Enara Bio announces the appointment of T-cell therapy leader Dr. Sophie Papa as Chief Medical Officer

OXFORD, England, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Enara Bio, a biotechnology company advancing novel T-cell receptor (TCR) directed immunotherapies against unconventional, shared, cancer-specific antigens, announces the appointment of Dr. Sophie Papa, FRCP, PhD as Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Papa joins Enara Bio from King's College London (KCL) and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust (GSTFT) where she was a Clinical Reader in Immuno-oncology and Consultant Medical Oncologist. At both world-leading institutes, Dr. Papa led the delivery of cutting-edge first-in-human clinical trials in the cancer cell therapy space.

Kevin Pojasek, President and CEO of Enara Bio, commented: "I am delighted to welcome Sophie to Enara Bio as our Chief Medical Officer. Her extensive experience spanning both preclinical and clinical research makes Sophie an ideal fit for our senior leadership team as we look towards advancing our ground-breaking science into the clinic. Sophie's deep knowledge combined with her confident humility make her an exceptional addition as we continue to build Enara, based on a purpose-driven, self-led and inclusive culture."

As a medical oncologist, Dr. Papa has broad expertise in the cancer immunotherapy space. She has been a frequent principal investigator as a member of the Guy's and St Thomas's Early Phase Trials Team, with a particular focus on the design and delivery of first-in-human studies of T-cell therapies for solid tumors. As the program lead for cell therapy at GSTFT, Dr. Papa has expertise across the life cycle, from procurement to delivery, of complex cellular therapies. She also treated patients with malignant melanoma as a consultant in the skin cancer practice.

Dr. Papa added: "I am thrilled to join Enara Bio, a company exploring truly novel T-cell approaches to cancer immunotherapy outside the conventional areas of discovery. I have first-hand experience of the extraordinary impact of cancer immunotherapy advancements in recent years and with that, an understanding of the ongoing unmet clinical need. I look forward to working with the Enara team to bring the next generation of cancer cell therapies to the clinic, in what has become such an exciting therapeutic space."

Dr. Papa completed her medical training at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London and went on to complete a PhD in solid tumor CAR T-cell cancer immunotherapy at King's College London. As a clinical academic, her research interest has been in the field of immune-oncology, particularly enhancing CAR-T cell clinical translation and understanding the role of the immune system in checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

About Enara Bio

Enara Bio's mission is to shine a light on unconventional targets and develop the next generation of cancer immunotherapies designed to treat a broad patient population. Enara Bio is exploring the hidden depths of cancer and T-cell biology to discover and characterize novel immunotherapy targets, such as MR1-presented ligands and Dark Antigens™, which arise from altered cellular processes in cancer cells. We are pioneering approaches to exploit these targets with TCR-directed therapy and other immunotherapeutic modalities. To achieve our mission, we are leveraging our differentiated MR1 ligand complex, Dark Antigen™ and TCR discovery platforms that integrate bioinformatics, immunopeptidomics, metabolomics and immunology in our Oxford, UK-based research lab alongside our extensive immunotherapy development expertise.

Enara Bio is backed by leading life science investors, including SV Health Investors, the founding investor, together with RA Capital and Samsara Biocapital. We have a major strategic partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim to discover and validate novel Dark Antigens in up to three tumor types and collaborate with a number of world-class academic institutions, including the Francis Crick Institute, Cardiff University, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Oxford, to help drive our differentiated science.

For further information visit: www.enarabio.com 

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Enara Bio Limited
Kevin Pojasek, CEO
Tel: +44(0)1865 618 828
Email: info@enarabio.com

MEDiSTRAVA Consulting
Frazer Hall, Mark Swallow, Eleanor Perkin
Tel: +44 (0)203 928 6900
Email: enarabio@medistrava.com