Adicet’s mission is to deliver best-in-class gamma delta T cell therapies for patients fighting cancer
Leadership
Chen Schor
President and Chief Executive Officer
Chen Schor is President and CEO of Adicet Bio, a leader in the field of gamma-delta CAR T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. With more than 25 years of global biopharmaceutical leadership experience, he has led several biotech companies across all stages, from formation, to early-stage discovery, to publicly traded multi-product companies with significant industry partnerships.
Mr. Schor has led strategic transactions valued at over $8 billion with companies such as GSK, Amgen, Pfizer, Merck KGaA and equity financing totaling more than $500 million. He led the turnaround of Synta Pharmaceuticals and its reverse merger with Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: MDGL), served as Vice President, Global Branded Business Development and Pipeline Management at Teva Pharmaceuticals and in leadership positions at several emerging private and public companies. Mr. Schor was a Partner at Yozma Venture Capital where he led the foundation and growth of multiple therapeutic companies from inception to significant commercial success and exit.
He is a board member with the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy, a non-for-profit organization committed to advancing new cancer cell and gene therapies, Chairman of the Board of Carbon Biosciences, a gene therapy company, and board member with Karyopharm Therapeutics, a commercial stage oncology company.
Mr. Schor holds a MBA, a B.A. in Biology, a B.A. in Economics and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Blake Aftab, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Aftab joined Adicet Bio in April 2021 with nearly 20 years of rich experience in academia, biotech and pharmaceutical industries developing multiple therapeutic modalities including small molecules, biologics, antibody-drug conjugates and cell therapies through all stages drug development. He joins Adicet from Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded immunotherapy company, where, as Vice President and Head of Preclinical Science and Translational Medicine, he contributed to the company’s initial transition to cell therapy and led the focus on developing Allo-CAR T cell capabilities. Previously, Dr. Aftab led multiple research programs at University of California, San Francisco focused on drug discovery and clinical translation in multiple myeloma, including early research supporting targeted approaches for CD38 and other impactful targets of interest for CAR-T therapies. Dr. Aftab received his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and holds a B.Sc. in Pharmacology and Drug Discovery, from The University of California, Santa Barbara.
Francesco Galimi, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Galimi joined Adicet in September 2019 as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. He joined Adicet from Amgen, Inc., where he served as Global Program General Manager, Early Development. During his tenure at Amgen, he was responsible for the cross-functional strategy and execution of a portfolio of oncology programs, from pre-IND to late-stage. While at Amgen, he also served in a number of roles of increasing responsibility in clinical research and early development. Prior to Amgen, Dr. Galimi was the Head of Clinical Development at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he led the Oncology Clinical Development Group. He also served in leadership roles at GNF/Novartis leading the early development of a portfolio of oncology programs. Dr. Galimi holds a M.D. from the University of Torino Medical School with a specialty certification in Medical Oncology, and a Ph.D. from the University of Torino Medical School.
Nancy Boman, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Regulatory Officer
Dr. Nancy Boman is Chief Regulatory Officer of Adicet Bio. With nearly 30 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry most recently in the cell and gene therapy space, Dr. Boman has expertise in Regulatory strategy and operations, clinical development and CMC. She has led more than 15 drug marketing applications in various indications including in hematologic malignancies, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and in solid tumors.
Before joining Adicet, Dr. Boman served as Chief Regulatory Officer at Encoded Therapeutics where she built and oversaw all aspects of the Regulatory and QA departments for the company’s gene therapy candidates. Prior to that, Dr. Boman served as Chief Regulatory Officer at AveXis Inc. (now Novartis Gene Therapies) and has also held senior positions in regulatory affairs and clinical development at Alder BioPharmaceuticals, Cell Therapeutics, Genentech, and Amgen.
Dr. Boman received her M.D. in Human Medicine, her Ph.D. in Biochemistry, and B.Sc. in General Science from The University of British Columbia.
Don Healey, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Healey joined Adicet in October 2020 as Chief Technology Officer with nearly two decades of experience in cell therapy development and manufacturing. He joins Adicet most recently from KBI Biopharma Inc., a biopharmaceutical contract services organization, where he was responsible for establishing process development, manufacturing, quality control and facilities management for biopharmaceutical clients developing cellular therapies. Previously, he served as Chief Scientific Officer at Opexa Therapeutics, Inc., where he was responsible for all pre-clinical scientific development, closed-system process design and the scaling of Opexa's autologous T-cell immunotherapy. Dr. Healey has also served as Director of Immunology at Argos Therapeutics Inc. and Group leader for Immunology at ML Laboratories, UK, (formerly Cobra Biotherapeutics). Dr. Healey received his Ph.D. from University of London, and holds a B.Sc. in Cellular Pathology from Bristol University.
