CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, March 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mestag Therapeutics ("Mestag"), a biotech company harnessing fibroblast immunology for the benefit of patients with inflammatory disease and cancer, today announced that Matthew Sleeman, PhD, has been appointed Chief Scientific Officer.
"Matt is an experienced and highly respected R&D leader in the immunology and cancer biology field with an outstanding track record in the advancement of multiple commercialized antibody therapies," said Susan Hill, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Mestag. "He joins us at an exciting time, as our pipeline of agonist antibody programs is poised to enter the clinic, we build our future portfolio of fibroblast immunology programs, and we explore novel targets through our proprietary RAFT platform and in partnership with MSD. His extensive expertise in the development of antibody-based therapeutics, combined with a deep insight into inflammatory disease and cancer biology is ideally suited to our fibroblast immunology focus. We are delighted to welcome him to Mestag."
Dr. Sleeman has more than two decades of experience as an R&D leader and scientist in inflammatory disease and cancer. His career has encompassed the research and development of six FDA-approved monoclonal antibodies, in addition to over twenty monoclonal and bispecific antibodies that have entered clinical development.
Dr. Sleeman joins Mestag from Regeneron, where he served as Vice President of Research, Head of Therapeutic Focus Area Immunology & Inflammation, leading a team of over one hundred scientists spearheading new research, as well as supporting the ongoing development and approvals of Dupixent®, Kevzara® and Libtayo®. During his tenure at Regeneron, Dr. Sleeman's team delivered a new platform of costimulatory bispecific antibodies to enhance the activity of checkpoint inhibitors and CD3 bispecifics in cancer, and the combination strategy of the anti-allergy franchise.
Earlier in his career, whilst Dr. Sleeman was the Cambridge site lead for the Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmunity Group at MedImmune, the department advanced six programs into the clinic, including mavrilimumab, Adbry® and Faserna®. At Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), Dr. Sleeman led a team of biologists supporting the AstraZeneca alliance inflammation portfolio in rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and osteoarthritis, culminating in the acquisition of CAT by AstraZeneca in 2006 for $1.3 billion. Dr. Sleeman has a PhD from the University of Durham and a BSc (Hons) from the University of Dundee.
Dr. Sleeman added, "Over the last two decades, I have dedicated my career to advancing impactful antibody therapeutics, led by new biological insights that deepen our understanding of disease pathogenesis. Mestag's compelling discoveries in fibroblast immunology, together with a unique portfolio of antibodies, offer an exciting opportunity to bring important new therapeutics to patients. I am energized to join the team and contribute to the development of a new class of therapeutics in inflammatory disease and cancer."
About Mestag Therapeutics
Mestag harnesses new insights into fibroblast immunology to develop impactful treatments for patients with cancer and inflammatory diseases. We are progressing a unique pipeline of novel antibodies designed to direct and drive the immune system using known and emerging fibroblast-immune biology for a distinctly differentiated class of therapeutics.
Our pipeline includes the M300 program, a bispecific LTBR agonist antibody that leverages a new understanding of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) in solid tumors and their role in driving improved patient outcomes; the M402 program, an agonist antibody targeting a stromal inhibitory receptor to dampen down the activation of specific immune cell subsets in inflammatory disease; and earlier programs in discovery stage.
Separately, we are also identifying novel targets for future therapies through the application of our proprietary RAFT Platform. In 2024, we entered into a license and research collaboration with MSD (tradename of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA) to identify novel targets for inflammatory diseases. Additionally in 2024, we licensed a novel target to Johnson & Johnson under a 2021 target discovery, option and license agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc.
Our founding investigators comprise global experts in inflammatory disease, cancer, computational biology and fibroblast biology from the University of Oxford, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Mestag was founded by SV Health Investors and is supported by leading life science investors Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc., Forbion, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Northpond Ventures.
Mestag is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, and in 2021 was recognized on the Fierce 15 list of innovative biotechnology companies.
For further information, please visit our website www.mestagtherapeutics.com.
For enquiries, please contact:
| Investors Alexandra Santos asantos@wheelhouselsa.com (mailto:asantos@wheelhouselsa.com) Media Aljanae Reynolds areynolds@wheelhouselsa.com (mailto:areynolds@wheelhouselsa.com) |
