CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cue Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: CUE), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engineering a novel class of injectable biologics designed to selectively engage and modulate targeted T cells within the patient’s body, announced today the appointments of renowned experts Abul K. Abbas, M.D., distinguished professor in pathology and former chair of the department of pathology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Michael Kalos, Ph.D., managing director of Next Pillar Consulting, LLC and former executive vice president and head of research and development at ArsenalBio, to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).

“We are honored to welcome Dr. Abbas, a distinguished professor of immunology and Dr. Kalos, a leader in T cell therapy and immunotherapy to our Scientific Advisory Board,” said Dr. Anish Suri, president and chief scientific officer of Cue Biopharma. “We believe their combined expertise, experience and industry insight in immuno-oncology, autoimmunity and the regulation of immune responses will provide invaluable guidance as the company seeks to execute its next phase of growth aimed at advancing its research programs and drug development platforms to harness the patient’s adaptive immune system for selective immune modulation.”

“The addition of Dr. Abbas and Dr. Kalos as members of Cue Biopharma’s SAB is intended to enhance our ability to leverage emerging clinical observations and preclinical data for mechanistic insight into research and development strategies,” said Steven C. Almo, Ph.D., scientific advisory board chair and chairman of the department of biochemistry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

“I am very excited to be joining Cue Biopharma’s Scientific Advisory Board,” said Dr. Abbas. “The protein engineering approach and resulting platforms developed by Cue Biopharma allow for novel and promising means for targeted modulation of the patient’s immune system. The ability to target immune modulating agents such as IL-2 to specific disease-relevant cell populations could avoid the unwanted side-effects and deleterious activities associated with systemic delivery of these molecules. Also, the ability to selectively manipulate cells of desired antigen specificity, which is the ultimate goal of most immune therapies, has the potential to represent a breakthrough for treating diseases associated with immune dysfunction.”

Dr Kalos added, “It is now well understood that for immune therapies to be more broadly effective, antigen-specific immune cells need to be more effectively and safely triggered and supported to drive potent and sustained responses. The technologies being developed by Cue Biopharma, through the Immuno-STAT™ and Neo-STAT™ platforms, have the potential to selectively, and effectively deliver the triggering and support functions that will drive T cell potency, opening up the opportunity to enhance activity, potency and safety of the breadth of immunotherapies from checkpoints to cell therapies as well as vaccines.”

About Dr. Abbas
Dr. Abul K. Abbas received his MBBS (M.D. equivalent) in India, completed training in Pathology at Harvard Medical School and joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he rose to become Professor of Pathology and Head of the Immunology Research Division. In 1999, after twenty years on the Harvard Medical School faculty, he moved to UCSF as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pathology, where he served in this position until 2018. Dr. Abbas has received several honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Rous-Whipple Award and Robbins Educator Award of the American Society of Investigative Pathology. He has served as one of the founding Editors and Associate Editor of Immunity, Associate Editor and Section Editor for The Journal of Immunology, Associate Editor of Cell, Consulting Editor of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, founding Editor of the Annual Review of Pathology: Mechanisms of Disease, and Co-Chief Scientific Advisor of Science Immunology. From 2011-2013, he was the President of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS).

Dr. Abbas’ research interests are in immunology, with a focus on the control of immune responses and the causes of autoimmunity. His laboratory has used experimental models to analyze the generation and maintenance of regulatory T cells. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and invited reviews and is the author of four widely read textbooks, two in immunology and two in pathology. He has taught immunology at Harvard Medical School and UCSF and has organized and conducted immunology courses worldwide.

About Dr. Kalos
Dr. Michael Kalos is an internationally recognized expert in T cell therapy and immunotherapy and brings over 25 years of experience and expertise in cell therapy, oncology vaccines, and immuno-oncology. Most recently Michael served as Executive Vice President and Head of R&D at ArsenalBio, a synthetic biology-based cell therapy start-up. At ArsenalBio Michael led development of research and development and product development strategy for the company’s first product. Prior to ArsenalBio Michael served as Vice President of Immuno-oncology and Oncology Cell Therapies at Janssen, the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson and Johnson, where he led corporate internal and external strategy and efforts in cell therapy, neoantigen vaccines, and immuno-oncology. Prior to Janssen, Michael served as Chief Scientific Officer of immuno-oncology at Eli Lilly and Company, where he established and led internal and external corporate strategy in immuno-oncology, including biologics, bi-specifics, vaccines, and cell therapy. Prior to joining the biopharmaceutical sector, Michael spent 10 years in academia, where he focused on the development of integrated translational biomarker programs to support the development of cell therapy and immunotherapy programs. The laboratory he founded and directed at the University of Pennsylvania played a key role in the success of the cell therapy program at the University of Pennsylvania, including clinical development of the CTL019 program that was licensed to Novartis and led to the approval of Kymriah. Dr. Kalos obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and completed post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Phil Greenberg at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Dr. Kalos has co-authored over 85 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including multiple highly cited articles in high-impact journals that have helped define the space of CAR- and TCR- based T cell therapy, as well as book chapters in the field of cancer immunotherapy, and has 26 issued patents in the field of cell therapy, immunotherapy, and vaccines. He actively serves and has served as an advisory member for international immunotherapy consortia and societies as well as biopharmaceutical companies.

About Cue Biopharma
Cue Biopharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is engineering a novel class of injectable biologics to selectively engage and modulate targeted T cells within the patient’s body to transform the treatment of cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases. The company’s proprietary platform, Immuno-STAT™ (Selective Targeting and Alteration of T cells) is designed to harness the body’s intrinsic immune system without the need for ex vivo manipulation.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we are led by an experienced management team and independent Board of Directors with deep expertise in the design and clinical development of protein biologics, immunology and immuno-oncology.

For more information, visit www.cuebiopharma.com and follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/CueBiopharma.