Our Company
Sigilon Therapeutics seeks to develop functional cures for patients with a broad range of acute and chronic diseases by harnessing the power of the human cell through its Shielded Living Therapeutics™ platform. Sigilon’s product candidates are non-viral engineered cell-based therapies designed to restore functions or provide therapeutic molecules needed by patients living with acute or chronic diseases such as diabetes and lysosomal diseases.
The engineered cells are encapsulated by Sigilon’s Afibromer™ biomaterials matrix, which is designed to shield the cells from immune rejection. Sigilon was founded by Flagship Pioneering in conjunction with Daniel Anderson, Ph.D., and Robert Langer, Sc.D., of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Our team
- Leadership
- Founders
- Scientific Advisory Board
Leadership Sarah Yuan, Ph.D., brings more than 20 years of experience in process development, manufacturing sciences and CMC strategies from a broad range of leading biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Sigilon Therapeutics, Dr. Yuan served as Vice President of Process and Analytical Development at 2seventy bio, the oncology spinoff of bluebird bio. At 2seventy bio, she was instrumental in getting three cell therapy products approved, in addition to advancing a preclinical product through IND clearance. Previously, Dr. Yuan led the External Manufacturing Organization for the Rare Blood Disorders Franchise at Sanofi. She also served as the Head of Technical Development and Manufacturing Sciences at Bioverativ, prior to its acquisition by Sanofi. At Bioverativ, she built and developed high functioning teams responsible for overseeing external manufacturing operations, developing and executing CMC strategies, delivering manufacturing processes, analytical methods and driving life cycle management initiatives for all clinical and commercial products. Earlier in her career, Dr. Yuan held various roles with increasing responsibilities in Biogen’s Manufacturing Sciences department, led Process Development at Agenus, and spent several years developing novel resins and membranes at Millipore. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of California at Berkeley.
Leadership Olivia G. Kelly, Ph.D., has over 13 years of experience in the biotechnology industry developing cell therapies. Prior to joining Sigilon, Dr. Kelly served as the Senior Director of Cell Biology at ViaCyte, a clinical stage company focused on developing stem cell-derived therapies for diabetes, where she led efforts in stem cell differentiation, assay development, quality control and tumorigenicity studies which supported multiple IND/CTA filings and achieved multiple research grant and licensing milestones. Dr. Kelly has coauthored a number of high-profile journal publications and is a co-inventor on multiple patents. Dr. Kelly earned a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Austin and then pursued a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University, where her research focused on molecular mechanisms of early embryonic patterning and pancreas development. Dr. Kelly’s postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California at Berkeley/San Francisco and Baylor College of Medicine focused on signaling mechanisms that regulate the development of various tissues and stem cell differentiation.
Leadership Melodie Henderson, J.D., is a registered U.S. patent attorney with over 20 years of legal, management and R&D experience with life science companies. Prior to joining Sigilon, Ms. Henderson was the first in-house IP counsel at Minerva Neurosciences. Previously, Ms. Henderson served as a Legal Director for 11 years at Schering Pough/Merck, where her responsibilities included building and managing the patent portfolio for several pre-clinical and clinical biologics programs as well as five marketed products. Ms. Henderson’s first in-house legal role was at Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, where she established the IP function and managed a team of patent professionals. Before going in-house, Ms. Henderson began her legal career as an associate attorney at two IP boutique law firms. Ms. Henderson holds a B.A. degree in biochemistry from the University of Kansas, an M.S. degree in biochemistry from St. Louis University and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut
Leadership Ying Jing, Ph.D., has over 17 years of industry experience in developing innovative, scalable, productive, and robust biomanufacturing processes to support clinical trials and commercial supply of biotherapeutics for patients. She has worked on over 15 molecular entities in a wide range of therapeutic modalities including small molecules, proteins, viral vectors, mRNA and cell therapy in different bio/pharma companies. Prior to joining Sigilon, Dr. Jing worked at 2seventy bio as a Sr. Director of Process Science, responsible for leading viral vector, mRNA and cell therapy process development, manufacturing support and process life cycle management. Previously, Dr. Jing served as a Sr. Strategy and Technology Leader at Novartis leading the high-density perfusion process platform development and manufacturing implementation. Before Novartis, she was the head of upstream process development at Dimension Therapeutics, later acquired by Ultragenyx. At Dimension, she built the process development team responsible for Adeno-associated virus (AAV) platform process development and manufacturing implementation. Earlier in her career, Dr. Jing worked in Wyeth, Bristol-Myers Squibb and AbbVie with increasing responsibilities in the areas of protein biologics process development, tech transfer and process validation. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Ohio State University and a M.S. in Analytical Chemistry from Nankai University, China.
