London, UK – Prokarium today announced the appointment of scientific and clinical advisors to strengthen its presence in oncology as it prepares to enter the clinic with its lead program and expands efforts for the pipeline. The expertise and background of the advisors spans all fields of engineering biology and oncology development from immunotherapy development for both solid and liquid tumors, tumor immunology and microbial biology. The advisors will work closely with Prokarium’s leadership team as the company continues to develop the next generation of microbial immunotherapy.
“We have assembled a team of internationally recognized experts to support our vision – to deliver the best microbial immunotherapy to improve the outcomes for patients,” commented Ted Fjällman, Prokarium’s CEO. “We are more than honored to be working with such distinguished individuals.”
Hyam Levitsky joined Prokarium in 2019 as advisor in immunology, immunotherapy of cancer and research strategy. Currently, he is President of Research and Development at Century Therapeutics. He was previously Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Juno Therapeutics in Seattle, and before that, Head of Cancer Immunotherapy Experimental Medicine at Roche Pharma Research and Early Development in Switzerland. He received an MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1984, and joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1991, rising to Professor of Oncology, Medicine and Urology in 2001.
David Holden joined Prokarium in 2019 as advisor in Salmonella biology and engineering strategy. He is Professor of Molecular Microbiology in the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College London since 1995. David was Director of the Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection (MRC CMBI), between 2012 and 2019. David was co-founder of the biotech company Microscience that developed the Salmonella strain ZH9. He is best known for inventing a technique called signature-tagged mutagenesis (also termed barcoding) for identification of mutants with altered growth in mixed populations.
