WOBURN, Massachusetts, March 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Abpro, a therapeutic antibody company targeting human disease and at the forefront of synthetic biology, today announced the expansion of its senior leadership team with the hiring of Dr. Gavin MacBeath, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. MacBeath brings over 16 years of experience in academia and the biotechnology industry, with expertise in systems biology, drug discovery, translational research, companion diagnostics, and clinical development of early-stage programs. He will report directly to Ian Chan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Abpro.

"I am delighted to welcome Dr. MacBeath to our management team," said Ian Chan. "Gavin brings an extensive scientific background and expertise in developing new technologies as evidenced by his achievements in both academia and in the clinic. His scientific leadership will be invaluable as we advance our antibody programs under our best-in-class DiversImmune^TM industrial biochemistry platform across large indications including ophthalmology, autoimmunity, and immune-oncology. I believe he will be an integral part of the team to leverage our new technologies and indications."

Dr. MacBeath stated, "I am excited to join Abpro during a dynamic time in its corporate history. Over the past decade, Abpro has repeatedly proven the value of its DiversImmune^TM platform to generate a broad range of therapeutic antibody candidates to treat human disease. As we enter a new era of discovery and clinical development, I am thrilled to work with co-founders Ian and Eugene Chan, along with the rest of the Abpro team, to help advance the Company's portfolio of proprietary candidates into the clinic while moving various strategic partnerships forward."

Dr. Gavin MacBeath comes to Abpro from Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, where he was a Founder and served most recently as Senior Vice President of Discovery and Head of Translational Medicine. During his tenure at Merrimack, Dr. MacBeath led several preclinical, Phase 1, and Phase 2 programs, as well as translational research across programs that led to the discovery of predictive biomarkers for several of Merrimack's investigational agents. During this time, Dr. MacBeath also held a position as Lecturer / Principal Investigator in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, where he discovered new signaling pathways driving cancer metastasis. Previously, Dr. MacBeath was an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. While at Harvard, Dr. MacBeath was a pioneer in Systems Biology, where he developed and used protein microarray technology to dissect aberrant signaling pathways in cancer. Dr. MacBeath holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Genetics from the University of Manitoba and a Ph.D. in Macromolecular and Cellular Structure and Chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute.

About Abpro

Abpro is a therapeutic antibody company targeting human disease. Through its core technology, the DiversImmune^TM platform, Abpro leverages synthetic biology and immunology to generate therapeutic antibodies against novel and challenging targets. Abpro partners with leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies globally and has a broad pipeline of programs in immuno-oncology, ophthalmology and inflammatory disease. For more information, visit www.abpro.com. 

Abpro Media Contact:
Vivian Chen, Citigate Dewe Rogerson
abpro@citigatedr.com
+1-(347)-481-3711

SOURCE Abpro