Business
Atara Biotherapeutics Names Cell Therapy & Oncology Leader Cokey Nguyen, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATRA), a pioneer in T-cell immunotherapy, leveraging its novel allogeneic
About this update from Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":" SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nAtara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATRA), a pioneer in T-cell immunotherapy, leveraging its novel allogeneic EBV T-cell platform to develop transformative therapies for patients with serious diseases including solid tumors, hematologic cancers and autoimmune disease, today named cell therapy and oncology expert Cokey Nguyen, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer.\n\n“With his passion for serving patients and a deep commitment to delivering results, we’re very excited for Cokey to join our team as Chief Scientific Officer,” said Jakob Dupont, M.D., Head of Global Research & Development. “Bringing significant experience to Atara in research and development of cell therapies as well as oncology drug discovery and development, Cokey is eager to both advance our existing programs and further expand our pipeline.”\n\nDr. Nguyen comes to Atara from Fate Therapeutics, where, as Vice President, Innovation, Research and Development, he directed strategy for discovery and innovation efforts, and spearheaded the corporate collaboration program with ONO Pharma. Prior to that, he was leader of the targeted immunotherapy group on the Oncology R&D team at Pfizer, producing bispecific antibodies for solid tumors and hematological malignancies and bringing them into the clinic.\n\nDr. Nguyen’s bench science experience includes work in tumor metabolism, gene expression and molecular biology. He holds numerous patents for iPSC and immune effector cells and has been published in various peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Nguyen has also been active in successful business development activities, including, while at Janssen, evaluating Legend’s BCMA-directed CAR T program and supporting the Janssen/Legend partnership.\n\n“I’m thrilled to join the Atara team to help advance the novel allogeneic EBV T-cell platform. Having worked many years in the oncology and cell therapy space, I believe this platform has best-in-class potential, and Atara’s strong process science capabilities and manufacturing scale-up experience at pre-commercial stage with allogeneic T cells can accelerate bringing transformative therapies to patients in need,” said Nguyen. “Throughout my career, it’s been my personal mission to discover and advance innovative therapies to address the unmet need of cancer patients who do not respond to curren...