Cellares Finishes Year of Strong Growth With Key Hires

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Dec. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellares Corporation, a life sciences technology company pioneering a revolutionary automated approach to cell therapy manufacturing, today announced several new additions to its leadership team. These new hires close out a year of significant milestones and announcements and demonstrate Cellares' growing momentum toward the launch of the Cell Shuttle system in 2023.

Nilesh Sinha joins Cellares as VP of Software. Sinha brings more than 19 years of experience in developing and delivering mission-critical software in the fields of radiation oncology and aerospace. Prior to joining Cellares, he was the Head of Software Development for Varian Proton Solutions, overseeing the entire software development lifecycle of multi-generation cancer treatment products from inception to customer acceptance.

Jeremy Kolenbrander is the new Director of Systems Engineering. Most recently the Senior Manager for Product Development for Terumo BCT, Kolenbrander has more than 30 years of experience leading complex, multi-functional teams from feasibility through product launch and optimization. He was the team lead for the development of the Spectra Optia apheresis device and has lived and worked in many countries worldwide throughout Asia, Europe, and Australia.

Tania Chakrabarty has been named Cellares' Director of System Integration, Verification, and Validation. Chakrabarty joins from Levitas Bio, where she was Director of Research and Development and has developed and launched multiple IVD and RUO assays, as well as automated platforms for the clinical and research markets, over the last 15 years.

Kiran Thakkar joins as the Director of Information Technology. He has more than 15 years of experience in leading technical teams with an extensive range of expertise including IT operations, application development, infrastructure, network operations, IT security, ERP systems, project management and strategic planning. Prior to joining Cellares, he held the position of Director of Information Technology at Berkeley Lights.

The additions to Cellares' leadership team are representative of its overall talent expansion, which saw Cellares more than double headcount since December 2020. In addition, noted bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel joined the Cellares Board of Advisors in November, and the company announced a strategic relationship with Poseida Therapeutics in July, just months after raising an $82M Series B funding round.

"From fundraising to partnerships to tremendous progress with regard to product development, this year has moved us much closer to realizing our vision of accelerating access to cell therapies by eliminating the hurdles to scalable manufacturing," said Fabian Gerlinghaus, co-founder and CEO of Cellares. "We're pleased to welcome a talented group of new team members that will help us achieve our ambitious goals for 2022 and beyond."

To learn more about Cellares and its industry-first Cell Shuttle cell therapy manufacturing platform, please visit www.cellares.com.

About The Cell Shuttle

The Cell Shuttle is an automated and closed end-to-end manufacturing solution that is flexible and scalable, enabling customers to run the exact processes specified for their cell therapy. Compared with currently available cell therapy manufacturing methods, this next-generation platform enables a three-fold reduction in process failure rates and is capable of producing 10+ patient doses in parallel, which increases manufacturing scalability by an order of magnitude. This will enable commercial scale manufacturing in the hundreds of thousands of patient doses per year per drug.

About Cellares Corporation

Cellares is creating the future of cell therapy manufacturing and accelerating access to life-saving cell therapies. The company is developing a one-of-a-kind solution to overcome the limitations associated with manufacturing cell therapies that are more affordable and widely available to patients in need. With Cellares' proprietary platform—the Cell Shuttle—biopharma companies, academic research centers, and CDMOs will no longer have to compromise by either choosing a manufacturing platform that is semi-automated but lacks workflow flexibility, or one that provides customization but not the end-to-end automation needed to manufacture at scale. The company is headquartered in South San Francisco, Calif.

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SOURCE Cellares