Sangamo Therapeutics Appoints Jason Fontenot, Ph.D., As Senior Vice President, Cell Therapy
BRISBANE, Calif., March 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO), a genomic medicine company, announced today the appointment of Jason Fontenot, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President, Cell Therapy. Dr. Fontenot will oversee Sangamo's growing engineered cell therapy portfolio, including a proprietary immunology pipeline based on chimeric antigen receptor regulatory T cells (CAR-Tregs), a partnership with Sanofi focused on ex vivo genome-editing programs in hemoglobinopathies, and a partnership with Kite, a Gilead Company, to develop allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies in oncology. This new appointment follows the recent appointment of Adrian Woolfson, BM., B.Ch., Ph.D., as Executive Vice President, Research and Development.
"Jason brings a breadth of experience and expertise in the development of gene-edited cell therapies. With his immunology background, notably his expertise in regulatory T cells, he is an ideal leader for our cell therapy strategy," said Dr. Woolfson. "We believe that CAR-Tregs and allogeneic CAR-Ts represent the next frontier of cellular therapy and are looking forward to further advancing our pipeline targeting a wide range of indications in the areas of transplantation, autoimmunity, hematology and oncology."
Dr. Fontenot has expertise in lymphocyte biology, cell engineering and immune-mediated disease. The seminal work on regulatory T cells and FOXP3 conducted by Dr. Fontenot and his colleagues transformed the study of immune regulation and produced some of the most highly cited immunology publications of the last 20 years.
In addition to his scientific expertise, Dr. Fontenot has an extensive background in drug development. Before joining Sangamo, he served as Chief Scientific Officer at Immusoft, leading the development of the company's engineered B cell therapy platform. Prior to Immusoft, Dr. Fontenot served as Head of Exploratory Research at Juno Therapeutics, where he was responsible for advancing the early stage engineered T cell therapy pipeline and overseeing the development of next generation cellular engineering strategies. Before joining Juno, Dr. Fontenot worked for nearly a decade as a group leader in the immunology department at Biogen, where his team focused on T cell biology and immune regulation.
Dr. Fontenot received his B.S. degree from Louisiana State University and his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Washington in Seattle.
About Sangamo Therapeutics
Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. is focused on translating ground-breaking science into genomic medicines with the potential to transform patients' lives using the Company's platform technologies in genome editing, gene therapy, gene regulation and cell therapy. For more information about Sangamo, visit www.sangamo.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Sangamo's current expectations. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding CAR-Tregs and allogeneic CAR-Ts being the next frontier of cellular therapy and the advancement of our pipeline which targets a wide range of indications in the areas of transplantation, autoimmunity, hematology and oncology. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, the dependence on the success of clinical trials, the lengthy and uncertain regulatory approval process, uncertainties related to the initiation, enrollment and completion of global clinical trials, whether the final results from a study will validate and support interim safety and efficacy data, whether clinical data will validate pre-clinical results, Sangamo's reliance on partners and other third-parties to meet their clinical and manufacturing obligations, and the ability to maintain strategic partnerships. Further, there can be no assurance that the necessary regulatory approvals will be obtained or that Sangamo and its partners will be able to develop commercially viable product candidates. Actual results may differ from those projected in forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties that exist in Sangamo's operations and business environments. These risks and uncertainties are described more fully in Sangamo's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Sangamo undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.
SOURCE Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc.
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