SAN DIEGO– Artiva Biotherapeutics, Inc., an oncology company whose mission is to deliver highly effective, off-the-shelf, allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell-based therapies that are safe and accessible to cancer patients, today announced the appointment of Edith A. Perez, M.D., as a member of the Company’s Board of Directors. 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.
“We are very excited to welcome Edith as a member of our Board of Directors and Clinical Advisory Board,” stated Fred Aslan, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Artiva. “Edith’s unique background as a cancer thought leader, clinician, and industry executive will be of great value to Artiva as we work to advance our pipeline of allogeneic NK cell therapies, including our first solid tumor program, a HER2-directed CAR-NK.”
“NK cells are a new and promising therapeutic modality for the potential treatment of both solid and hematologic cancers,” said Dr. Perez. “I look forward to working with the Artiva team to help drive clinical evaluation of therapeutic candidates from their AlloNK Platform.”
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 U.S. hematology and oncology medical affairs, and with her team, was involved in leading numerous trials and launching six drugs, including GAZYVA®, PERJETA®, ALECENSA® and TECENTRIQ®.
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.
