Fate Therapeutics Further Expands Executive Management Team to Advance Discovery and Development of Stem Cell Therapeutics

LA JOLLA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fate Therapeutics, Inc. announced the continued expansion of its executive management team with the addition of Ken Batchelor, Ph.D., as the Company’s chief scientific officer. Dr. Batchelor brings more than 28 years of experience in drug discovery and development, serving most recently as senior vice president at GlaxoSmithKline. During his career, he has advanced 11 drug candidates from target identification to positive completion of Phase 2 clinical studies. Dr. Batchelor will lead the Company’s pursuit of discovering and developing small molecules and biologics to guide cell fate for therapeutic purposes.

“Ken Batchelor has a patient-centered approach that has led to a successful career translating discoveries into the clinic,” said Paul Grayson, president and CEO of Fate Therapeutics. “Combining the Company’s unmatched knowledge of stem cell biology with Ken’s experience in small molecule drug discovery and development across multiple therapeutic areas will accelerate our pursuit of revolutionary medicines.”

Fate Therapeutics has identified and characterized fundamental biological pathways that are known to regulate cell fate. Through its growing understanding of these pathways, the Company is exploring novel targets that can specifically activate adult stem cells in the body to repair tissue and treat disease. Under Dr. Batchelor’s leadership, Fate Therapeutics will continue to expand its stem cell biology platform for the identification and development of conventional pharmaceuticals for diseases and conditions that currently have limited to no treatment options. Founded in 2007, Fate Therapeutics emerged from a nation-wide convergence in adult stem cell biology. The Company’s world-renowned scientific founders are from the nation’s leading research institutions including Harvard, Stanford, The Scripps Research Institute, the University of Washington and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

“As the first company in the stem cell field to pursue a small molecule approach, Fate Therapeutics truly represents a unique platform to create stem cell therapeutics,” said Dr. Batchelor. “I am looking forward to applying my years of experience in conventional drug discovery and development to the new and exploding field of adult stem cell biology.”

Dr. Batchelor started working for Glaxo in 1981 as a group leader and subsequently was promoted into a number of positions including chairman of the Cancer Research Management Committee, International Director for Metabolic and Rheumatic Diseases, Vice President of U.S. Drug Discovery, Senior Vice President of the Metabolic Center of Excellence for Drug Discovery, chair of the Academic Alternative Discovery Initiative, and, most recently, Senior Vice President in Metabolic and Viral Diseases. Dr. Batchelor is co-inventor of Avodart®. He received his Ph.D. in immunology from Birmingham University, U.K. and his B.S. with honors in chemistry from Durham University, U.K.

About Fate Therapeutics, Inc.

Fate Therapeutics is interrogating stem cell biology to develop therapeutics based on modulating cell fate and to enable a new drug discovery paradigm with the Company’s proprietary induced-pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology. The Company’s first therapeutic candidate is scheduled to enter clinical trials in early 2009 in hematopoietic reconstitution. Fate Therapeutics is a private biotech company headquartered in La Jolla, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.fatetherapeutics.com.