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.
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SOURCE Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc.