Cellastra, Inc., a developer of novel cell and gene therapy assets, announced today that the company has appointed Brad Thompson, PhD, as new Chairman of the Board and Vinod Kumar, M.D, as Chief Medical Officer.
Brad Thompson has a long and distinguished career in the North American Biotech industry for more than 40 years, including as Chairman BIOTECanada and is currently chairman and CEO of Avamab Pharma Inc. and CEO of Kickshaw Ventures. He joined the Cellastra board in 2017 and was appointed Chief Technology Officer in 2018.
Vinod Kumar has a long and distinguished career in academic medicine as Professor at the University of Illinois and University of Miami. During his 16 years at Novartis, a leader in cell and gene therapy, he held positions as Section Head and Executive Global Program Medical Director, Development and Medical Affairs.
“We are excited that these appointments happen at this junction as we currently are accelerating the development of our proprietary platform for anti scarring gene therapy and are preparing for entering our clinical development. This puts the company at the frontier of the current gene therapy revolution. This is a first in man program using this new technology for scar prevention, a major unmet need in global health care, says Dr. Karl Mettinger, MD, PhD, cofounder, President & CEO of Cellastra.
The Domann Organization is a Shareholder.