Achilles Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel cancer immunotherapies targeting clonal neoantigens. Neoantigens are protein markers unique to each individual that are expressed on the surface of every cancer cell and can be detected by the immune system. Achilles uses DNA sequencing data from each patient together with our proprietary AI-powered bioinformatics platform, PELEUS™, to identify patient-specific clonal neoantigens that enable the development of personalized cell therapies using our VELOS™ manufacturing process. VELOS™ creates a clonal neoantigen-reactive T cell product, or cNeT, by using the power of natural antigen presentation by dendritic cells to selectively expand T cells that are reactive against the identified clonal neoantigens. cNeT products target multiple clonal neoantigens in a patient and exploit cancer’s Achilles heel, allowing precision treatments that destroy tumors without harming healthy tissues.
Chief Executive Officer
Iraj Ali has been Chief Executive Officer of Achilles Therapeutics since 2018. Previously he served as a Managing Partner of Syncona Ltd. During his tenure at Syncona he served as an investment partner and Board member of Nightstar Therapeutics and Blue Earth Diagnostics. Prior to that he was an Associate-Principal at McKinsey & Company where he was involved in several major pharmaceutical launches across developed and emerging markets. He has also held roles in scientific research: EMBO Research Scholar (UCSC), Drug Discovery Scientist (RiboTargets, Cambridge). Iraj has a PhD in Biochemistry from Cambridge University.
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Chief Scientific Officer
Sergio is a scientific founder of Achilles and is the Company’s CSO. He is also a Professor of Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy at University College London Cancer Institute and a CRUK senior cancer research fellow. He is an internationally recognised leader in the field of cancer immunology, tumour microenvironment, regulatory T cells and immune checkpoint blockade. His research unveiled the critical role of Fc receptors and the tumour microenvironment in the mechanism of action of anti CTLA-4 antibodies, and he is an inventor of several key patents supporting the clinical development of antibodies targeting immune checkpoints including VISTA, ICOS and CD25. Sergio co-led the development of a first in class Treg-depleting anti-human CD25 antibody with TUSK Therapeutics which was acquired by Roche in 2018 and is currently under clinical evaluation. In 2016 he co-led ground-breaking research supporting the key role of clonal tumour neoantigens in the immune response to cancer; research that underpins the Achilles approach. l. Sergio holds a PhD from Dartmouth Medical School. From 2004 to 2010 he held a post-doctoral position at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
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Chief Medical Officer
Dr Matilde Saggese serves as CMO (ad interim) leading our clinical development strategy. Matilde has more than 20 years’ experience working with patients with both solid and haematological tumours and across all different stages of drug development. Prior to joining Achilles Matilde was a senior member of the oncology drug development team at Astra Zeneca where she held previous roles of Indication Lead and Global Clinical Programme Lead, primarily focussed on Lung. She has a deep understanding of cancer biology and tumour immunology having completed her specialisation in Medical Oncology in Italy and an MD (Res) from the Cancer Institute of the University College London. As well UCL, Matilde also spent time earlier in her career in lab research at Sheffield University (Genetics Unit), Cornell University and Memorial Sloan Kettering adding to her experience and capabilities in the critical area of cell biology and translational science.
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Chief Financial Officer
Robert Coutts has served as Chief Financial Officer of Achilles since November 2020. Robert initially joined Achilles in November 2017, serving as Finance Director with responsibilities covering Finance, IT and Facilities. Previously Robert worked for Syncona Ltd leading the finance functions of new entities within their life science portfolio. Before that Robert served in a number of roles of increasing responsibility at the Wellcome Trust. Robert qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG where he spent time in both their Audit and Transactions & Restructuring teams. Robert has an MSc in Management from Cass Business School and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.
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Chief Business Officer
James brings over 25 years of value-creating deal experience that includes global platform and asset deals for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Most recently, he was Chief Business Officer at Sosei Heptares, where he completed a major collaboration with Neurocrine Biosciences for a Phase II-ready M4 agonist for schizophrenia, and led deals with Genentech, Takeda, AbbVie, GSK, Verily, Aditum and Biohaven Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this, James was a senior director at GSK where he led deals with GlycoVaxyn, Novartis, Pfizer, Biological E and consulted for Galvani Bioelectronics, the GSK/Google joint venture. He has held executive management roles at AstraZeneca, Summit Therapeutics and Cellzome.
