Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Hinrich Abken is Professor and holds the Chair for Genetic Immunotherapy at the Regensburg University and is director at the Center for Interventional Immunology (RCI) where he is working towards the development of adoptive cell therapy of malignant diseases using engineered T cells. Dr. Abken studied medicine at Essen University, doctoral thesis at the Institute for Molecular Biology, and was post-doc at the Institute for Cell Biology (Prof Rajewsky). He received his venia legendi in Genetics and Immunology from the Faculty of Science of the Rheinische Wilhelms Universität Bonn where he was group leader at the Institute for Genetics. In 1993, he became C3 University Professor for Tumor Genetics at the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne and was member of the CMMC with an Independent Research Group. In June 2018, Dr Abken joined the RCI and the University Regensburg. Prof. Abken’s current research is aimed at improving T cell targeting of cancer, at developing novel strategies in modulating an immune response and at translating the T cell strategy into clinical trials.

Ann Ager is Professor of Cellular Immunity and Immunotherapy in the Division of Infection and Immunity, School of Medicine and Theme Lead for Inflammation in the Systems Immunity Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.

The Ager lab studies how T lymphocytes move around the body to protect against infection, control cancer growth and contribute to neurodegeneration such as in Alzheimer’s disease. Current studies are manipulating expression of L-selectin and other homing molecules on cancer-killing T lymphocytes, such as CAR T cells, to improve their ability to seek out and destroy solid cancers.

As Chair Forum and a Trustee of the British Society for Immunology (BSI) and Council member of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS), Ann is an advocate for Immunology to governments and other policy makers.

Prof. John Campbell has over 25 years’ experience in T cell therapeutics in the academic sector, development of reagents and manufacturing strategies in the biotech industry and delivery of novel therapies in the healthcare sector. He holds academic appointments in Edinburgh and Glasgow and leads a substantial cellular therapeutics development and manufacturing programme.

Jean-Christophe Marine obtained his PhD from the University of Liège, (Belgium in 1996), and was a Howard Hugues Medical Institute Fellow at the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis, USA, 1996-99). He was a Marie Curie Fellow at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO, Milan, Italy, 2000-2003). He became a junior VIB Group leader in 2004 at the University of Ghent (Belgium) and moved his laboratory to the University of Leuven (KULeuven) in 2010 where he is now Professor, senior VIB group leader and Director of the VIB center for Cancer Biology. He received several national and international prizes for his work on p53 modifiers and melanoma biology. His interests focus on the mechanisms by which cancer-specific non-mutational (i.e. epigenetic and post-transcriptional) events modulate tumor initiation, progression and therapy outcome.

Dr. Marco Davila is a medical oncologist that specializes in the treatment of patients with cell therapies. He received his medical degree from Duke University and medical training at the New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His clinical focus is on hematologic malignancies such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia, B cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (B-ALL), and Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He is appointed as an Associate Member in the Departments of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Immunotherapy, as well as Immunology. He serves as the Medical Director of the Cell Therapy Facility overseeing cell manipulation and production for patient use, either investigative or as standard of care. His current research is dedicated to developing and/or improving gene-engineered cell therapies that target cancer.

Professor Gerry Graham is holder of the Gardiner Chair of Immunology at the University of Glasgow and is a world expert in the study of chemokines and their receptors. He has over 30 years’ experience working in this area and publishes widely in highest quality international journals and is a regular invitee to major international conferences. He is currently chair of the Wellcome Trust Expert Review Group in the Immune System in Health and Disease and has been involved with numerous other national and international funding agencies. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and recipient of a Wolfson Royal Society Research Merit Award.

Dr. Margo Roberts, Ph.D., has more than three decades of biomedical research experience in both biotechnology and academia. Dr Roberts is currently Chief Scientist Officer at Lyell Immunotherapy. She serves also on the board of directors of Unity Biotechnology, a United States public company focused on developing medicines that slow or reverse age-associated diseases, and on the board of directors of InsTIL Bio, a United States start-up company focused on developing Timor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) – based therapies for the treatment of cancer. Until July 2018, Dr. Roberts served as Senior Vice President of Discovery Research at Kite Pharma focusing on the development of next generation therapeutic approaches, including heading up Kite’s universal allogeneic T-cell programs. Prior that, in 2013, she was Chief Scientific Officer at Kite Pharma Inc., where she built a talented research organization that played an instrumental role in the successful development of Yescarta®, and the clinical advancement of additional CAR/TCR-engineered T-cell therapies. Prior to her tenure at Kite Pharma, Dr. Roberts was Principal Scientist and Director of Immune and Cell Therapy at Cell Genesys, Inc., where she led the development and application of CAR technology to T-cells and stem cells, culminating in the very first CAR T-cell trial initiated in 1994. Dr. Roberts was also an associate professor at the University of Virginia, has authored over 30 scientific publications, and is the inventor on 13 issued US patents and three published US patent applications related to CAR technology and tumor vaccine therapies. Dr. Roberts received both her Bachelor of Science degree with honors and her Ph.D. degree from the University of Leeds in England. Dr. Roberts has left the Board of Directors in August 2020 to join the Scientific Advisory Board of the Company.