Enara Bio adds further cell therapy and TCR expertise to its Senior Research Team
- Dr Mark Creighton‐Gutteridge appointed as Vice President, Head of Research
- Dr Rachel Abbott appointed as Head of TCR Pipeline and Dark Antigen Research
Press release
Oxford and London, UK – 09 March 2021. Enara Bio, a biotechnology company leveraging its proprietary T-cell/T-cell receptor (TCR) discovery and Dark Antigen™ platforms to deliver targeted cancer immunotherapies, announces new appointments to the senior research team to further strengthen its TCR and cell therapy capabilities. These appointments will bring additional specialized expertise and leadership to help advance the discovery and characterization of novel immunotherapy targets and develop next-generation therapies for cancer patients.
Enara has appointed Dr Mark Creighton-Gutteridge as Vice President, Head of Research. Mark brings over 17 years of experience in academia and industry, with highly relevant expertise in oncology R&D, cell therapy, and immunotherapy.
Mark joins Enara from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he was Senior Director, Head of Biology, Oncology Cell Therapy R&D. Prior to his career at GSK, he worked at Cellzome AG and previous to that was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute in the US.
Mark will be responsible for leading Enara’s research efforts, including its cell therapy strategy, to ensure that Enara is positioned to rapidly develop the next generations of autologous and allogeneic cellular immunotherapies, including those directed against the monomorphic HLA-like receptor MR1.
Dr Rachel Abbott has been appointed as Head of TCR Pipeline and Dark Antigen Research, joining the Company from Adaptimmune, a pioneer in TCR T-cell therapy, where she was Head of Pipeline Cell Biology. Rachel brings over 14 years of experience from her time at Adaptimmune and prior to this as a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham.
Rachel will be responsible for scaling Enara’s proprietary EDAPT™ platform, and will also oversee all TCR discovery, validation and preclinical testing to identify and progress TCRs targeting Dark Antigens along with other novel antigens into early development.
At Enara, we are driven by the belief that novel targets which address broader patient populations will play a vital role in developing the next generation of successful immunotherapies for solid cancers. These latest appointments confirm Enara’s ability to recruit outstanding talent to our organization, and I am very pleased to welcome Mark and Rachel to the Company. We have ambitious growth plans, building on our Dark Antigen™ and TCR discovery platforms. Mark and Rachel bring considerable experience to Enara which will help to translate our world-leading discovery expertise into a new generation of cancer immunotherapies for the benefit of broad groups of cancer patients. As Enara continues to expand we will be seeking further opportunities to enhance our team, capabilities and capacity to fully exploit our leadership position in Dark Antigens and unconventional T-cell targets including MR1.
Kevin Pojasek, President and CEO of Enara Bio