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EVP Patient Supply Operations
Shree serves as EVP Patient Supply Operations at Achilles and has worked in the cell therapy field for over 10 years. Shree has significant experience in set up and implementation of supply chain for procurement and delivery of clinical and commercial cell therapy products. Previously she was responsible for set up, project management and delivery of early and late stage cell therapy clinical trials at Cell Medica in paediatric and adult populations, predominantly with virus specific T cells in autologous and allogeneic settings. She also supported set up and conduct of global early phase oncology cell therapy trials. Shree has a PhD in Structural Biochemistry from UCL, MSc Bioinformatics from Imperial and BSc Genetics from UCL.
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EVP Technical Operations
Ed serves as EVP Technical Operations at Achilles and has more than 16 years of industry and academic experience in process development, technology transfer, GMP manufacturing and regulatory affairs in the field of cell and gene therapy. Before joining Achilles, he was the Cell Therapy Operations Manager for Europe at Orchard Therapeutics where he was responsible for establishing the supply-chain infrastructure to support cell therapy manufacturing and regulatory submissions in the US and Europe. Previously, Ed held positions at Cognate BioServices Ltd as Director for Manufacturing and in post-doctoral translational research at University College London (UCL). He holds a PhD in T cell immunology and transplantation from UCL, and an MSc in Medical Immunology from King’s College London.
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General Counsel & Company Secretary
Dan serves as General Counsel & Company Secretary. He is a lawyer with more than 13 years’ experience working in-house within the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector which follows 10 years in private practice. He joined Achilles from Intercept Pharmaceuticals where he was Vice President, Legal with responsibility for all legal matters outside the United States. He has extensive experience as an in-house lawyer, including leadership and business partnering roles within GE Healthcare and Gilead Sciences. Dan has an MA in Law from Cambridge University and is enrolled as a solicitor in England & Wales and Ireland.
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EVP People
Tariq serves as EVP, People and a brings a wealth of experience gained across multiple business sectors to Achilles. He has been a member of Executive teams for the last 15 years, most recently at London Business School where he was the HR Director. Previous roles include RSA Insurance where he was the International Communications Director as well HR Director of their biggest revenue unit and Visa Inc. where he headed up Leadership and Organisational Development for the Emerging Markets and where he led the People & Culture workstream for Visa’s IPO. His passion is in coaching and helping people and teams unlock their potential in order to improve their performance. He holds a Masters in Strategic HR, has passed his Chartered Director exams and is a certified Leadership Coach
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Founder - University College London
Karl Peggs is a scientific founder of Achilles. He is also Director of Research at UCLH and Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) UCLH Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). Karl received his preclinical training and MA at Cambridge University, completing his clinical training at Oxford University Medical School. He completed his general medical training at Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge, and specialist haematology training at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and subsequently UCLH, London. He spent over 2 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center NYC, USA in the laboratory of Professor James Allison studying murine models of regulatory checkpoint blockade and subsequently ran a joint Research Laboratory with Professor Sergio Quezada at the UCL Cancer Institute. His research interests at this institute included viral infections, adoptive cellular therapies, and regulatory checkpoint-directed immune-therapeutics and he and Sergio retain active links to the institute. More recently he has established the clinical translational side of the academic CAR T cell programme at UCLH.