Nick Harvey
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Harvey has served as Chief Financial Officer for Adicet since September 2020. He has more than 20 years of experience in building and financing life science and technology businesses. Most recently, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Centrexion Therapeutics, a privately held biotech. Previously, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Radius Health for over ten years. At Radius, he helped the company successfully complete its initial public offering in 2014 and transition from research and development to commercialization. During his tenure at Radius, he oversaw financial operations, business development, legal, facilities, and information technology. Prior to that, he was Managing Director at Shiprock Capital, a venture capital firm, where he managed investments and development of early and expansion-stage companies. Mr. Harvey received his MBA from Harvard Business School, and earned both a law degree and an undergraduate degree in Economics from the Australian National University.
Amy Locke
Head of Human Resources
Amy Locke is Head of Human Resources of Adicet Bio. As the Company advances its broad pipeline and is poised for significant growth, Ms Locke is leading Adicet’s talent acquisition, retention and development efforts.
With nearly 30 years’ experience in cross functional leadership and senior HR roles at both startup and mature life sciences companies, Ms Locke specializes in building the HR function in rapidly evolving organizations with an eye toward organizational development, leadership team optimization, talent acquisition and retention, training and development, and culture-building.
She has served in various HR, commercial learning and organizational development roles at Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Natera, ZS Pharma, InterMune and Allakos.
Ms Locke earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of North Texas and has certifications in Organizational Development, Leadership Development and Human Capital Strategy.
Board of Directors
Jeffrey A. Chodakewitz, M.D.
Director
Steve Dubin
Director
Carl L. Gordon, Ph.D.
Director
Aya Jakobovits, Ph.D.
Founder, Director, Senior Strategic Advisor
Michael G. Kauffman M.D., Ph.D.
Director
Bastiano Sanna, Ph.D.
Director
Chen Schor
Director, President and Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Sinclair, Ph.D.
Director
Jeffrey A. Chodakewitz, M.D.
Director
Dr. Chodakewitz has decades of experience holding leadership positions in multiple drug development organizations. Most recently, Dr. Chodakewitz served as Executive Vice President, Clinical Medicine and External Innovation, at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that role, Dr. Chodakewitz held the roles of Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, Global Medicines Development and Medical Affairs at Vertex from November 2014 to April 2018 and was a member of the Vertex Executive Committee. Prior to joining Vertex in 2014, he spent over 20 years at Merck & Co., where he served in a number of positions including Head of Infectious Diseases and Vaccines Global Development, Senior Vice President of Global Scientific Strategy (Infectious Disease, Respiratory & Immunology) and Senior Vice President of Late Stage Development. Prior to Merck, he served in academic positions at Yale University School of Medicine and New York University’s Bellevue Medical Center. Dr. Chodakewitz currently serves on the board of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (TTPH). He holds a B.S in Biochemistry cum laude from Yale University and an M.D. from the Yale University School of Medicine.
Steve Dubin
Director
Mr. Dubin is a Principal in SDA Ventures LLC, a firm focused on assisting emerging growth and middle-market companies, primarily in the health & wellness, functional ingredient, and nutritional products markets, on matters including corporate development, business acquisition, customer relations, growth strategies and corporate finance. Mr. Dubin also serves, in conjunction with SDA Ventures, LLC, as a Senior Advisor to Paine & Partners, LLC, a global private equity investment firm located in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, for the purpose of working with Paine to identify and execute investment opportunities in the global human and animal food and nutritional products industries. In addition, Mr. Dubin is a member of the boards of Alcresta, Inc. and the UCAN Company. He holds a B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, a J.D. from the National Law Center at the George Washington University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Carl L. Gordon, Ph.D.
Director
Carl L. Gordon, Ph.D., CFA, is a founding Partner and Co-Head of Global Private Equity at OrbiMed. Dr. Gordon previously was a senior biotechnology analyst at Mehta and Isaly from 1995 to 1997 and prior to that he was a Fellow at The Rockefeller University from 1993 to 1995. Dr. Gordon was included on the Forbes Midas List of top venture capital investors in 2014. Dr. Gordon received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Harvard College.
