Alaunos Therapeutics, Inc. announced the appointment of Robert J. Hofmeister, PhD, MS, Chief Scientific Officer of a stealth early stage biotechnology company, to the Company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. Dr. Hofmeister will replace Chris Bowden, MD. Prior to joining his current company, Dr. Hofmeister spent almost seven years in scientific leadership at TCR(2) Therapeutics, a company developing novel therapies leveraging the TCR complex to fight both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, culminating in the role of Chief Scientific Officer.

As the first TCR(2) employee, he was instrumental in building and leading the R&D function and driving the development of its proprietary TRuC(R) -T cell platform and its TC-210 program from concept to first cleared Investigational New Drug (IND) application. As part of the executive leadership team, he also contributed to successfully taking the company public and securing growth capital. Earlier in his career, Dr. Hofmeister held various roles at EMD Serono where he was involved in the development of now approved Bavencio (avelumab) and building the company's immuno-oncology platform.

He began his biotech career at Micromet AG, now Amgen Research Munich, where he helped shape the development of Blincyto, the first FDA-approved bispecific antibody for the treatment of refractory ALL. Dr. Hofmeister received his Ph.D. from the University of Regensburg in Germany and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute.