CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Garuda Therapeutics (Garuda), a company creating off-the-shelf, durable blood stem cell therapies, today announced the appointment of David DiGiusto, Ph.D., as Chief Technology Officer. Dr. DiGiusto most recently served as CTO and SVP Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at National Resilience Inc., a technology-focused biomanufacturing company dedicated to broadening access to complex medicines.
“We are thrilled to have David join the Garuda team as we strive to deliver rapid and broad access to consistent, durable, HLA-matched transgene-free blood stem cell therapies,” said Dhvanit Shah, Ph.D., Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Garuda. “David brings formal training as an immunologist and stem cell biologist with three decades of academic and industrial experience in translational medicine with a focus on blood cells as therapeutic agents. David’s expertise in the fields of cell and gene therapy, product development and manufacturing will be instrumental in helping us to advance our goal of bringing this potentially vital, and often curative, therapy to all eligible patients in need.”
Dr. DiGiusto has more than 21 years of academic and 11 years of industrial experience in translational medicine with a focus on blood cells as therapeutic agents. He has led the creation and/or operation of 11 GMP compliant biologics manufacturing facilities including the oversight of process development, manufacturing, quality systems and regulatory affairs infrastructure. Under his direction, plasmid DNA, CAR T-cells, regulatory T-cells, pancreatic islets, engineered stem cell grafts and gene modified hematopoietic stem cell products have been developed, manufactured and used in clinical investigations. Dr. DiGiusto is the former North American Vice President for ISCT (2016-2018), former member of the NIH recombinant DNA advisory committee (RAC) and an independent biotechnology consultant. He received his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Colorado.
“Dave’s contributions to our Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine business have set a strong foundation upon which we will continue to build,” said Rahul Singhvi, ScD, Chief Executive Officer of Resilience. “We look forward to continued collaboration with him at Garuda, to not only bolster our existing relationship with the company, but to drive further innovation in the cell therapy space.”
Garuda’s platform for generating off-the-shelf, self-renewing blood stem cells is designed to provide patients with rapid and broad access to consistent, durable, HLA-matched, transgene-free blood stem cell therapies. Currently, patients seeking a blood stem cell transplant must find a suitable human donor as a source of blood stem cells. Racial minority patients face significant barriers in identifying suitable blood stem cell matches. Like bone marrow transplants, Garuda’s technology has the potential to address, and possibly cure, more than 120 diseases for a diverse population of patients with unmet medical need.
“I am privileged to join Garuda and advance a treatment that could provide potentially curative therapies to patients afflicted by more than 120 diseases,” Dr. DiGiusto said. “I have spent my career advancing approaches that utilize cells as therapeutic agents and delivering off-the-shelf, self-renewing blood stem cells is a game changing advancement of which I am thrilled to be a part.”
About Garuda Therapeutics
Garuda Therapeutics seeks to create a world that eliminates the dependency on donor or patient cells for blood stem cell transplants. Our platform technology for generating off-the-shelf, self-renewing blood stem cells is poised to provide patients with rapid and broad access to consistent, durable, HLA-compatible and transgene-free blood stem cell therapies. Like bone marrow transplants, our technology could provide potentially curative therapies for more than 120 diseases. https://garudatx.com/