Leadership Bernd Kullmann, M.B.A., brings over 15 years of supply chain and operations experience to the company. Before joining Sigilon, he held Head of Supply Chain positions at BeiGene, Ltd. and Medivation, Inc. Mr. Kullmann’s career in the life sciences industry began at Biogen Idec (now Biogen) where he held various management positions in clinical supply. Prior to working in life sciences, Mr. Kullmann was in turnaround consulting at KPMG and Mesirow Financial Consulting working with companies to diagnose and address operational causes of underperformance. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Norwich University and an M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University.
Leadership Jamie Murphy, CPA and M.B.A., brings more than 10 years of financial experience in the biotechnology and life sciences to his role at Sigilon. Before joining Sigilon, he served as the controller of Zafgen Inc. where he played an integral role in the completion of Zafgen’s reverse merger with Larimar Therapeutics. Following the completion of the merger he served as a financial consultant at Larimar Therapeutics where he led the accounting groups transition to being a publicly traded company. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where he was a manager in their Boston office’s health industry practice and provided accounting and auditing services to a range of public and private biotech and life science companies. He is a Certified Public Accountant, received his BS in business and history from Wake Forest University and also received his Masters of Accounting and Masters of Business Administration from Northeastern University.
Leadership Joseph Tumang, Ph.D., joins Sigilon as VP, Head of Immune Mediated Diseases. Previously, Dr. Tumang was Director of the Cancer Immunology department at Boehringer-Ingelheim, where he led the in vitro, the in vivo and most recently the oncology translational sciences teams. Prior to this, he led drug discovery projects at EMD Serono, Pfizer and Compass Therapeutics. Dr. Tumang graduated from Cornell University as a card-carrying immunologist and has published papers on both autoimmune diseases and cancer immunology.
Leadership Jiang Wu, Ph.D., has over 20 years of industry experience in implementing bioanalytical/biomarker strategy, managing preclinical and clinical trials, and developing biologics. Prior to joining Sigilon, Dr. Wu worked at Takeda as a director of preclinical and translational sciences. He was responsible for bioanalytical, biomarker and in vitro diagnostic strategy and assay implementation to support early and late stage programs across multiple therapeutic areas. Previously, Dr. Wu served as an Associate Research Fellow and Lab Head at Pfizer/Wyeth where his team utilized a variety of techniques to identify novel targets and biomarkers and elucidate drug MOAs in support of drug discovery and translational medicine. Before joining Wyeth, he was a biomarker group lead at Millennium Pharma and a senior scientist at Abbott Lab.
Scientific Advisory Board, Founders Daniel G. Anderson, Ph.D., a co-founder of Sigilon Therapeutics, is a leading researcher in the field of nanotherapeutics and biomaterials. He is appointed in the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology at MIT. Dr. Anderson received a B.A. in mathematics and biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the University of California at Davis. Dr. Anderson’s work has resulted in the publication of over 400 papers, patents and patent applications. These advances have led to products that have been commercialized or are in clinical development, as well as to the foundation of companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and consumer product spaces including CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Living Proof, Inc., Verseau Therapeutics, Inc. and Olivo Laboratories, LLC.
Founders, Scientific Advisory Board Robert Langer, Sc.D., a co-founder of Sigilon, is a David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Langer has served on the boards of directors of Abpro Corporation since 2016, Frequency Therapeutics, Inc. since 2016, Rubius Therapeutics, Inc. since 2014, Moderna, Inc. since 2010, and Lyra Therapeutics, Inc. since 2006. Dr. Langer has previously served on the boards of directors of Puretech Health plc, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Fibrocell Science, Inc., and Millipore Corp. Dr. Langer holds a Sc.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.
Founders José Oberholzer, M.D., is a scientific founder at Sigilon. He is a physician-scientist with a long track record in cell therapy. Dr. Oberholzer, brings a wealth of highly valuable islet encapsulation expertise to Sigilon. He is a researcher, surgeon and the director of the Charles O. Strickler Transplant Center at the University of Virginia. Previous to that he was a Professor of Surgery, Endocrinology and Diabetes, Bioengineering, and Chief of the Division of Transplantation at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Dr. Oberholzer graduated from the University of Zurich Medical School in Switzerland and obtained a master’s in health care management from Harvard University. He completed his surgical training at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), as well as at the University of Alberta in Edmonton (Canada), where he completed a fellowship in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery and transplantation. He was the Head of the Islet Transplant Program at the University of Geneva and the GRAGIL islet consortium from 1998 to 2002, completing a significant number of islet transplants. He has been heading UIC’s islet program since 2003.
