About us
OUR STORY
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel cancer immunotherapy products designed to utilize the power of the patient’s own immune system to eliminate cancer cells. We aim to acquire rights to these technologies by licensing or otherwise acquiring an ownership interest in the technologies, funding their research and development and eventually either out-licensing or bringing the technologies to market. Currently we are developing our proprietary Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) engineered NK cells (CAR-NK™) technology, which we licensed from the laboratories of Drs. Michael Caligiuri and Jianhua Yu at the City of Hope National Medical Center (COH).
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Christina Coughlin, M.D., Ph.D.
CEO of CytoImmune Therapeutics, Inc.
Christina Coughlin, M.D., Ph.D. has been appointed the CEO of CytoImmune Therapeutics. Dr. Coughlin joined CytoImmune from Rubius Therapeutics, Inc. where she served as the Chief Medical Officer and led the clinical development, translational medicine and regulatory efforts in the allogeneic red cell therapy platform. Prior to Rubius, Dr. Coughlin was with Tmunity Therapeutics, Inc., where she served as Chief Medical Officer and was responsible for the development of autologous CAR-T and TCR-T cellular therapies.
Dr. Coughlin has held other leadership roles in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields in her career including Chief Medical Officer at Immunocore, heading the development of the soluble TCR platform, and Oncology Asset Team Leader at Pfizer. Dr. Coughlin received her M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and completed fellowships in Hematology and Oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and in the Translational Research Group under the direction of Carl June, M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania.
Christina Coughlin M.D., Ph.D.
Michael A. Caligiuri, M.D.
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer
- President, City of Hope National Medical Center
- Deana and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief Distinguished Chair
- Past President, AACR
- Elected to National Academy of Medicine for breakthrough human NK cell and T cell discoveries
Michael A. Caligiuri, M.D., is the President of the City of Hope Natonal Medical Center and holds the Deana and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief Distinguished Chair. He is a world-renowned physician, scientist, builder, innovator, leader and visionary. Dr. Caligiuri is dedicated to developing the next generation of leading-edge immune therapies for cancer, rapidly delivering them to patients and ultimately curing the disease.
Prior to joining City of Hope, Dr. Caligiuri worked for 20 years as a physician, scientist and leader in the cancer program at The Ohio State University. He spent the past decade as CEO of The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute and directed The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center for 14 years, recruiting over 300 cancer physicians and scientists and building the 3rd largest cancer hospital in America.
Dr. Caligiuri has spent the last 35 years studying human natural killer (NK) cell biology during which time he made several seminal discoveries that have paved the way for CAR NK cells to advance into the clinic. He has over 400 peer-reviewed original research publications on NK cells and/or cancer. Over 1,000 patients have been treated on clinical trials designed or co-designed by Dr. Caligiuri to modulate NK cells for cancer therapy.
Dr. Caligiuri is the past president (2018) of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the world’s largest cancer research organization with 40,000 members in 120 countries. He was elected as a Fellow to the AACR Academy, received a lifetime achievement award from Stanford University School of Medicine and was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine for his basic and translational work on human NK cells and cancer.
Michael A. Caligiuri, M.D.
Aleksey N. Krylov, CFA
Chief Financial Officer
- Multiple fundraising and exit deals
- Emerging biotech and pubco CFO
Aleksey Krylov is a strategic CFO to life sciences companies with the background in private equity investing. Most recently, he served as a Chief Financial Officer of DIH International, Ltd., a Swiss-Chinese medical equipment manufacturer with $80m in sales and 400 employees globally.
Previously, he was an Chief Financial Officer of SELLAS Life Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLS, peak market cap ~$170m), an oncology immuno-therapeutics company. At SELLAS he led the reverse merger of private SELLAS into a publicly listed target and raised $10.7 million in financing. At both companies, he was responsible for managing financial, investor relations and administrative operations of the company.
Prior to becoming CFO, Mr. Krylov was a family office investment professional with a focus on M&A, capital raising, private equity investing and restructuring. His industries of interest included life sciences, medical technologies, healthcare IT and consumer products, among others.
Krylov began his career with SG Cowen’s equity capital markets group as an investment banking analyst in 2002. Mr. Krylov holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.S. in Business Administration from Babson College. He is a CFA charterholder.
Aleksey N. Krylov, CFA
Remus Vezan, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Remus Vezan, M.D., Ph.D., is CytoImmue’s Chief Medical Officer. He is an industry leader who has been responsible for the successful advancement of numerous cell therapies from early-stage development through commercialization, including one of the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)- approved CAR T-cell therapies for hematologic malignancies.
Dr. Vezan joins CytoImmune from CERo Therapeutics where he served as Chief Medical Officer. Prior to that, he served as Executive Director of clinical development at Kite, a Gilead company, where he oversaw the clinical development of CAR T-cell products, including axi- cell/YESCARTA®, the first CAR T-cell therapy approved for relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoma and brexu-cell/TECARTUS®, the first CAR T-cell therapy approved for mantle cell lymphoma and adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In this role, Dr. Vezan supported the overall clinical development strategy and execution of numerous registrational clinical trials and under his leadership, YESCARTA® and TECARTUS® were granted various global approvals. Before Kite, Dr. Vezan served as Medical Director at Pharmacyclics, an AbbVie Company, where he was the clinical lead for HDACi-abexinostat program and ibrutinib (IMBRUVICA®) in lymphoplasmacytic lymphomas (Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia). Dr. Vezan completed his medical training (M.D. and Ph.D.) at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj, Romania and University of Bern, Switzerland.
Remus Vezan, M.D., Ph.D.
Jose Vidal, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer
- Led CMC for first BLA approval of an allogeneic immunotherapy.
- Oversaw 1,000 employees and $500M budget at Amgen.
Dr. Vidal joins CytoImmune from Atara Bio, where he led the Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) and was instrumental in the development of Atara’s allogeneic T-cell therapy. He was responsible for Global Quality Assurance Operations, functionality and compliance, and Process Sciences. Moreover, he was in charge of the product manufacturing processes development from the preclinical stage to commercialization.
Prior to Atara, Dr. Vidal was Vice President of Global Product Process Development and Vice President of Drug Substance Operations at Amgen. He supervised over 1,000 employees and oversaw a budget of half a billion dollars while managing its worldwide product development network.
Before holding several senior and executive roles in pharmaceutical companies such as Wyeth, Pfizer, and prominent startups, including Biovail, Dr. Vidal earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Puerto Rico and a Ph.D. in cellular molecular biology.
With over two decades in developing biopharmaceuticals worldwide, Dr. Vidal will manage CytoImmune’s cell and virus manufacturing and lead the operations team in Puerto Rico in its mission against cancer.
Jose Vidal, Ph.D.
Will Rosellini, J.D., MBA
President
- 5 exits, 3 public offerings (OTC:QB “NXNN”), (TSX.V “PINK”), (NYSE:”DSS”)
Rosellini is the President of CytoImmune Therapeutics. Previously, Rosellini was the CEO of Perimeter Medical, Inc. He also led Nexeon Medsystems, Inc., a medical device manufacturing company that went public in 2017. Before that he founded and led Lexington Technology Group, LLC, a database company commercializing a electronic health record database solution to an exit (“DSS” NYSE).
Before that he founded Sarif Biomedical LLC, a stereotactic cancer microsurgery with IP spun-out of Medtronic and led company to an exit with Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (“MARA” NSDQ). He subsequently served on the Marathon board of directors and chaired the Audit committee. Rosellini completed 2 acquisitions to form Telemend Medical, Inc. a clinical engineering services company and led that company to an exit in 2016. Rosellini was also CEO at Microtransponder, an implantable neurostimulation developer with solutions for stroke rehabilitation. He is a former minor league pitcher with the Diamondbacks of the Arizona League, holds a JD, MBA, MS of Accounting, MS of Computational Biology, MS of Neuroscience and MS of Regulatory Science.
Will Rosellini, J.D., MBA
Yulli Bogatyrenko
Chief Business Officer
Mr. Bogatyrenko joins CytoImmune from his role as principal at Biopharma C&I, a biotechnology consulting firm that works with private and public companies in business development, corporate strategy, commercialization, launch readiness and R&D strategy. Previously, he held positions in commercial and business development and led multiple global commercial drug launches and numerous industry partnerships at Teva Pharmaceuticals, Bayer Healthcare and Pfizer/Wyeth.
Yulii Bogatyrenko
Board of Directors
Richard T. Santulli
Co-founder and Chairman of CytoImmune Therapeutics, former founder and CEO of NetJets, Inc.
