Calidi Biotherapeutics Announces the Appointment of Three New Members to its Scientific and Medical Advisory Board
- Antonio Chiocca, M.D., Ph.D., Chair, Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Co-Director, Institute for the Neurosciences, and Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School
- David T. Curiel, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Washington University School of Medicine
- Burt L. Nabors, M.D., Professor, Vice Chair for Research, and Division Director of Neuro-Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
Calidi Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE:CLDI), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a new generation of targeted immunotherapies today announced the appointment of three new members to its Scientific and Medical Advisory Board. These oncology experts are among the country's preeminent leaders in cancer biology and clinical care and join the company's existing advisors who hail from top cancer research institutions and facilities collaborating with Calidi in the development of its novel immunotherapies targeting high-grade gliomas and solid tumors.
"Calidi continues to expand our Scientific and Medical Advisory Board, adding leading physicians and scientists from the top cancer hospitals and research institutions in the United States," said Allan Camaisa, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Calidi Biotherapeutics. "In addition to our esteemed current board of advisors, we believe that the support of Antonio, David, and Burt, will further de-risk our novel platform and accelerate clinical trials which test our novel approach to treating cancer. I would like to welcome all three new members, and I look forward to leveraging their expertise to advance the development of CLD-101 (NeuroNova) and CLD-201 (SuperNova)."
Antonio Chiocca, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Antonio Chiocca, M.D., Ph.D., serves as the Neurosurgeon-in-Chief and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He also leads the Institute for the Neurosciences as Co-director and is the Surgical Director at the Center for Neuro-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Chiocca is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and leads a laboratory focused on developing novel genetic therapies for malignant brain tumors. His research centers around engineering viruses that can kill tumor cells without affecting normal brain cells and includes extensive preclinical evaluation of oncolytic viruses for glioma therapy. Dr. Chiocca has more than 250 peer-reviewed publications including research in Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, Molecular Cell, and PNAS. He received his joint M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the Graduate School Biomedical Sciences.
David T. Curiel, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. David T. Curiel, M.D., Ph.D., is the Distinguished Professor of Radiation Oncology and the Director of the Biologic Therapeutics Center at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Curiel's research focuses on gene transfer vectors designed to advance the human application of gene therapy and virotherapy and has completed extensive work with oncolytic virotherapy for glioblastoma. Dr. Curiel, a funded member of the NIH Common Fund's Somatic Cell Genome Editing program, is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and has published hundreds of papers with thousands of citations focused on oncology. Dr. Curiel received his M.D. from Emory University School of Medicine, his Ph.D. in Virology from Groningen University in the Netherlands, completed his residency at Emory University, and his fellowships in Pulmonary Medicine at the National Institutes of Health and in biotechnology at the Navy Medical Oncology Branch at the National Institutes of Health.
Burt L. Nabors, M.D.
Dr. Burt Nabors, M.D., is a Professor and Vice Chair of Research for the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Nabors is the Director for the UAB Division of Neuro-oncology, an active participating member with the Neurology Service for UAB Hospital and a Senior Scientist in the Neuro-oncology program at the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB. Dr. Nabors received his M.D. from the University of Tennessee and completed his residency and fellowship at UAB Hospital in Neurology and Neuro-oncology.
About the Calidi Scientific and Medical Advisory Board
Calidi's Scientific and Medical Advisory Board is tasked with advising the company on its scientific approach and helping inform the company about how to best advance its novel immunotherapies into the clinic. The three new advisors join existing Scientific and Medical Advisory Board members, including:
- Karen Aboody, M.D., Head of Translational Stem Cell-Oncology Laboratory, City of Hope
- Ewa Carrier, M.D., Executive Director of Clinical Development, FibroGen, Inc.
- Santosh Kesari, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Neuro-Oncology and Chair of the Department of Translational Neurosciences and Neurotherapeutics, John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence Saint John's Health Center
- Maciej (Matt) Lesniak, M.D., Michael J. Marchese Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurological Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
- Ashok Srivastava, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President Immuno-Oncology, Medical Oncology and Hematology Drug Development, Medical Affairs and Pharmacovigilance, CliniFomatrix
- W.K. Alfred Yung, M.D., Professor of Neuro-Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Dmitriy Zamarin, M.D., Ph.D., Medical Oncologist, Gynecologic Medical Oncology and Immunotherapeutics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
About Calidi Biotherapeutics
Calidi Biotherapeutics (NYSE:CLDI) is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company with proprietary technology designed to arm the immune system to fight cancer. Calidi's novel stem cell-based platforms are utilizing potent allogeneic stem cells capable of carrying payloads of oncolytic viruses for use in multiple oncology indications, including high-grade gliomas and solid tumors. Calidi's clinical stage off-the-shelf, universal cell-based delivery platforms are designed to protect, amplify, and potentiate oncolytic viruses leading to enhanced efficacy and improved patient safety. This dual approach can potentially treat, or even prevent, metastatic disease. Calidi Biotherapeutics is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, please visit www.calidibio.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements for purposes of the "safe harbor" provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Terms such as "anticipates," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intends," "may," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predicts," "project," "should," "towards," "would" as well as similar terms, are forward-looking in nature, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning upcoming key milestones, planned clinical trials, and statements relating to the safety and efficacy of Calidi's therapeutic candidates in development. Any forward-looking statements contained in this discussion are based on Calidi's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects and are subject to multiple risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth or implied in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk that Calidi is not able to raise sufficient capital to support its current and anticipated clinical trials, the risk that early results of clinical trials do not necessarily predict final results and that one or more of the clinical outcomes may materially change following more comprehensive review of the data, and as more patient data becomes available, the risk that Calidi may not receive FDA approval for some or all of its therapeutic candidates. Other risks and uncertainties are set forth in the section entitled "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in the Company's Registration Statements filed with the SEC on Form S-4 filed on August 2, 2023, on Form S-1 filed on October 6, 2023, on Form 10-Q filed on November 14, 2023, and on Amendment No. 1 to the Form S-1 filed on December 12, 2023.
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