Aya Jakobovits, Ph.D.
Founder, Director, Senior Strategic Advisor
Aya Jakobovits founded Adicet in 2014 and served as its President and CEO until February 2018. She served as a Venture Partner at OrbiMed from 2011-2016. Previously, from 2010-2013, Dr. Jakobovits served as the President and Founding CEO of Kite Pharma, Inc., sold in 2017 to Gilead for $11.9 billion. Before joining Kite Pharma, she served as Executive Vice President, Head of Research and Development at Agensys, Inc., an affiliate of Astellas Pharma Inc. Before Agensys acquisition in 2007 in a deal valued at up to $537 million, Dr. Jakobovits served as Agensys’ Senior Vice President, Technology and Corporate Development and Chief Scientific Officer and led its R&D, clinical and corporate development operations. Prior to Agensys, she served as the Director, Discovery Research and Principal Scientist at Abgenix, Inc., which was spun out of Cell Genesys, Inc. and based on the XenoMouse® technology developed under her leadership. Abgenix was acquired by Amgen Inc. for $2.2 billion.
Dr. Jakobovits received her B.Sc. cum laude from the Hebrew university of Jerusalem, her M.Sc. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Life Sciences from the Weizmann Institute of Sciences, Israel, and was a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF and Genentech. Dr. Jakobovits is an author of over 50 scientific publications and inventor of over 120 patents.
She is a Director of UCLA Technology Development Corporation and the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy.
Michael G. Kauffman M.D., Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Kauffman has over 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry, including expertise in preclinical research, clinical development and regulatory strategy. In addition to Adicet, he is a board member for Karyopharm Therapeutics, Verastem Oncology and Kezar Life Sciences. Most recently, Dr. Kauffman served as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Karyopharm, where he guided the Company’s transition from a discovery stage biotechnology company to a commercial stage organization. Prior to joining Karyopharm, Dr. Kauffman was Chief Medical Officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., which acquired Proteolix Inc. Previously, Dr. Kauffman was President and Chief Executive officer of EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (previously Predix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.). Before that, he was the leader of the Velcade® development program at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and has also held a number of senior positions at Millennium Predictive Medicine and Biogen. Dr. Kauffman received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical School and is board certified in Internal Medicine.
Bastiano Sanna, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Sanna serves as Executive Vice President, Chief of Cell and Genetic Therapies at Vertex, where he is responsible for advancing the research, development and manufacturing of all of Vertex’s cell and genetic therapy programs. Previously, Dr. Sanna was Chief Executive Officer of Semma Therapeutics (acquired by Vertex in 2019). Under his leadership, the Company pioneered the development of cell therapy treatments for type 1 diabetes. Prior to that, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Magenta Therapeutics and as the Global Program Head of Stem Cell Transplant and early programs at Novartis, where he oversaw clinical, regulatory, CMC and commercial aspects of programs in bone marrow transplant and CAR-T cell therapies. Dr. Sanna holds a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the University of Sassari.
Chen Schor
Director, President and Chief Executive Officer
Chen Schor is President and CEO of Adicet Bio, a leader in the field of gamma-delta CAR T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. With more than 25 years of global biopharmaceutical leadership experience, he has led several biotech companies across all stages, from formation, to early-stage discovery, to publicly traded multi-product companies with significant industry partnerships.
Mr. Schor has led strategic transactions valued at over $8 billion with companies such as GSK, Amgen, Pfizer, Merck KGaA and equity financing totaling more than $500 million. He led the turnaround of Synta Pharmaceuticals and its reverse merger with Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: MDGL), served as Vice President, Global Branded Business Development and Pipeline Management at Teva Pharmaceuticals and in leadership positions at several emerging private and public companies. Mr. Schor was a Partner at Yozma Venture Capital where he led the foundation and growth of multiple therapeutic companies from inception to significant commercial success and exit.
He is a board member with the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy, a non-for-profit organization committed to advancing new cancer cell and gene therapies, Chairman of the Board of Carbon Biosciences, a gene therapy company, and board member with Karyopharm Therapeutics, a commercial stage oncology company.
