Dragonfly Therapeutics Adds Expert in Protein Engineering and Structure to Its Scientific Advisory Board

Professor K. Christopher Garcia, a leading researcher in cell receptor/ligand interactions critical to developing new immunotherapies, joins the company's advisors

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Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc.

Nov 15, 2016, 07:10 ET

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. ("Dragonfly"), today announced the addition of Stanford University Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator K. Christopher Garcia, to its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Garcia has identified novel mechanisms for recognition and activation of a variety of cell surface receptors, including ones that play critical roles in immune activation (T cell receptor and peptide-MHC complex as well as gp130 and other cytokine receptors) and cancer (Wnt signaling).

"Professor Garcia is a leading expert on cell surface receptors and their activation – mechanisms that are key to the development of new cancer immunotherapies," said Dragonfly co-founder and head of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Dr. Tyler Jacks. "As Dragonfly focuses on novel cancer therapies using NK cells, which both enhance the effectiveness of T cell performance and attack cancer directly, Dr. Garcia's expertise in integrating protein engineering and structure will be invaluable to our development of effective therapeutics."

K. Christopher Garcia, PhD., is a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and of Structural Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Garcia's research has identified new paradigms for recognition and activation of a variety of receptors that play critical roles in autoimmunity, cancer, neural growth and repair, and blood pressure regulation. His laboratory also has a longstanding interest in the structural biology of adaptive immunity, mainly focused on understanding on how the T cell receptor recognizes MHC molecules. Dr. Garcia has served as Member of Scientific Advisory Board at Immune Disease Institute, Inc., and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. He holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a B.S. in Biochemistry from Tulane University. Dr. Garcia was a postdoctoral fellow at Genentech and Scripps Research Institute.

About Dragonfly

Dragonfly Therapeutics is a discovery-stage company developing drugs to stimulate immune responses against cancer.

Our scientific founders are major figures in cancer biology and immunology and have launched Dragonfly to harness the power of the immune system to provide breakthrough cancer treatments for patients.

For more information visit www.dragonflytx.com, https://www.facebook.com/dragonflytherapeutics/ & https://twitter.com/dragonflytx.

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SOURCE Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc.