NexImmune, a start-up company formed in part by US-based Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty members, has hired both a executive president and a chairman of its clinical and scientific advisory board as part of a technology transfer license for developing immunity against diseases and cancers. Kenneth Carter has joined NexImmune as its executive president and Jonathan Schneck has become chairman of the company’s Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board. Previously, Carter was also chief executive for 10 years at Avalon Pharmaceuticals until its merger with Clinical Data. Prior to Avalon, Carter directed the gene mapping initiative at Human Genome Sciences, which discovered, cloned, and chromosomal mapped dozens of novel human genes and he is also on the advisory council for the Center for Biotechnology Education at The Johns Hopkins University, where he also holds an adjunct faculty appointment. Schneck is a professor of pathology, oncology and medicine and director of the Human Immunology Program at the Institute for Cellular Engineering at John Hopkins. His and Mathias Oelke’s laboratory at Johns Hopkins University has also created the Artificial Immune (AIM) nanotechnology for immuno-therapy, which involves engineering artificial cells to stimulate specific immune responses (pictured). This work was awarded a $12m grant in 2009, the largest basic science immunology grant in the history of Johns Hopkins University. This AIM nanotechnology has just been licensed by Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer office to NexImmune. In related news, Carter is also now chairman of Noble Life Sciences, a provider of preclinical research services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries set up by five healthcare entrepreneurs that were involved in NexImmune’s formation. He stepped up from president of Noble at the start of January to take his new role at NexImmune.

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