Atreca Announces Election Of Industry Leader David Lacey, M.D., To Its Board Of Directors

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Atreca, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics based on a deep understanding of the human immune response, announced today the election of David Lacey, M.D., to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective May 31, 2016. Formerly Senior Vice President of Discovery Research at Amgen, Dr. Lacey possesses over 20 years of scientific and senior leadership experience within the life sciences, focused on creating new medicines to make a difference in the lives of patients worldwide.

“We are pleased to welcome David to the Atreca Board.”

“David has made pivotal, innovative contributions in a successful and distinguished career that has led to the development and commercialization of blockbuster therapies to address compelling unmet needs. Over the past year, Atreca has achieved considerable progress, adding distinguished leaders to its experienced team and advancing its core programs and technology, as well as raising funds to support advancement of the pipeline. David’s voice will be invaluable as Atreca continues to advance its lead programs towards the clinic,” said Tito A. Serafini, Ph.D., Atreca’s President, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder. “We are pleased to welcome David to the Atreca Board.”

During his tenure at Amgen, Dr. Lacey oversaw Amgen’s Discovery Research organization, leading more than 1,200 scientists across a portfolio of drug discovery and development projects in the therapeutic areas of hematology/oncology, inflammation, metabolic disorders, and neuroscience. At Amgen, Dr. Lacey helped make significant advancements in the understanding of bone biology, playing a fundamental role in the discovery of osteoprotegerin (OPG) and in the understanding of the RANK/RANK Ligand pathway in bone metabolism that paved the way for the development of Prolia® (denosumab) for osteoporosis and XGEVA® for cancer-related bone diseases, which had combined sales of more than $2 billion in 2015. He also initiated the clinical studies of KGF, which ultimately was approved as Kepivance® (palifermin) for chemotherapy patients with severe oral mucositis. Prior to joining Amgen, Dr. Lacey was on the faculty at Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology and his M.D. degree from the University of Colorado. Dr. Lacey currently serves as a Board member for Nurix, Inc., Argenx N.V. and Inbiomotion SL, and acts as an advisor to a number of academic institutions, biotechnology companies, and venture capital firms.

“I am delighted to be working with Atreca’s world-class team,” stated Dr. Lacey. “I believe that Atreca’s approach of analyzing patients’ immune responses to enable drug discovery and development has the potential to transform medicine, particularly in cancer immunotherapy, where I believe the great majority of new, medically relevant discoveries still lie ahead of us.”

About Atreca, Inc.

Atreca is a privately held biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics drawn from human immune responses, including effective anti-cancer immune responses. We are able to measure and analyze the structure of clinically relevant immune responses to identify the antibodies, T cell receptors, and targets that are key to successful treatment outcomes. Atreca’s proprietary Immune Repertoire Capture™ technology profiles a patient’s immune response at the single-cell level at very high throughput without bias or error, enabling the identification and generation of functional human antibodies and TCRs without prior knowledge of antigen. The Company is advancing a pipeline of candidates with the objective of enhancing engagement of the human immune response in cancer treatment and other indications, thus optimizing therapeutic outcomes. For more information on Atreca, please visit www.atreca.com.