SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UNITY Biotechnology, Inc. (“UNITY”) [NASDAQ:UBX], a biotechnology company developing therapeutics to extend healthspan by slowing, halting or reversing diseases of aging, today announced the appointment of Margo Roberts, Ph.D. to its board of directors. Dr. Roberts brings to UNITY nearly 30 years of experience in biomedical research.

“Dr. Roberts is an accomplished industry leader with invaluable experience both building research organizations and seeing cutting-edge research through from concept to commercialization,” said Keith Leonard, chairman and CEO of UNITY. “We are delighted to welcome Dr. Roberts to the UNITY board of directors and look forward to leveraging her broad insights as we continue to build and advance our pipeline.”

Dr. Margo Roberts, Ph.D., served as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Kite Pharma, Inc. (“Kite”) (acquired by Gilead Sciences, Inc. in October 2017) starting in 2013, where she built a talented research organization that played an instrumental role in the successful development of Yescarta^®, and the clinical advancement of additional CAR/TCR-engineered T-cell therapies. Subsequent to her role as CSO, Dr. Roberts served as Senior Vice President of Discovery Research at Kite in order to focus on the development of next generation therapeutic approaches, including heading up Kite’s universal allogeneic T-cell programs.

“I believe that UNITY’s approach of creating and harnessing cutting-edge science to tackle fundamental aging mechanisms holds significant potential for the treatment of age-related diseases,” said Dr. Roberts. “I am excited to share my experience developing novel therapeutic approaches and passion for innovative science to help UNITY execute on its mission to extend human healthspan.”

Dr. Roberts has almost three decades of biomedical research experience in both biotechnology and academia. Prior to her tenure at Kite, Dr. Roberts was Principal Scientist and Director of Immune and Cell Therapy at Cell Genesys, Inc. where she led the development and application of CAR technology to T-cells and stem cells, culminating in the very first CAR T-cell clinical trial in 1994.  Dr. Roberts was also an associate professor at the University of Virginia, has authored more than thirty scientific publications, and is the inventor on thirteen issued U.S. patents and three published U.S. patent applications. Dr. Roberts received both her Bachelor of Science degree with honors and her Ph.D. degree from the University of Leeds in England.

About UNITY
UNITY is developing therapeutics to extend healthspan by slowing, halting or reversing diseases of aging. UNITY's initial focus is on creating senolytic medicines to selectively eliminate senescent cells and thereby treat age-related diseases, such as osteoarthritis, eye diseases and pulmonary diseases. More information is available at www.unitybiotechnology.com or follow us on Twitter.