17 December 2018 - - US-based genome editing company Caribou Biosciences, Inc has appointed Natalie Sacks, MD to its board of directors, the company said.

Sacks is an accomplished industry leader and oncology expert who has played a key role in the development and approval of several oncology therapeutics.

She is currently the chief medical officer at Harpoon Therapeutics, focused on the development of novel T cell therapeutics.

Dr. Sacks previously served as chief medical officer at Aduro Biotech, a company focused on the advancement of novel immuno-oncology technologies.

She also served as vice president of Clinical Development at Onyx Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen) where she played a key role in business development efforts along with the development and approval of Kyprolis.

She also previously served as vice president of clinical research for Exelixis where she directed the development of a portfolio of small molecules, including the late-stage development of Cometriq.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Sacks served as vice president of Clinical Development at Cell Genesys, a company focused on the development of cancer vaccines and engineered chimeric antigen receptor T cells.

Dr. Sacks was an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and served as volunteer Attending Physician in Hematology-Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital for more than a decade.

Dr. Sacks currently serves on the board of directors at Zymeworks, Inc. She received her MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, her MS in Biostatistics from Harvard University School of Public Health, and her BA in Mathematics from Bryn Mawr College.

Dr. Sacks joins existing board of directors members Philip Austin, Founding Partner of Anterra Capital; Robert Weisskoff, a Partner at F-Prime Capital; and Dr. Haurwitz.

Caribou is a company in CRISPR genome editing founded by pioneers of CRISPR-Cas9 biology. Caribou's proprietary technologies put the company at the forefront of the development of new medical therapies.

The company is focused on the development of an internal pipeline of off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies and engineered gut microbes.

Additionally, Caribou offers licenses to its CRISPR-Cas9 foundational IP in multiple fields including research tools, internal research use, diagnostics, and industrial biotechnology.