- Jason Aryeh elected to Board of Directors
- Elizabeth Schwarzbach, PhD and Boris Reznik, PhD join Strategic Advisory Board
- Elysa Mantel appointed as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and AVENTURA, Fla., May 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cytovia Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing allogeneic “off-the-shelf” gene-edited Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-NK cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and NK cell engager multifunctional antibodies, announced today that Jason Aryeh, a long time biotech investor and board director, has been elected to the Cytovia Board of Directors, effective immediately. In addition, to support the rapid development of the company, Elizabeth Schwarzbach, PhD and Boris Reznik, PhD have joined the Strategic Advisory Board and Elysa Mantel has been appointed as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.
"I am delighted to join the Cytovia board,” commented Mr. Aryeh. “Cytovia is uniquely positioned to become a leader in the rapidly growing field of NK (Natural Killer) Cancer Therapeutics. Cytovia has the potential to positively affect the lives of many patients and consequently create substantial shareholder value in the next few years and beyond."
Mr. Aryeh has more than twenty years of equity investment experience focused on the life sciences industry. He is the Founder and Managing General Partner of JALAA Equities, LP, a private investment fund focused on the biotechnology and medical device sectors. He has served in such capacity since 1997. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Orchestra BioMed, and Anebulo Pharmaceuticals. He serves as Chairman of Ligand’s Nominating & Governance and on its Compensation Committee, as Chairman of Orchestra’s Nominating & Governance and on its Audit Committee, and on Anebulo’s Audit Committee. Since 2006, Mr. Aryeh has served as Chairman of the Board, on the Board of Directors or as a consultant to many other public and private life sciences companies and charitable foundations, including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Therapeutics Board for seven years. In 2009, in honor of his late wife, Mr. Aryeh founded and has since served as Chairman of Rio Grande Solar and Rio Grande Renewables, LLC, a renewable energy company serving the Americas.
Additionally, Drs. Elizabeth Schwarzbach and Boris Reznik have been named to the Strategic Advisory Board with a focus on Business and Corporate Development.
Elizabeth Schwarzbach, PhD is the Chief Business Officer of BigHat Biosciences, an AI/ML enabled next-generation antibody therapeutics company, and was previously the CBO of the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute, where she led the partnership with Cytovia. Dr. Schwarzbach was an Engagement Manager at LEK, a leading strategy consulting firm, and then Director, R&D Strategy Group at GlaxoSmithKline. She holds a PhD from University of Pennsylvania.
Boris Reznik, PhD is the Chairman of Venvalo Group. He is also the Chairman and founder of Biorasi, an international Contract Research Organization recently acquired by RLH Equity Partners, a private equity firm. Dr. Reznik is a serial entrepreneur who has been a lead or co-investor in multiple technology-based companies and has participated in many public and private fundings and mergers and acquisitions. In 2002, Dr. Reznik added biotechnology and life sciences to his investment and partnering focus and has launched and invested in several biomedical companies since.
Elysa Mantel has joined Cytovia as the Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. With more than seven years of in-house legal, corporate and compliance experience in the life science industry, Elysa joins Cytovia from Noven Pharmaceuticals where she served as lead Corporate and Compliance Counsel and Acting General Counsel. She will head Cytovia’s Legal Department, support board governance matters and play a key business role in helping the company drive its continued expansion. Elysa earned a Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, at the University of Miami School of Law and was in the International and Comparative Law Review, the Hispanic Law Students Association, and the University of Miami Law Women.
About Cytovia Therapeutics
Cytovia Therapeutics aims to accelerate patient access to transformational cell therapies and immunotherapies, addressing several of the most challenging unmet medical needs in cancer. Cytovia focuses on Natural Killer (NK) cell biology and applies precision engineering to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to develop the safest, most effective, most broadly-available off-the-shelf Natural Killer cell therapy as a first line of defense against cancer. Cytovia’s proprietary multi-specific antibody platform has been customized to engage and activate NK Cells at the tumor site. Both platforms offer optionality to clinicians and can also be used synergistically. Cytovia’s R&D laboratories and GMP manufacturing facility are augmented by scientific partnerships with Cellectis, CytoImmune, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, INSERM, the New York Stem Cell Foundation, STC Biologics, and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
For further information, please contact:
Anna Baran-Djokovic
VP of Investor Relations
646-355-1787
anna@cytoviatx.com