Our Scientific Team
George Katibah, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
- Expert in the discovery, development, and translation of novel therapies across diverse therapeutic modalities
- Deep background in immunology and the tumor microenvironment
- Broad therapeutic domain expertise, including oncology, immunology, personalized medicine, and infectious diseases
- Part of teams that developed the first-in-human drug candidates, including small molecule STING agonists and personalized cancer neoantigen vaccine
- Co-authored more than 16 scientific papers and inventor on 3 issued U.S. patents and multiple pending applications
- Formerly Director of Discovery Biology at RAPT Therapeutics
- Formerly Senior Scientist and Head of Biochemistry at Aduro Biotech
- Received his B.S. in Plant Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz
- Received his PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley
Adam Grant, PhD
Principal Scientist
- An inventor of the Company’s Universal Cancer Treatment platform
- Expert computational biologist using next generation sequencing data to identify new drug targets and biomarkers of response to cancer therapeutics
- Formerly Bioinformatician at Xenter Medical Technologies
- Formerly Computational Scientist at RAPT Therapeutics
- Invented software to improve cancer antigen detection
- Invented a gene-signature approach to select treatment for breast cancer
- Received his B.S in Bioinformatics from Brigham Young University
- Received his PhD in Cancer Biology with an emphasis in Bioinformatics from the University of Arizona
Jonathan Lakey, PhD
Chief Scientific Advisor
- An inventor of the famous “Edmonton Protocol” for treating Type 1 diabetes
- Extensive experience in the fields of oncology, stem cells, and organ transplantation
- Currently Professor Emeritus at University of California, Irvine.
- Formerly Postdoctoral Fellow, Cryobiology Research Institute Indiana University Indianapolis
- Formerly Postdoctoral Fellow, Clinical tissue banking University of Washington
- Formerly Postdoctoral Fellow, Tissue banking/cryopreservation University of Alberta
- Published over 495 scientific papers, 45 books, and over 500 scientific abstracts
- Advisor to many biotech companies
- Received his BS in Zoology/Animal Biology from University of Alberta
- Received his MS in Zoology/Animal Biology from University of Alberta
- Received his PhD of Islet transplantation, diabetes, and medical devices from University of Alberta
Amit Indap, PhD
Scientific Advisor
- Expert in immuno-oncology involving mRNA vaccine development for cancer and COVID, CDx development using comprehensive genomic profiling of tumors, ctDNA analysis of clinical samples, NGS based antibody discovery, and single cell RNAseq analysis
- Formerly Principal Scientist at Pfizer
- Formerly Scientist at Good Start Genetics
- Formerly Research Scientist at Human Longevity, Inc.
- Formerly Bioinformatics Scientist at Illumina
- Formerly Senior Manager of Bioinformatics at Xencor
- Received his B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology and minor in Computer Science From University of Arizona
- Received his M.S. degree in bioinformatics from Medical College of Wisconsin
- Received his PhD in Biology from Boston College
Matthew Spear, MD
Scientific Advisor
- Expert in guiding the development and commercialization of new drugs, therapies, and biotech products as Chief Development Officer and Chief Medical Officer of biotech companies
- Dr. Spear has been working in oncology and gene therapy research and development for over 30 years
- Currently Chief Development Officer / Chief Medical Officer at Denovo Biopharma
- Formerly Associate Professor on the faculty of the USC Keck School of Medicine, and the UCSD Medical School / UCSD Cancer Center where he managed a clinical practice, drug discovery/gene therapy research, and clinical trial programs for cancer.
- Formerly led multiple oncology clinical development programs at Pfizer
- Formerly served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice-President at Nereus Pharmaceuticals
- Formerly Head of Oncology and Head of Biotherapeutics at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals
- Formerly Vice-President at Incyte and Sangamo Therapeutics
- Formerly Chief Medical Officer at Poseida Therapeutics developing multiple CAR-T cell and gene therapy products
- Received a B.A. degree from the Johns Hopkins University
- Received his M.D. degree from Stanford University
Steven Warner, PhD
Scientific Advisor
- Specializes in small molecule drug discovery, new screening platforms in drug discovery, and translational research focusing on cancer therapeutics
- He is an expert in the discovery of novel cancer agents and has played integral roles in moving multiple compounds into clinical trials.
- Currently Senior VP and Head of US Research at Sumitomo Pharma America
- Formerly Manager of Discovery Biology at SuperGen
- Formerly Senior Manager of Drug Discovery at Huntsman Cancer Institute
- Formerly VP of Drug Discovery at Tolero Pharmaceuticals
- Received his B.S. in Biology from Brigham Young University
- Received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Arizona
