London, UK, 11 March 2020: Adaptate Biotherapeutics (Adaptate), a company focussed on developing antibody-based therapeutics for modulation of gamma delta T cells, today announced it has strengthened its management team, with Dr Mihriban Tuna having joined as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). The Company has also made several recent appointments to its broader leadership team including Dr Mark Uden as Vice President Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr Oxana Polyakova as Head of Discovery and Craig Taylor as Head of Business Operations. This demonstrates Adaptate’s commitment to establishing an experienced team to drive the development of its portfolio of gamma delta T cell focussed antibodies for therapeutic purposes and advance them into clinical studies.

Adaptate has discovered a number of antibodies that recognise drug targets and have the potential to modulate the activity of gamma delta T cells. Gamma delta T cells are a distinct T cell sub-type that respond to molecular patterns of distress in situ and have been shown to have tremendous potential in treating cancer and other immunological disorders. In 2019, Adaptate spun-out of Gamma Delta Therapeutics, a company developing gamma delta T cell-based therapies, to accelerate antibody-based assets towards clinical studies.

Dr Tuna has over 15 years’ experience in biologics drug discovery and development across biotech and pharma. She joins Adaptate from F-star where she was Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery, overseeing all internal and collaborative bispecific antibody programmes from concept through to candidate selection. Previously she held key scientific roles within antibody generation and technology development at Domantis and later in Biopharm R&D at GlaxoSmithKline. Dr Tuna holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Sussex and is currently studying for an executive MBA at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.

Dr Natalie Mount, CEO of Adaptate Biotherapeutics, said: “Following Adaptate Biotherapeutics’ spin out from GammaDelta Therapeutics in October last year, we now have a CSO on board as well as a fully established leadership team. Mihriban has significant industry standing and expertise as an antibody developer, which combined with our team’s extensive scientific and development skills, will enable us to further accelerate the therapeutic opportunities in our portfolio.”

Dr Mihriban Tuna, CSO of Adaptate Biotherapeutics, said: “Adaptate Biotherapeutics’ approach to immunotherapy has the potential to improve patients’ lives. The speed at which the Company is progressing is exciting and I very much look forward to working with the team to develop therapeutic antibodies to drug targets to modulate the activity of gamma delta T cells to help realise the full potential of these unique cells.”

For further information about Adaptate Biotherapeutics’ leadership team, please visit: www.adaptate.com