Gamida Cell announced the appointment of Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Roger Kornberg and immune oncology expert and recently retired Novartis executive Dr. Michael Perry to its Board of Directors.
"We are pleased to welcome Professor Kornberg and Dr. Perry to our Board, especially now as Gamida Cell completes the final stages of clinical development of its flagship product NiCord and plans for potential commercialization,” Gamida Cell Chairman of the Board, Julian Adams, Ph.D. said. We look forward to their important guidance during this crucial time in the Company's development and in preserving Gamida's leading position in bone marrow transplantation."
Professor Kornberg has been a Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford Medical School since 1978. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2006 for his studies of the molecular basis of transcription, the process whereby information in DNA is read out for the direction of all activities of all organisms, including humans. Professor Kornberg began his career as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England and went on to be an Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry at Harvard Medical School in 1976, before moving to his present position. Professor Kornberg is also the recipient of the 2006 Dickson Prize from University of Pittsburgh and the 2006 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. In 2009, he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. Professor Kornberg earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1967 and his Ph.D. in chemical physics from Stanford in 1972 supervised by Harden M. McConnell.
"Gamida Cell's novel platform technology and scientific approach to expand functional cells in culture have broad potential to change the way cell based therapies are used clinically. NiCord, has demonstrated clinically that it could fill the unmet need in bone marrow transplantation," said Professor Kornberg.
Dr. Perry recently retired from Novartis, where he served as SVP and Chief Scientific Officer, Global BD&L, Chief Scientific Officer, Cell & Gene Therapy Unit, Global Head, Cellular Therapy/VP, Integrated Hospital Care Franchise and as Novartis' observer on the Gamida Cell Board of Directors. Novartis is a major shareholder in Gamida Cell. He is currently a Director and Operating Partner at venture capital firm Bioscience Managers. Dr. Perry currently serves on the Boards of Avita Medical, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals and AmpliPhi Biosciences. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine, Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology and serves as Chair of the Translational Medicine Advisory Board of the Houston Methodist Research Institute. Dr. Perry holds a Hon. B.Sc., in Physics from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He also earned a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine & Surgery from the Ontario Veterinary College and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science/Pharmacology from the University of Guelph.