CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immuneering Corporation today announced an addition to its executive leadership team with the appointment of Howard L. Kaufman, M.D., FACS, as head of research and development. Dr. Kaufman has more than 25 years of experience in oncology, tumor immunology, academic medicine and drug development.
“This is an immensely exciting time for Immuneering as we continue to grow our team of experienced drug development executives,” said Ben Zeskind, Ph.D., MBA, co-founder and chief executive officer of Immuneering. “Howard is a well-recognized leader in cancer immunotherapy, having led several important clinical trials and published hundreds of peer-reviewed papers within the field. With Howard’s appointment, which recently follows the addition of Dr. Scott Barrett as chief medical officer, we believe we are well positioned to advance important drug candidates, including targeted therapies and immunotherapies, for cancer patients in need. Our chief scientific officer Dr. Brett Hall has applied his decade of pharma R&D experience to assemble a world-class team and launch important new drug programs using our Disease Cancelling Technology, and adding Howard and Scott’s extensive expertise will help to rapidly expand our pipeline and drive our current drug programs toward clinical development.”
Dr. Kaufman added, “Immuneering’s Disease Cancelling Technology gives the company a unique ability to engineer new drug candidates for aspects of disease with no approved therapies, including cancer metastasis and cachexia, and has the potential to transform the lives of cancer patients. I’m delighted to join Immuneering’s dynamic team and look forward to contributing to the company’s future success and its impact in oncology.”
Dr. Kaufman served as president of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) from 2014-2016. He was the principal investigator on the pivotal phase 3 clinical trial of the first clinical oncolytic viral therapy to gain global regulatory approval. He also led the largest clinical study in Merkel cell carcinoma ever conducted, a trial of a first-in-class anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody that resulted in FDA approval. Prior to joining Immuneering, Dr. Kaufman was chief medical officer at Replimune Group, Inc., where he oversaw the strategic development of the company’s pipeline.
He has held leadership positions at various universities and academic medical centers, including Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Columbia University, Rush University and Rutgers, and is currently affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Kaufman earned his medical degree from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Kaufman completed his residency in general surgery at Boston University. Following his residency, Dr. Kaufman completed a fellowship in tumor immunology at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.
“Our Disease Cancelling Technology enables us to rapidly identify drug candidates in areas that have proven challenging for traditional drug discovery,” said Brett Hall, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Immuneering. “We are very eager to leverage Howard’s world-class expertise in immuno-oncology as we continue advancing the company’s internal pipeline and add new candidates. Targeted therapy and immunotherapy are two of the most promising approaches to cancer treatment today and having both Scott and Howard on our leadership team enables us to pursue both areas with great intensity, while also exploring important therapeutic opportunities at the interface between the two.”
About Immuneering Corporation
Immuneering leverages more than a decade of leadership in bioinformatics to develop new medicines unlikely to be found by traditional drug discovery methods. Its current pipeline of drug candidates is focused on treating aspects of disease that have eluded conventional approaches, including cancer cachexia and metastasis. Utilizing its proprietary Disease Cancelling Technology, the company engineers medicines that reverse a disease signal across many relevant genes. Immuneering’s technologies have proven exceptionally rapid and capital efficient in creating its pipeline. Concurrent with its internal programs, the company provides unparalleled computational biology services to leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Corporate Contact:
Rebecca Kusko, Ph.D.
Immuneering Corporation
617-500-8080
rkusko@immuneering.com
Media Contact:
Meredith Sosulski, Ph.D.
LifeSci Communications
929-469-3851
msosulski@lifescicomms.com