SQZ Biotech Appoints Paul Bolno, MD to Board of Directors and Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD to Scientific Advisory Board

July 20, 2020 |

4 min read

SQZ Biotechnologies (SQZ), a clinical stage cell therapy company developing novel treatments for multiple therapeutic areas, today announced the appointments of Paul Bolno, MD, to its board of directors, and Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD, to its scientific advisory board. Dr. Bolno is the chief executive officer of Wave Life Sciences and brings over 15 years of experience in both corporate and scientific leadership. Dr. Wu

July 20, 2020 12:00 UTC

WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SQZ Biotech (SQZ), a clinical stage cell therapy company developing novel treatments for multiple therapeutic areas, today announced the appointments of Paul Bolno, MD, to its board of directors, and Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD, to its scientific advisory board. Dr. Bolno is the chief executive officer of Wave Life Sciences and brings over 15 years of experience in both corporate and scientific leadership. Dr. Wucherpfennig, chair of cancer immunology and virology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, offers over three decades of experience in research and development.

“We are delighted to have Paul and Kai join the SQZ team. Their breadth of experience across the stages of drug development and deep insights in biology will provide invaluable guidance to the SQZ team as we develop novel cell therapies across disease areas,” said Armon Sharei, PhD, founder and chief executive officer of SQZ Biotech.

With over 15 years of experience in corporate and scientific leadership, Dr. Bolno is currently the president and chief executive officer of Wave Life Sciences. Prior to this, he was vice president of worldwide business development and head of Asia business development and investments, as well as head of global neuroscience business development, at GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Bolno joined GlaxoSmithKline as vice president of business development for the oncology business unit, where he helped establish the company’s global oncology business and served as a member of the oncology executive team, oncology commercial board and cancer research executive team. He received his BA from Emory University, his MBA from Drexel University College of Business and Administration, and his MD from Hahnemann University School of Medicine.

Dr. Bolno joins SQZ’s board of directors, which includes Armon Sharei, PhD, SQZ founder and chief executive officer; Amy Schulman, executive chair of the board and partner at Polaris; Eric Moessinger, partner at NanoDimension; Jonathan Fleming, experienced biotech executive and board member; Klavs Jensen, PhD, founder of SQZ; Marc Elia, founder of M28 Capital; Pushkal Garg, MD, chief medical officer of Alnylam; and Zafi Avnur, PhD, chief scientific officer at Quark Venture.

With almost 35 years of experience in basic and translational research, Dr. Wucherpfennig is currently the chair of the department of cancer immunology and virology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is principally involved in basic laboratory research that focuses on T cell immunology and the role of T cells in cancer immunology. Dr. Wucherpfennig is also a professor of immunology at Harvard Medical School. He received his MD and PhD from the University of Goettingen, Germany. He has also completed research fellowships at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the department of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University.

Dr. Wucherpfennig joins SQZ’s scientific advisory board, which includes Arlene Sharpe, MD, PhD, co-director of The Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases at Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital; David Sachs, MD, director of transplantation research at both Columbia and Massachusetts General Hospital; Darrell Irvine, PhD, professor of materials science and engineering and biological engineering; Mark Murcko, PhD, chief scientific officer of Relay Therapeutics; Mark Shlomchik, MD, PhD, chair of the department of immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Robert Langer, ScD, SQZ founder and professor at MIT Koch Institute; Ulrich von Andrian, MD, PhD, Mallinckrodt professor of immunopathology at Harvard Medical School; and Tyler Jacks, PhD, director of The Koch Institute for Cancer Research and professor at MIT.

About SQZ Biotech

SQZ Biotech is a privately held company creating innovative treatments by transforming cells into sophisticated therapeutics. Using its proprietary platform, SQZ has the unique ability to precision engineer many patient cell types and deliver multiple materials, resulting in powerful, multifunctional cell therapies for a range of diseases with an initial focus on cancer. The first applications for the company leverage SQZ’s ability to generate target-specific immune responses, both in activation for the treatment of solid tumors and immune tolerance for the treatment of immune reactions and diseases. For more information please visit www.sqzbiotech.com.