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Founder - University College London
Sergio Quezada is a scientific founder of Achilles and is the Company’s CSO. He is also a Professor of Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy at University College London Cancer Institute and a CRUK senior cancer research fellow. He is an internationally recognised leader in the field of cancer immunology, tumour microenvironment, regulatory T cells and immune checkpoint blockade. His research unveiled the critical role of Fc receptors and the tumour microenvironment in the mechanism of action of anti CTLA-4 antibodies, and he is an inventor of several key patents supporting the clinical development of antibodies targeting immune checkpoints including VISTA, ICOS and CD25. Sergio co-led the development of a first in class Treg-depleting anti-human CD25 antibody with TUSK Therapeutics which was acquired by Roche in 2018 and is currently under clinical evaluation. In 2016 he co-led ground-breaking research supporting the key role of clonal tumour neoantigens in the immune response to cancer; research that underpins the Achilles approach. l. Sergio holds a PhD from Dartmouth Medical School. From 2004 to 2010 he held a post-doctoral position at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
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Founder - University College London
Mark Lowdell is Director of the Centre for Cell, Gene & Tissue Therapeutics at the Royal Free Hospital and Professor of Cell & Tissue Therapy at UCL. He is a world-leader in the development of cell and tissue medicines for immunotherapy and transplantation and is an MHRA Qualified Person for release of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products, for use in clinical trials. He has been responsible for the development and delivery of multiple cell based therapies and the first GMP-compliant embryonic stem-cell derived product trialled in the UK. He is a founder of Cell Medica Ltd, InMune Bio Inc and Immune Ventures. Mark holds a PhD in clinical immunology from the University of London and fellowships from the Royal College of Pathologists (immunopathology) and the Royal Society of Biology. He is the current Vice President (EU) of the International Society for Cell Therapy.
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Founder - University College London & Francis Crick Institute
Charlie Swanton is a Royal Society Napier Professor of Cancer and consultant thoracic oncologist at UCL Hospitals. He also serves as Chief Clinician at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) as well as group Leader of the Cancer Evolution and Genome Instability laboratory at CRUK and the Francis Crick Institute. He is a world leader in the understanding of genomic diversity within cancers (intratumour heterogeneity) and molecular mechanisms driving cancer branched evolution. He has published over 130 papers and is the recipient of a number of awards in recognition of his research. He is the co-director of the CRUK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence and an appointed Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences (2014) and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2015), and Royal Society (2018). He is chief investigator of the UK cancer evolution program TRACERx. He has unparalleled experience in cell biology, bioinformatics and the development of a sequencing pipeline for the prediction and annotation of neoantigens. Charlie holds an MB BS and first class honours degree in Cell Biology and Immunology from UCL medical schools and PhD from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.
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Chairman
As a CEO for a total of almost 20 years, Edwin built two businesses (Oxford Asymmetry International plc and Ablynx nv), led their successful IPOs on the LSE, EuroNext and NASDAQ, and raised over €500M in equity and debt financing. He ran the sales process for each company generating values of £316M and €3.9Bn respectively. At Ablynx, Edwin ensured that the novel Nanobody technology platform was used to build a broad product pipeline, including Cablivi™, which is approved for use in both Europe and the USA. In addition, he helped secure pharmaceutical collaborations with a potential value of >€10Bn. Edwin has expertise in high value service provision to the pharmaceutical industry and in drug discovery and development, with more than 25 years of Board level experience in >20 companies. He is currently Chairman of Achilles Therapeutics plc, Avantium NV and LabGenius Ltd.
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Chief Executive Officer
Iraj Ali has been Chief Executive Officer of Achilles Therapeutics since 2018. Previously he served as a Managing Partner of Syncona Ltd. During his tenure at Syncona he served as an investment partner and Board member of Nightstar Therapeutics and Blue Earth Diagnostics. Prior to that he was an Associate-Principal at McKinsey & Company where he was involved in several major pharmaceutical launches across developed and emerging markets. He has also held roles in scientific research: EMBO Research Scholar (UCSC), Drug Discovery Scientist (RiboTargets, Cambridge). Iraj has a PhD in Biochemistry from Cambridge University.
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Non-Executive Director
Carsten Boess brings almost 30 years of experience in senior roles in pharmaceutical and biotech organisations. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors at Rocket Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Avidity Biosciences, Inc., and is Chair of the Audit Committee of both companies. Previously he served as Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, where he also held the role of Chief Business Officer. Prior to that he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Synageva Biopharma Corporation until its acquisition by Alexion Pharmaceuticals in 2015. Carsten also served in a number of roles at Insulet Corporation, including as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of International Operations. He was also Executive Vice President of Finance for Serono Inc., and prior to that he served as Chief Financial Officer at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and was a finance executive at Novozymes of North America and Novo Nordisk in France, Switzerland and China. During his tenure at Novo Nordisk he served on Novo Nordisk's Global Finance Board.
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