Sana Biotechnology Strengthens Senior Research Leadership Team with Ed Rebar, Ph.D. and Terry Fry, M.D.

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Sep 03, 2020, 08:00 ET

SEATTLE, Sept. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sana Biotechnology, Inc. (Sana), focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines, announced today two additions to its senior leadership team. Ed Rebar, Ph.D., joins the company as Chief Technology Officer and Terry Fry, M.D. joins as SVP, Head of T Cell Therapeutics.

"Ed and Terry are world class scientists who will add tremendously to our scientific leadership team, helping us integrate capabilities that are key to realizing our vision of using engineered cells as medicines," said Steve Harr, Sana President and CEO. "Ed brings incredible insights, capabilities, and experience in genome editing, control of gene expression, and cell engineering more broadly to make human therapeutics. Terry has successfully developed multiple CAR T therapies now in patients, and his experience as an immunologist, researcher, and clinician will be instrumental in moving our T cell platforms forward."

Dr. Rebar has over 20 years of experience in developing novel gene editing and cell engineering technologies for therapeutic use. As Sana's Chief Technology Officer, he is responsible for developing genome editing, gene regulation, cell engineering, analytical genomics and computational biology functions. Prior to joining Sana, Dr. Rebar worked at Sangamo Therapeutics to develop the company's zinc finger protein platform for therapeutic applications, most recently as the company's Chief Technology Officer. His work included the development of nucleases and transcription factors for applications in oncology, HIV, hemoglobinopathies, rare diseases and cardiovascular disease, as well as heading the research team that engineered the first TALE-nucleases for high efficiency gene editing. Dr. Rebar received his Ph.D. from MIT and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Fry is one of the pioneers in developing CAR T therapies for treatment of cancer. In his role as Head of T Cell Therapeutics, he will lead Sana's T cell therapeutic programs, including separate platforms focused on in vivo generation of CAR T cells and allogeneic CAR T cells, with the goal of developing therapeutics for multiple cancers. Prior to joining Sana, Dr. Fry was a Professor of Pediatrics, Hematology, and Immunology as well as Director of Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado, where he developed several CAR T therapies entering the clinic for hematologic malignancies. Previously, Dr. Fry was the Head of the Hematologic Malignancies Section in the Pediatric Oncology Branch at the NIH, where he helped develop both a CD-19 and a CD-22 targeted CAR T therapy, amongst others. Dr. Fry received his M.D. at Georgetown University School of Medicine, completed his residency and chief residency at Georgetown Hospital, his oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and his post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute.

About Sana
Sana Biotechnology, Inc. is focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines for patients. We share a vision of repairing and controlling genes, replacing missing or damaged cells, and making our therapies broadly available to patients. We are a team of 200 plus scientists, engineers, clinicians, and biotechnology veterans creating an enduring company that makes meaningful medicines and changes how we approach treating disease. Sana has operations in Seattle, Cambridge, and South San Francisco.

Contact
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SOURCE Sana Biotechnology, Inc.