CytoImmune is Cell Therapy Veteran Christina Coughlin's Next Act

Christina Coughlin pictured above. (Photo courtesy of CytoImmune Therapeutics)

CytoImmune Therapeutics is under new management. Cell therapy veteran Christina Coughlin is taking over the reins of the privately-held company developing natural killer (NK) immune cells to battle cancer.

In her new role, Coughlin, who previously served as the chief medical officer of Rubius Therapeutics, will use her expertise to provide strategic leadership for the recently launched biotech and its clinical-stage pipeline of engineered NK cell therapies. 

CytoImmune Therapeutics, which was founded in 2017, is translating into the clinic a CAR NK cell platform targeting AML, B cell malignancies and multiple myeloma. It is also taking aim at pancreatic, gastric, bladder, prostate and lung cancer. 

The company's lead product CYTO-102 (CI-NK), is a cell therapy paired with Genentech's Tecentriq, an anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody. The paired treatment is expected to enter the clinic in 2022 and will be aimed at non-small cell lung cancer. 

The rest of the company's pipeline includes cytokine induced NK (CI-NK) for lung cancer, FLT3 CAR-NK for acute myeloid leukemia, PSCA CAR-NK cells for solid tumors and GPRC5D BiKE secreting BCMA CAR-NK cells for multiple myeloma.

Michael Caligiuri, scientific co-founder and CMO of CytoImmune, said the company had made significant progress in the advancement of its Cytokine-Induced Engineered CAR-NK cell technologies into the clinic. Caligiuri also noted that Coughlin's expertise across multiple cell therapy platforms, as well as her understanding of the immuno-oncology space "will help propel CytoImmune to the next level."

"I am honored to join CytoImmune and excited to advance its disruptive scientific approach to the off-the-shelf fully allogeneic engineered NK cell therapies targeting solid tumors and hematologic malignancies," Coughlin said in a statement. "I look forward to partnering with the team to positively impact patients."

At Rubius, Coughlin guided the company's translational medicine's clinical development and led regulatory efforts in the allogeneic red cell therapy platform. Prior to Rubius, she served as CMO of Tmunity Therapeutics. Coughlin was also responsible for the preclinical and clinical development of autologous CAR-T and TCR-T cell therapies. 

Coughlin has also held the CMO role at Immunocore, heading the development of the soluble TCR platform. At Pfizer, she was the Oncology Asset Team Leader.

"Christina's deep industry experience and knowledge of cell therapy positions her to lead CytoImmune as we continue to advance our pipeline to make an impact for patients," Richard Santulli, chairman of the CytoImmune Board of Directors said in a statement. "With Christina at the helm as CEO, we are firmly poised to rapidly expand our clinical trial programs for NK cell therapies."