BOSTON, Sept. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ziopharm Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZIOP), today announced the appointment of four additional members to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The SAB, under the leadership of Carl June, M.D. as chairman, will provide strategic and scientific counsel to guide development of Ziopharm’s pipeline of immunotherapies to treat patients with solid tumors.

The newly appointed members are:

• Adi Barzel, Ph.D., President of the Israeli Society of Gene and Cell Therapy; Senior Lecturer, Department of Biochemistry, School of NeuroBiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Tel Aviv University
• Gavin Dunn, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery, Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs, Washington University School of Medicine
• Matthew Porteus, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics (Stem Cell Transplantation), Stanford University
• Kole Roybal, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco; member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center

“We are pleased to welcome Drs. Barzel, Dunn, Porteus and Roybal as our scientific advisors to guide the development of our programs,” said Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Ziopharm. “Their extensive experience and knowledge of immunology will help advance Ziopharm’s immunotherapies toward our goal of treating any solid tumor. I look forward to collaborating closely with these notable experts.”

Dr. June added, “Each of our new members brings unparalleled experience in their respective fields, granting us the ability to be resourceful and strategic. I look forward to working with this team as we help guide the Company in advancing its pipeline of promising immunotherapies.”

Dr. Adi Barzel serves as the President of the Israeli Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and the Chair of the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE). In 2016, he was appointed Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Tel Aviv University. In August 2014, Dr. Barzel co-founded the gene therapy start-up company LogicBio Therapeutics, which is developing durable cures for serious rare diseases based on the technology he developed during his postdoctoral research at Stanford University.

Dr. Gavin Dunn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery, with an appointment in the Department of Pathology and Immunology, at Washington University. He is also a member of the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs. Dr. Dunn’s laboratory focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular basis of the immune response to glioblastoma in preclinical and translational settings.

Dr. Matthew Porteus is considered one of the pioneers and founders of the field of genome editing. He is an attending physician at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital where he treats pediatric patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. After earning his combined M.D., Ph.D. at Stanford Medical School, Dr. Porteus completed his postdoctoral training in homologous recombination as a curative therapy for children with genetic diseases, where his focus still remains.

Dr. Kole Roybal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, and a full member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. After receiving a doctorate in Immunology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dr. Roybal moved to Wendell Lim's lab and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. There he developed Synthetic Notch, a new class of synthetic receptors for cell therapies for cancer, autoimmunity and regenerative medicine.

About Ziopharm Oncology, Inc.

Ziopharm is developing non-viral and cytokine-driven cell and gene therapies that weaponize the body’s immune system to treat the millions of people globally diagnosed with a solid tumor each year. With its multiplatform approach, Ziopharm is at the forefront of immuno-oncology with a goal to treat any type of solid tumor. Ziopharm’s pipeline is built for commercially scalable, cost effective T-cell receptor T-cell therapies based on its non-viral Sleeping Beauty gene transfer platform, a precisely controlled IL-12 gene therapy, and rapidly manufactured Sleeping Beauty-enabled CD19-specific CAR-T program. The Company has clinical and strategic partnerships with the National Cancer Institute, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and others. For more information, please visit www.ziopharm.com