6 May 2022 - - US-based oncology company Artiva Biotherapeutics, Inc has appointed Edith A. Perez, M.D. as a member of the company's board of directors, the company said.

In addition, Dr. Perez will be joining Artiva's Clinical advisory board.

Dr. Perez, a translational researcher and cancer treatment specialist, is the Chief Medical officer of Bolt Biotherapeutics, Inc., Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, and director of the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Program.

As chief medical officer of Bolt Biotherapeutics, Inc., Dr. Perez is responsible for clinical strategy and development, regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance, biostatistics, and medical affairs for the company's diverse clinical development and early-stage immuno-oncology pipeline.

Previously, Dr. Perez was vice president and Head of the BioOncology medical unit at Genentech, Inc., overseeing all US hematology and oncology medical affairs, and with her team, was involved in leading numerous trials and launching six drugs.

Dr. Perez spent the first 20 years of her career at the Mayo Clinic where she was active in teaching, research, and patient care, with a research focus in breast cancer and translational biomarkers.

She was the principal investigator of the N9831 trial, which was one of the pivotal studies that demonstrated the impact of adding trastuzumab (Herceptin) to improve disease-free and overall survival for patients with early-stage HER-2 positive breast cancer.

Dr. Perez has authored several hundred research articles in journals, books, and abstracts and lectures at national and international meetings.

She serves on the editorial boards of multiple academic journals and has also been involved in diversity leadership initiatives with ASCO and AACR and currently serves as the chair of the Health Equity Committee for Stand Up to Cancer.

Dr. Perez earned her M.D. from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in San Juan and completed her residency in internal medicine at the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California.

She served as a general internist in the Division of National Health Services Corps in Los Angeles and completed her Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

Dr. Perez also has pursued leadership, management, and executive development at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Kennedy School in Boston.

Dr. Perez is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hematology.

Artiva's mission is to deliver highly effective, off-the-shelf, allogeneic NK cell-based therapies utilizing our Manufacturing-First approach, that are safe and accessible to cancer patients.

Artiva's pipeline includes AB-101, an ADCC enhancer NK-cell therapy candidate for use in combination with monoclonal antibodies or innate-cell engagers.

Artiva is currently advancing a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of AB-101 in combination with rituximab for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphomas.

Artiva's pipeline also includes AB-201, an anti-HER2 CAR-NK cell therapy candidate for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing tumors, such as breast, gastric, and bladder cancers, and AB-202, a CD19-specific CAR-NK cell therapy candidate for the treatment of B-cell malignancies.

Artiva has entered into therapeutic NK cell collaborations with Merck and with Affimed GmbH. 

Artiva's AlloNK platform incorporates cell expansion, activation, and engineering technology developed by Artiva's strategic partner, GC Cell Corp., a member of the GC family of companies, a leading healthcare company in Korea. Artiva is headquartered in San Diego.