Rich Santulli, was the founder and chairman of Milestone Aviation Group, a helicopter and business jet leasing company. He is best known for pioneering the concept of fractional jet ownership with NetJets, a company he developed in 1986. Santulli was once considered a possible successor to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway.
Richard T. Santulli
Christina Coughlin, M.D., Ph.D.
CEO of CytoImmune Therapeutics, Inc.
Christina Coughlin, M.D., Ph.D. has been appointed the CEO of CytoImmune Therapeutics. Dr. Coughlin joined CytoImmune from Rubius Therapeutics, Inc. where she served as the Chief Medical Officer and led the clinical development, translational medicine and regulatory efforts in the allogeneic red cell therapy platform. Prior to Rubius, Dr. Coughlin was with Tmunity Therapeutics, Inc., where she served as Chief Medical Officer and was responsible for the development of autologous CAR-T and TCR-T cellular therapies.
Dr. Coughlin has held other leadership roles in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields in her career including Chief Medical Officer at Immunocore, heading the development of the soluble TCR platform, and Oncology Asset Team Leader at Pfizer. Dr. Coughlin received her M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and completed fellowships in Hematology and Oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and in the Translational Research Group under the direction of Carl June, M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania.
Christina Coughlin, M.D., Ph.D.
Kinam Hong, M.D.
Managing partner Sofinnova Partners
Kinam joined Sofinnova Partners in January 2017. Kinam co-managed the Exane Equinox fund, a global healthcare fund with a focus on later-stage, public biotechnology companies. Kinam invested in global life sciences companies developing innovative medicines with the potential to address areas of large unmet medical need.
Kinam had previously spent 10 years as an investor and analyst covering the biotechnology sector, including at Citigroup investment research where he focused on small- and mid-cap biotechnology companies.
Prior to his investment career, Kinam worked in new product development at Sanofi, a multi-national pharmaceutical company, where he managed a HIV vaccine candidate in Phase 3 development. Kinam also held roles in business development and strategic marketing, where he worked on various infectious diseases and oncology licensing deals and on Sanofi’s strategy in China, respectively.
Kinam is a medical doctor and holds degrees in molecular biology/biochemistry and medicine from the University of Florida. He also holds a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and MBA from INSEAD (France).
Kinam Hong, M.D.
Doug Williams, Ph.D.
CEO of Codiak Biosciences, Inc.
Douglas E. Williams, Ph.D., is Codiak’s President and CEO. He previously served as Biogen’s Executive Vice President, Research and Development from January 2011 to July 2015.
Dr. Williams joined Biogen from ZymoGenetics, where he was CEO and member of the Board of Directors. ZymoGenetics was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb during his time as CEO for $985 million. Previously, he held leadership positions within the biotechnology industry, including Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Seattle Genetics Inc., and Senior Vice President and Washington Site Leader at Amgen Inc.
Dr. Williams also served in a series of scientific and senior leadership positions over a decade at Immunex Corp., including Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Senior Vice President of Discovery Research and Vice President of Research and Development.
Prior to joining Immunex, Dr. Williams served on the faculty of the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, New York. Dr. Williams has served on numerous boards of directors for companies in the biotechnology industry and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Ovid Therapeutics, Chairman of the Board of AC Immune, and is a Director for private companies Cygnal Therapeutics and Xenikos.
Doug Williams, Ph.D.
Graeme Bell
Chief Financial Officer, Valo Health
Graeme is Chief Financial Officer at Valo. In his prior CFO roles in emerging cell & gene therapy companies, Graeme was responsible for the financial operations, including relationships with the capital markets. He also oversaw IT & IS, pipeline and pre-commercialization strategic planning. He previously served as CFO of Anacor, which was acquired by Pfizer during his tenure. His focus over the last several years has been on company growth, and capital formation.
Prior to these roles, Graeme had a long international career at Merck & Co., Inc., where was CFO of U.S. operations. Notably, Graeme was an integral member of the U.S. launch team for the PD-1 cancer treatment Keytruda®, which is projected to generate worldwide revenue of $17B in 2021. With a distinguished 30-year career as a finance executive in the biopharmaceutical sector, Graeme brings strong financial and commercial credentials, management expertise, and a reputation for integrity and creating shareholder value. He couples solid strategic governance, finance, and control skills with a natural communication ability to inform decisions, challenge the status quo, and facilitate consensus among diverse stakeholders for these reasons he is a trusted advisor to Boards and management teams across the health care industry.
Graeme received his MBA for the University of Durham (U.K.) and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.