Adrian Woolfson, BM BCh, Ph.D., has been appointed executive vice president of R&D, Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Woolfson will oversee discovery, research and development activities for the company and will report to Sandy Macrae.

Dr. Woolfson has over a decade of biopharmaceutical industry experience in drug discovery, medical affairs and early and late stage clinical development. Most recently, he served as chief medical officer at Nouscom AG, a genetic cancer vaccine biotechnology company based in Basel, Switzerland, where he led the development of the company’s off-the-shelf and personalized neoantigen vaccine and oncolytic virus strategy. Prior to Nouscom, Dr. Woolfson served as Global Clinical Leader, Early and Late Stage Immuno-Oncology/Hematology at Pfizer, and was responsible for defining Pfizer’s hematology immuno-oncology strategy. Prior to that he was the Global Lead for Pfizer’s SMO inhibitor glasdegib. From 2007 to 2013, Dr. Woolfson held roles of increasing responsibility at Bristol-Myers Squibb initially in London, UK where he launched the TKI dasatinib, and then in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was Global Medical Lead for a first-in-human CDC7 inhibitor and selective JAK2 inhibitor.

“This is a meaningful time to welcome Adrian to Sangamo, as we expect a significant flow of clinical data from our genomic medicines programs throughout 2019 and will advance new programs into first-in-human studies,” said Sandy Macrae, Sangamo’s chief executive officer. “Adrian’s extensive experience in research, translational medicine and drug development will be instrumental in guiding our therapeutic development strategy and leading Sangamo’s growth into a late-stage development company in the upcoming years.”