SAN DIEGO and BASEL, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Bright Peak Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing next-generation cytokine immunotherapies to treat cancer and autoimmune disease, today announced that it has appointed Leena Gandhi, M.D., Ph.D., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Gandhi is a distinguished physician-scientist with a focus on cancer immunotherapy and early drug development, and currently serves as the Director of the Clinical Center for Cancer Therapeutic Innovation at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a pleasure to welcome Dr. Gandhi to the Board. She is a renowned immuno-oncologist and widely recognized as a clinical investigator for her track record of bringing important medical breakthroughs to patients,\u201d said Fredrik Wiklund, President and CEO of Bright Peak Therapeutics. \u201cHer clinical insights and development experience will be highly valuable to Bright Peak as we continue to advance our emerging product portfolio. We look forward to working with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m delighted to join Bright Peak as a Board member and I look forward to working with the other Directors and the company\u2019s executive leadership to contribute to Bright Peak\u2019s mission of bringing innovative cytokine immunotherapies to patients,\u201d said Dr. Gandhi.<\/p>\n
Dr. Leena Gandhi received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and her M.D. from New York University prior to completing postgraduate training at Massachusetts General Hospital and at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She was a thoracic oncologist working in Early Drug Development at DFCI until 2016 when she moved to NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center to serve as the Director of Thoracic Medical Oncology. She has focused her research on novel drug development and\u00a0biomarkers for selection in lung cancer with a particular focus on immuno-oncology. She led pivotal studies demonstrating the utility of PDL1 as a\u00a0biomarker for efficacy of anti-PD1 agents in lung cancer and studies demonstrating the value of combining immunotherapy and chemotherapy in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. She served as Vice President of Immuno-Oncology Development at Eli Lilly leading the development of novel immuno-oncology agents across cancer types and returned to DFCI in 2020 as the Director of the Center for Cancer Therapeutic Innovation, an integrated clinical\/translational research center that brings together specialized cancer expertise to develop and conduct innovative early phase clinical trials spanning multiple malignancies.<\/p>\n
About Bright Peak Therapeutics<\/p>\n
Bright Peak is a privately held biotechnology company based in San Diego, USA and Basel, Switzerland dedicated to creating next-generation cytokine immunotherapies for the treatment of patients with cancer and autoimmune disease. Bright Peak is pioneering a novel technology to chemically synthesize and conjugate enhanced cytokines to a diverse array of molecules, such as monoclonal antibodies, creating a novel class of \u201cBright Peak Immunocytokines\u201d. Bright Peak is funded by a syndicate of leading healthcare investors.<\/p>\n