MENLO PARK, Calif.– Frazier Life Sciences announced the addition of Bryan A. Irving, Ph.D. as a Senior Advisor. He has 30 years of experience as a T cell immunologist, including 23 years in the biotech industry focused on discovering and progressing immune drug candidates into the clinic for both autoimmune and oncology indications.
Dr. Irving most recently served as Chief Scientific Officer of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company developing conditionally activated immunotherapies, until its acquisition by Sanofi for up to $1.225 billion in 2022. Prior to joining Amunix, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of Five Prime Therapeutics, where he led research and preclinical drug development, and as Vice President of Cancer Immunology at CytomX Therapeutics. Before joining CytomX, he spent 12 years at Genentech in the Departments of Immunology and Oncology/Cancer Immunology, where he was a key inventor and research leader for the PD-L1 immunotherapy atezolizumab (Tecentriq®).
Dr. Irving received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of California, San Francisco, and a B.A. in Physiology from the University of California, Berkeley. His doctoral work, performed in the laboratory of Dr. Arthur Weiss, pioneered the single-chain chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology. Dr. Irving conducted post-doctoral work at Harvard University and UCSF with fellowships from the Irvington Institute and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. His work has been published in top-tier journals including Cell, Science, Cancer Cell, Nature Immunology, and Immunity, and he is an inventor on patents that include the single-chain CARs and atezolizumab.
“I am thrilled to have Bryan join Frazier,” said Managing Partner Jamie Topper. “He is a highly experienced T cell immunologist, and we believe his insights will help us better understand and approach the increasingly complex strategies being pursued in immuno-oncology.”