NJA-201

Shinobi Therapeutics, an off-the-shelf cell therapy developer, told Endpoints News it has hired its first chief scientific and medical officers as it also nabs two leaders in the cell therapy field for its scientific advisory board. Former Metagenomi CSO Luis Borges will fill the same post at Shinobi, and the company appointed Steven Katz as CMO, the same role he recently held at oncology biotech TriSalus Life Sciences. Named after the Japanese word for ninja, Bay Area and Kyoto-based Shinobi emerged with $51 million last December for “stealthy” cell therapies. The biotech aims to create allogeneic cell therapies that can be re-dosed and given to patients with immunosuppressive drugs. “Like a ninja, [it] goes into the patient’s circulation, evades the immune attack but then goes and kills the bad guy — the cancer cells,” CEO Dan Kemp previously told Endpoints. Shinobi also named Katy Rezvani and Georg Schett to its SAB, where they’ll join CAR-T pioneer Carl June. The two bring expertise across oncology and autoimmune diseases, the two focus areas of Shinobi’s pipeline. Rezvani, a leader in the NK cell therapy field, was recently named the head of MD Anderson’s new $80 million Institute for Cell Therapy Discovery & Innovation. Kemp had previously worked with her when he was head of cell therapy BD at Takeda and signed a collaboration with her team . Schett helped open up the cell therapy field to a revolution in autoimmune diseases in recent years, with research showing the class’ potential beyond cancer. The additions come a few months after Shinobi picked up a $59 million funding grant from the Japanese Agency for Medical Research and Development. The biotech plans to begin clinical testing in Japan in 2026 with JA-001, its iPS-T cell therapy targeting GPC3+ solid tumors, Kemp told Endpoints. The biotech also has NJA-201, a CD19-CAR target iPS-NK cell product in development for autoimmune diseases. Shinobi, the product of a merger between Thyas and Evade Biotechnology, has focused its pipeline, Kemp said. It had previously also outlined plans for a type 1 diabetes pancreatic beta cell program, among other programs.