Founders Arturo Vegas, Ph.D., Scientific Founder, provided fundamental contributions to the development of new materials for cell encapsulation and cell-based therapies as a post-doctoral fellow in the MIT laboratories of Robert Langer and Daniel G. Anderson. He is currently the Peter Paul Career Development Professor at Boston University. Appointed in the Department of Chemistry, Dr. Vegas has an affiliation with the Department of Biomedical Engineering and is a core faculty member of both the Boston University Center for Molecular Discovery as well as the Boston University Nanotechnology Innovation Center. Dr. Vegas received his B.A. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University. His work has led to 10 patents both issued and pending. He was recently awarded a New Innovator Type 1 Diabetes Pathfinder Award by the NIH.
Founders Omid Veiseh, Ph.D., Scientific Founder, has over a decade of experience developing biotechnologies for clinical application. The transformative research discoveries he made as a postdoctoral research fellow helped catalyze the launch of Sigilon. Through grants from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Department of Defense, Dr. Veiseh worked to develop a bioartificial pancreas for the treatment of patients afflicted with type 1 diabetes. Dr. Veiseh developed a high-throughput pipeline for the synthesis and evaluation of material formulations that are able to resist foreign body reactions. These formulations were used to develop novel biomaterials for enhanced biocompatibility. The results lay the groundwork for encapsulated transplanted cells for delivery of biotherapeutics. In 2017, he will join the faculty at Rice University as an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering. Dr. Veiseh holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and is an inventor on 20 pending or awarded patents.
Scientific Advisory Board, Founders Daniel G. Anderson, Ph.D., a co-founder of Sigilon Therapeutics, is a leading researcher in the field of nanotherapeutics and biomaterials. He is appointed in the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology at MIT. Dr. Anderson received a B.A. in mathematics and biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the University of California at Davis. Dr. Anderson’s work has resulted in the publication of over 400 papers, patents and patent applications. These advances have led to products that have been commercialized or are in clinical development, as well as to the foundation of companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and consumer product spaces including CRISPR Therapeutics AG, Living Proof, Inc., Verseau Therapeutics, Inc. and Olivo Laboratories, LLC.
Scientific Advisory Board Constance Cepko, Ph.D., is Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience and Co-Director of the Leder Human Biology and Translational Medicine Program at Harvard Medical School. Her laboratory addresses questions regarding mechanisms of cell fate determination and has been developing gene therapy to address genetic forms of blindness. Dr. Cepko serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Permeon Biologics, Advanced Cell Technology and GenSight Biologics. Dr. Cepko is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Founders, Scientific Advisory Board Robert Langer, Sc.D., a co-founder of Sigilon, is a David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Langer has served on the boards of directors of Abpro Corporation since 2016, Frequency Therapeutics, Inc. since 2016, Rubius Therapeutics, Inc. since 2014, Moderna, Inc. since 2010, and Lyra Therapeutics, Inc. since 2006. Dr. Langer has previously served on the boards of directors of Puretech Health plc, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Fibrocell Science, Inc., and Millipore Corp. Dr. Langer holds a Sc.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.
Scientific Advisory Board Ulrik B. Nielsen, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO of Tidal Therapeutics, a company developing nucleotide-based therapeutics He was previously a co-founder, President and CEO of Torque Therapeutics from 2015 until 2018. Prior to Torque, Dr. Nielsen was co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Merrimack (NASDAQ: MACK) until 2015. Dr. Nielsen also serves on the Board of Directors for Alloy, Merrimack and North Therapeutics. He trained at the University of California, San Francisco, and MIT, and holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Copenhagen.
Scientific Advisory Board Michael Rosenblatt, M.D., serves as the Chief Medical Officer of Flagship Pioneering. Prior to this role, Dr. Rosenblatt was the Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Merck from 2009 until 2016. He also served as Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, and held appointments as the Robert Ebert Professor of Molecular Medicine and then George R. Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was a scientific founder of ProScript, the company that discovered bortezomib (Velcade), now Millennium Pharmaceutical’s drug for multiple myeloma and other malignancies, and Radius Pharmaceuticals, a women’s health company. Dr. Rosenblatt is the recipient of the Fuller Albright Award for his work on parathyroid hormone and the Vincent du Vigneaud Award in peptide chemistry and biology, and the Chairman’s Award from Merck. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Ferring Pharmaceuticals (U.S. Division), Rubius Therapeutics, Brooks Automation and several early stage biotech companies. Dr. Rosenblatt received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Columbia and his M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard. His internship, residency and endocrinology training were all at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
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