18 November 2022 - - US-based durable blood stem cell therapies developer Garuda Therapeutics has appointed David DiGiusto, Ph.D., as chief technology officer, the company said.

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.

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 and an independent biotechnology consultant. He received his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Colorado.

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 said its technology has the potential to address, and possibly cure, more than 120 diseases for a diverse population of patients with unmet medical need.