Nkarta, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies to treat autoimmune disease, announced the appointment of Shawn Rose, M.D. Ph.D., as its next Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Head of Research and Development (R&D) starting on June 23, 2025. He replaces David R. Shook, M.D., who will be stepping down from the role to pursue other opportunities in the oncology space.
Dr. Rose has dedicated his career to immunology translational medicine and advancing new treatment options for autoimmune patients. In various leadership roles, he has brought forward more than a dozen programs from discovery into clinical development, and he has developed multiple pioneering approved medicines such as Sotyktu, Stelara, and Tremfya.
“Dr. Rose joins the Nkarta team at a critical threshold as we discover the power of our NK cell platform to treat autoimmune diseases,” said Paul J. Hastings, CEO of Nkarta. “He is an enterprise leader with a deep clinical background in rheumatology and immunology that’s ideally suited to maximize the potential of our allogeneic NK cell platform. Shawn’s proven track record as an expert clinician gives me full confidence that he will hit the ground running on day one and meaningfully advance our work in the clinic.”
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Dr. Rose most recently served as Chief Development Officer, Immunology, at Vividion Therapeutics, working to expand their portfolio by advancing previously undruggable targets in immunology. He also served as interim CMO and Head of Clinical Development at Magenta Therapeutics, working on cell-based therapeutic approaches for patients with cancer, genetic disorders and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Dr. Rose also held multiple clinical and development leadership roles at Annexon Biosciences, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He did his postdoctoral research training and clinical training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
“I am thrilled to join Nkarta to advance innovative cell therapies for patients,” said Dr. Rose. “I strongly believe that Nkarta’s allogeneic NK cell platform has the potential to be a transformational approach for patients with immune-mediated inflammatory disease. I look forward to working closely with Paul and the broader Nkarta team on developing more treatment options for patients.”
SOURCE: GlobeNewswire