David de Vries is co-founder and CEO of Tr1X, a clinical-stage biotech engineering off-the-shelf Type 1 regulatory T (Tr1) and CAR Tr1 cell therapies to durably reset immune tolerance across immunology and inflammation diseases with high unmet need. In just over three years, Tr1X has moved from idea to human proof of concept by assembling a world-class team and board anchored by pioneers in cell and gene therapy, partnering with leading investors and executing against an ambitious vision to shift autoimmune care from chronic treatment to lifelong cure.
Tr1X is advancing two first-in-class programs: TRX103—the first allogeneic-engineered Tr1 therapy—now in Phase I/IIa for graft-versus-host disease prevention and treatment-refractory Crohn’s disease and TRX319, an allogeneic CD19 CAR Tr1 with an upcoming first-in-human study in progressive multiple sclerosis. Key accomplishments include raising over $100 million in equity and $12 million in nondilutive grants; successful first-in-human dosing of TRX103; establishment of a scalable clinical-grade manufacturing process; authoring of groundbreaking preclinical and clinical publications with leading investigators; and creation of a broad, robust intellectual property portfolio.
Previously, de Vries co-founded and helped build, launch and scale Arine, an award-winning healthcare artificial intelligence company whose medication-optimization platform serves health plans and providers nationwide. He also had roles at Proteus Digital Health, an early digital-medicine pioneer, and the RAND Corp., a global, nonpartisan think tank. He has a Bachelor of Arts in neurobiology from Harvard and a Master of Philosophy from Queens’ College, Cambridge.