Mr. Schor holds a MBA, a B.A. in Biology, a B.A. in Economics and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Andrew Sinclair, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Sinclair is currently a partner and portfolio manager at Abingworth LLP, a life sciences investment group. He has been at Abingworth since 2008 where he has served in various positions focusing on investments in public and private biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Sinclair currently serves on the boards of directors of Soleno Therapeutics, Inc., Sierra Oncology and Verona Pharma plc. Prior to joining Abingworth, he was senior equity analyst, director, at HSBC Global Markets, where he was responsible for investment research in the mid-cap pharmaceutical sector. Previously, Andrew held biotechnology analyst positions at Credit Suisse and SG Cowen. Dr. Sinclair received his B.Sc. in Microbiology from King's College London and his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Genetic Engineering at the BBSRC Institute of Plant Science, Norwich. Andrew qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG.
Scientific Advisory Board
Alice Bertaina, M.D., Ph.D.
SAB
Dr. Bertaina is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics - Stem Cell Transplantation in the department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine and a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University. She is an expert in the field of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in pediatric patients affected by hematological malignancies or nonmalignant disorders. Prior to joining Stanford, she was Head of the Stem Cell Transplant Unit in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Rome. Dr. Bertaina obtained her M.D. degree at the University of Pavia, Italy; fellowship in HSCT at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, and Ph.D. degree in Immunology and Biotechnology at Tor Vergata University in Rome.
Marco Davila, M.D., Ph.D.
SAB
Dr. Davila is a medical oncologist in the Department of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Moffitt Cancer Center. He is a clinical expert with significant experience with gene-engineered T cell therapies. Dr. Davila’s clinical focus is utilizing cell therapies to treat patients with hematologic malignancies. His research has been acknowledged with grants and/or awards from the American Society of Hematology, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Davila obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the Duke University School of Medicine and trained in medicine and medical oncology at NY Presbyterian Weill-Cornell and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, respectively.
Constantine Mitsiades, M.D., Ph.D.
SAB
Dr. Mitsiades is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and his research focuses on understanding and overcoming the mechanisms of tumor cell resistance to pharmacological and immune-based therapies. He received his M.D., Ph.D., and a master’s degree in Basic and Clinical Medical Sciences from the University of Athens, School of Medicine, in Greece. He also received a master’s degree in Medical Sciences from Harvard Medical School.
Michael Kalos, Ph.D.
SAB
Dr. Michael Kalos is an internationally recognized expert in T cell therapy and immunotherapy and brings over 25 years of experience in the fields of cell therapy, oncology vaccines, and immune-oncology. Previously, Dr. Kalos was Executive Vice President and Head of Research and Development at ArsenalBio. He also served as Vice President, Immuno-oncology and Oncology Cell Therapies, at Janssen, the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson, and chief scientific officer at Eli Lilly & Company. Dr. Kalos’s academic lab at UPenn played a key role in the early clinical development of Kymriah, including developing the methodologies and strategies to enable robust pharmacodynamic and mechanistic analysis of CAR T therapies. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and completed post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Phil Greenberg at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Lloyd Klickstein, M.D., Ph.D.
SAB
Dr. Klickstein is the Chief Executive Officer of Versanis Bio. Previously he served as Adicet Bio’s Chief Innovation Officer since its merger with resTORbio in September 2020, formerly holding the role of Chief Scientific Officer of resTORbio. Prior to joining resTORbio, Dr. Klickstein was Head of Translational Medicine for the New Indication Discovery Unit (NIDU) and the Exploratory Disease Area (DAx) at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. Dr. Klickstein received his B.S. degree from Tufts University, his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University, completed post-graduate clinical training in Internal Medicine, Rheumatology & Immunology at BWH and a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Center for Blood Research in Boston.
Saul Priceman, Ph.D.
SAB
Dr. Priceman is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Immuno-Oncology at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also Associate Director of Translational Sciences in the T Cell Immunotherapy Program. Over the last 10 years, Dr. Priceman’s research has focused on T cell biology and clinical translation of cancer immunotherapies. His laboratory develops CAR based T cell therapies and combinatorial approaches for the treatment of solid cancers including breast, prostate, ovarian and pancreas, and has brought several therapies to phase 1 clinical testing. Dr. Priceman’s research has led to high-impact journal publications in Science Translational Medicine, Cell Metabolism, Clinical Cancer Research, and Molecular Therapy, with numerous patents and technologies licensed for further clinical development. His research has been funded with grants and/or awards from the Department of Defense, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Dr. Priceman received his B.S. in microbiology at University of California Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. in molecular and medical pharmacology at University of California Los Angeles.