On December 16, 2021 Neogene Therapeutics, Inc., a preclinical stage biotechnology company pioneering a new class of fully individualized T cell receptor (TCR) therapies to treat cancer, reported the appointment of Raphaël Rousseau, M.D., Ph.D. as Chief Medical Officer (Press release, Neogene Therapeutics, DEC 16, 2021, View Source [SID1234597282]). Dr. Rousseau brings more than 20 years of extensive experience in oncology drug development, including engineered T cell therapies, in both academia and the biotechnology industry. He joins Neogene’s executive team and will be based in its U.S. headquarters in Santa Monica.
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"We’re thrilled to welcome Raphaël at this crucial and exciting time in our company’s growth. He is a strong leader, who has led teams across all phases of development and has successfully built and executed multiple global clinical programs," said Carsten Linnemann, Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Neogene. "Raphael’s broad experience with cell therapy and neo-antigen targeting drug modalities will be critical in helping us to diversify our pipeline and advance our programs into the clinic with the goal of bringing T cell therapies to patients across a broad spectrum of solid tumors."
Dr. Rousseau most recently served as Executive Vice President, Head of Product Development, and Chief Medical Officer at Gritstone bio, where he was responsible for the company’s global clinical development strategies and expansion of its neoantigen-based immunotherapies. He led the buildout of the clinical development organization and execution of Gritstone’s clinical strategy including conducting several phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials. Prior to Gritstone bio, Dr. Rousseau served as the Global Franchise Head of Pediatrics at Genentech and Roche, where he successfully led a global development and study management team and served as the Chair of the Development Review Committee for early and late-stage pediatric asset reviews. While at Genentech, he oversaw the clinical development of the company’s oncology portfolio from first-in-human to registrational trials for several pediatric hematology and oncology indications. Prior to joining industry, Dr. Rousseau was a Professor of Medical and Pediatric Oncology at the Université Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and the head of the pediatric translational research program at Léon Bérard Cancer Center. There, he created and led the first European academic consortium for the conduct of a phase 1 study using CD19-targeting CAR T cells for the treatment of pediatric high-risk leukemias. Earlier in his career, Dr. Rousseau was a fellow at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he worked with Dr. Malcolm Brenner at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy. Dr. Rousseau received a Ph.D. in Therapeutic Biotechnologies from the Université Denis Diderot and an M.D. from the Université René Descartes in Paris. He is board certified in pediatrics and has a sub-specialty certification in pediatric hematology-oncology.
"I’m proud to be joining the Neogene team, which has been making great strides in the field of neoantigen-directed T cell therapy, and excited about helping advance our pioneering research into the clinic to potentially help patients who currently have limited treatment options," said Dr. Rousseau. "This is a field that I am extremely passionate about, and I am excited to apply my expertise in successfully advancing these promising therapies into clinical trials as we work to change the solid cancer treatment paradigm."