Renowned Immunotherapy Expert Dr. Michael Kalos joins Anocca's Scientific Advisory Board

SÖDERTÄLJE, Sweden, April 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Anocca, a biotechnology company using its precision biology platforms to engineer a broad portfolio of innovative T cell therapeutics, today announced the appointment of Dr. Michael Kalos to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).

Dr. Kalos is an internationally recognised expert in T cell immunotherapy with over 25 years' experience at the cutting edge of cell therapy, oncology vaccines, and immuno-oncology. Michael was most recently Executive Vice President and Head of R&D at ArsenalBio, a next-generation cell therapy biotech in California. Previously, Dr. Kalos led Immuno-oncology and Oncology Cell Therapies at Janssen and served as Chief Scientific Officer of Immuno-oncology at Eli Lilly.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and completed his postdoctoral training with Philip Greenberg at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Michael's laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania played a key role in the development of the CTL019 program that was licensed to Novartis and led to the approval of Kymriah.

Dr. Kalos has co-authored over 85 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including a series of highly cited articles that helped to define the CAR- and TCR-based T cell therapy space, he also has 26 issued patents spanning cell therapy, immunotherapy, and vaccines. 

As Anocca plans for clinical development and accelerates discovery efforts, Dr. Kalos strengthens Anocca's internationally recognised SAB, joining Professors Adnane Archour, Rolf Kiessling and Klas Kärre, from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and Professor Michael Nishimura, from Loyola University Chicago.

Anocca's CEO and co-founder Reagan Jarvis, said, "We're delighted to welcome Michael to our SAB. He brings a wealth of valuable insights in immuno-oncology therapeutic development, in addition to decades of domain-specific scientific knowledge in T-cell therapies and vaccines. The team at Anocca is looking forward to working with Michael and our other SAB members to advance a next-generation of precision T-cell therapies and vaccines."

Anocca's newly appointed SAB member, Michael Kalos, said, "It is a distinct pleasure to join Anocca's SAB.  I have been following with great interest the company's impressive progress to develop next-generation immunotherapies that effectively harness T-cell immunity. Anocca has established a unique suite of platform capabilities to discover and develop potentially best-in-class TCR-based therapeutics, and I look forward to contributing to their development of a range of novel therapeutic and prophylactic products."

Media contacts:

Anocca
CDO
Mark Farmery 
mark.farmery@anocca.com 

Scius Communications
Daniel Gooch  
daniel@sciuscommunications.com

About Anocca

Anocca is leveraging its innovative platform approach to develop transformative TCR-T cell immunotherapies to treat solid tumours. The company has validated and deployed a proprietary precision biology platform that enables assumption-free discovery of targets and fully characterised TCRs at an industrial scale with unprecedented speed and precision. Anocca has a fully integrated R&D infrastructure, underpinned by tailor-made advanced software solutions, and complemented by a clinical manufacturing and process development facility. The platform has generated a broad preclinical pipeline of assets with blockbuster potential and expects to progress several TCR-T therapies to the clinic in the near term.

Founded in 2014, Anocca is led by an experienced management team that has raised over USD 100 million in funding from leading investors Swedbank Robur Ny Teknik, Ramsbury Invest, Mellby Gård, Nidoco and Michano. Anocca's team of over 75 employees operate from its site in Södertälje, Sweden. To learn more about Anocca, please visit www.anocca.com and follow us on LinkedIn.