pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and holds and MD from Temple University School of Medicine.
We are driven to completely transform the future of CAR-T therapies and make cures a reality for patients living with cancer.
Mr. Kango is an experienced executive with more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He has been instrumental in successfully transforming earlier-stage organizations into later-stage development and commercial global biotech companies. Prior to Tmunity, Mr. Kango served as Chief Commercial Officer at Acceleron Pharma, where he played a key role in the company’s $11.5 billion acquisition by Merck.
We are driven to completely transform the future of CAR-T therapies and make cures a reality for patients living with cancer.
His other previous roles included Vice President of Global Commercial Development for oncology at AbbVie, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, and several leadership positions at Onyx, Merck, Ortho-Biotech, and Schering-Plough. Mr. Kango currently serves as a member on the Boards of Directors of MEI Pharma and Infinity Pharmaceuticals.
Jorge Conde was elected to the board in 2019.
Mr. Conde is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) where he leads investments at the cross section of biology, computer science, and engineering. Prior to joining a16z, Mr. Conde served as Chief Strategy Officer for Syros (NASDAQ: SYRS), which is advancing a new wave of medicines that control expression of disease-driving genes to treat cancer and other diseases. He previously served as the company’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Product Officer, leading the platform strategy for Syros’ novel gene regulation technology. Mr. Conde also
cofounded Knome, a human genome interpretation company acquired by Tute Genomics in 2015. Earlier in his career, Mr. Conde worked in marketing and operations at MedImmune and as a biotechnology investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Conde holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and a BA in Biology from Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Conde was named one of the top 35 young innovators in the world by the MIT Technology Review and is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He previously served on the board of the Museum of Science, Boston.
Patrick Gray was elected to the board in 2019.
Mr. Gray is a board member and chair of the Audit Committee at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Lexington, Massachusetts–based biopharmaceutical company that is traded on NASDAQ. He brings extensive experience in accounting and financial reporting to our board of directors, having spent more than 37 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) until his retirement in 2009. He is a Certified Public Accountant who spent 25 years as an Audit Partner, serving clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies and multinational companies to rapid-growth companies pursuing an initial public offering. At the time of his retirement, he served as the lead partner for the PwC U.S. firm Corporate Governance Group.
Prior to that time, he held various other leadership positions with the firm, including leadership of the Price Waterhouse High Tech Group. He previously served on the boards of directors of Civitas Solutions, Inc., and Datto, Inc. Mr. Gray has been selected to serve on our board of directors because of his extensive experience in accounting, auditing, and financial reporting. Mr. Gray holds a BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Judith Li was elected to the board in 2018.
Ms. Li is a Partner with Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV). Prior to joining LAV, she worked at McKinsey and Company’s New York office, focusing exclusively on pharmaceutical and medical devices, health insurance, and health care provider engagements.
She also worked at Partners Healthcare, Harvard University’s umbrella hospital network, where she focused on hospital administration, and co-founded a start-up focused on interventional nephrology. Ms. Li holds a Bachelor’s in biology from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard University Business School.
Garry Nicholson was elected to the board in 2019.
Mr. Nicholson is Chair of G1 Therapeutics. Most recently, he served as president and chief executive officer of XTuit Pharmaceuticals, where he also was a member of the board of directors. Prior to XTuit, Mr. Nicholson was president of Pfizer Oncology and was responsible for global commercialization and sales, clinical development and regulatory strategy, and business development. Prior to Pfizer,
Mr. Nicholson also held various leadership positions in the oncology division of Eli Lilly and Company. He currently serves on the board of directors of G1 Therapeutics, Inc., Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc., SQZ Biotechnologies, and Personal Genome Diagnostics. He was on the board of TESARO, Inc., which was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in 2018. Mr. Nicholson holds an MBA from the University of South Carolina and earned his BS in pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Sean Parker was elected to the board in 2018.
Mr. Parker is a philanthropist and entrepreneur with a record of launching genre-defining companies. He is the founder and chairman of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), the president of the Parker Foundation, and founder of the Economic Innovation Group. PICI was founded in 2016 and builds on Mr. Parker’s leadership in funding and promoting research into the relationship between the immune
system and cancer. In the ensuing years, PICI has evolved into a leader in the immunotherapy field for cutting edge research collaboration and clinical development, including funding a landmark human trial using CRISPR technology. In addition to cancer research, Mr. Parker has led many initiatives that revolutionized the civic and social landscape. He was the co-founder of Napster at age 19 and of Plaxo at 21. In 2004 he partnered with Mark Zuckerberg to found Facebook and served as its first president.
Beth Seidenberg, MD, was elected to the board in 2018.
Dr. Seidenberg is a founding managing director of Westlake Village BioPartners and a general partner at Kleiner Perkins, a leading venture capital firm. A longtime life sciences investor, she has incubated-invested more than 20 biotech ventures. Dr. Seidenberg has a demonstrated ability to identify and accelerate medically meaningful molecules through development. Her expertise is grounded in her significant senior level industry experience with leadership roles at Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck Research Laboratories.
Most recently, at Amgen, Dr. Seidenberg was chief medical officer and head of global development. Dr. Seidenberg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and anthropology from Barnard College and attended medical school at the University of Miami School of Medicine. She completed her medical residency at Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University, and Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.
Li Ming was elected to the board in 2022
Li Ming currently serves as general manager at Ping An Ventures, where he focuses on direct investment in the healthcare technolgoy sector with an emphasis on pre-IPO companines. Previously, Mr. Li was an investment director at Fosun Capital from 2015-2017, where he focused on healthcare and technology investment, and served at Ernst & Young from 2009-2014. Mr. Li earned his undergraduate degree from Sichuan Unversity in China and holds an MBA from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.