Foghorn Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology focused on medicines that treat serious disease by correcting abnormal gene expression, appointed Alfonso Quintás-Cardama, chief medical officer, effective September 11, 2023. Foghorn’s current CMO Sam Agresta, will retire from the company and will provide consulting services through early January 2024.

Quintás-Cardama most recently was the CMO at TCR2 since 2017, where he led the development of the company’s cell therapy platform. His prior experience includes serving as head of clinical development for cell therapies at GSK, where he was instrumental in building GSK’s cell therapies unit, and as the global clinical leader at Novartis from 2014 to 2016, where he led the development of tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah, CTL019), the first FDA-approved CAR-T cell therapy. He was also a faculty member of the Department of Leukemia at MD Anderson Cancer Center from 2009 to 2014, where he developed multiple FDA-approved targeted agents for the treatment of myeloid malignancies.

“As a leader in understanding and drugging chromatin biology, Foghorn is uniquely positioned to develop the next class of cancer medicines,” said Quintás-Cardama. “I am excited to join Foghorn given the company’s broad pipeline coupled with a platform that has enabled the drugging of some of the most compelling targets in cancer. I am looking forward to being part of the Foghorn journey as the company continues to address unmet needs in cancer and brings potential therapies to people who need it the most.”

Adrian Gottschalk President and CEO of Foghorn said, “We are excited to welcome Alfonso to the Foghorn team. Alfonso’s experience and expertise in oncology and as a leukemia expert will be integral to our plans as we continue to advance our pipeline and develop medicines for patients.”