In this episode of BioTalk, Rich Bendis welcomes Dr. Helen Sabzevari, President and CEO of Precigen, to discuss the company’s cutting-edge science in gene and cell therapy. Dr. Sabzevari shares how Precigen’s unique AdenoVerse® platform has powered the development of PRGN-2012, a potential first-in-class therapeutic currently under FDA priority review for the treatment of adults with recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), a rare and devastating disease. She also highlights advances across Precigen’s broader pipeline in immuno-oncology and autoimmune disease and reflects on how Maryland’s BioHealth Capital Region has supported the company’s innovation and growth.
Listen now on your favorite podcast platform:
Apple: https://apple.co/3IdIAPi
Spotify: https://bit.ly/4eKJIGo
iHeart: https://ihr.fm/4krFxAy
YouTube: https://bit.ly/4lnRUPq
Amazon Music: https://amzn.to/4nG3Tt6
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/4lqEaTG
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant.
Dr. Helen Sabzevari is President and CEO of Precigen, a Maryland-based gene and cell therapy company, and member of the Precigen Board of Directors. She has also served as a member of other biopharma company boards, such as Kinnate. Dr. Sabzevari brings extensive expertise in research and development of immunotherapy-based therapeutics as well as experience translating novel treatments from pre-clinical stage into the clinic. Prior to Precigen, Dr. Sabzevari co-founded and served as Chief Scientific Officer of Compass Therapeutics, a fully-integrated drug discovery and development company focused on manipulating the immune system to treat human disease. Prior to Compass, Dr. Sabzevari served as Senior Vice President of Immuno-Oncology as well as Global Head of Immunotherapy, Oncology, Global Research and Early Development at Merck KGaA/EMD Serono, Darmstadt, Germany. During her tenure, she led the immuno-oncology discovery and early development translational innovation platform and brought forward numerous pre-clinical and clinical assets including avelumab, an approved anti-programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) checkpoint inhibitor. Earlier in her career, Dr. Sabzevari led the Molecular Immunology Group at the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the US National Cancer Institute (LTIB-NCI), where she was focused on design, development and delivery of novel immunotherapies for a range of human cancers.
Dr. Sabzevari’s contributions in the field of tumor immunology earned her the National Institutes of Health (NIH) merit award for major contribution to the field of cancer immunotherapy, and she has also received the Mass High Tech’s Women to Watch Award, the PharmaVOICE 100 Award (2013 and 2022), PharmaVOICE 100 Red Jacket award (2023), and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Team Science Award for her work on the NCI Cancer Immunotherapy Program Team. Dr. Sabzevari has been recognized on the Forbes 50 over 50: The Visionary List, Maryland’s Top 100 Women, PM360’s Elite 100 Strategists, and, most recently, Maryland Tech Council's Life Sciences CEO of the Year.
Dr. Sabzevari received her doctorate degree in cell and molecular immunology and completed her postdoctoral work at the department of immunology at the Scripps Research Institute working on various immunotherapeutic modalities in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.