SmartCella Holding AB today announces that Dr. Nina Bauer, MBA, has been appointed Chief Business Officer and Head of Smartwise. Nina Bauer joins in January 2024 from MilliporeSigma, where she most recently held the role of Global Head of Commercial, Viral Vector and Biologics CDMO. She will be a member of the SmartCella Executive Management Team, and based in Boston (MA, USA).
SmartCella is an innovative biotechnology company that combines the development of future stem cell and RNA-based therapies and methods for administering such treatments via targeted delivery into organs and tumors through a unique device (the FDA-approved Extroducer). In 2023, SmartCella has grown significantly and advanced both its pipeline of therapeutics and its technical capabilities. In addition to preparing for the start of a phase I trial in cardiac repair together with AstraZeneca, developments include the work towards a pivotal GMP approval of the large-scale state-of-the-art facility (located in Tullinge, near Karolinska University Hospital) for clinical production of cell-based therapies. The facility will be available both for the manufacture of internal therapeutic developments and third-party manufacturing. With the strategic recruitment of Nina Bauer, SmartCella is accelerating its expansion plans and gearing up to enter the US market.
Niklas Prager, CEO of SmartCella, comments: “We are thrilled to welcome Nina to the SmartCella group, she possesses a versatile and unique mix of competencies across the fields of novel modality and biotherapeutics as well as manufacturing technologies and process improvements to enable global therapy access. She is equally familiar with managing strategic discussions on a board or leadership level as with working hands-on in prototyping labs or GMP facilities. As we are now taking the next step on SmartCella’s growth and expansion journey, Nina will be essential in driving our business development further. In her capacity as Head of Smartwise, she will oversee our clinical and research activities to fully leverage the Extroducer while we continue to secure global licensing deals for this groundbreaking targeted delivery technology.”
Nina Bauer says: “SmartCella was like a hidden gem to me, innovative and entrepreneurial in a very hot and fast developing research area. I was attracted by the breadth and depth of the teams, the Swedish and global characteristics and not the least, their visionary aspirations of taking a leading position in the rapidly evolving field of cell and gene therapy and, most crucially, targeted delivery. It is my vision that accessing cancers and organs directly, we can really change the way we treat some of the most incurable diseases. I was truly inspired by the team’s purpose to pioneer new treatment paradigms and, through world-class science, transform lives for patients in need.”
Nina Bauer is a distinguished professional within the global cell and gene therapy manufacturing community. Nina joined MilliporeSigma through the acquisition of FloDesign Sonics, where she was Chief Commercial Officer. As Head of Autologous Cell Therapy at Lonza (Basel, CH) she initiated personalized cell therapy manufacturing services and technologies, most notably the Cocoon, and prior to that was a Business Development Manager at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult in London (UK).
Nina holds a Masters in Neuroscience from SUNY Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY, USA), a PhD in Neuroscience from Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg (Germany), and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). She has authored and contributed to numerous publications related to novel cell and gene therapy, most recently in the online-publication Cell and Therapy Insights.
Contact
Niklas Prager, CEO, +46 768 117744; niklas.prager@smartcella.com
About SmartCella Holding AB
SmartCella, founded in 2014, is an innovative biotechnology company based in Stockholm, Sweden. SmartCella’s vision is to combine first-in-class delivery platforms with cutting-edge cell and gene therapies to unleash the full potential of targeted therapies. The company has three main business units, Smartwise, SmartCella Solutions and Procella.
Smartwise
Smartwise is developing and manufacturing a first-in-class endovascular delivery device, the Extroducer, that enables direct tissue/organ infusions through the vessel wall directly into to hard-to-reach organs and tumors. There is a significant unmet need in the field of targeted delivery of different types of therapies for regeneration of tissue and for treatment of cancer tumors. Smartwise received regulatory approval from the US FDA for the Extroducer in June 2022 and is now actively out-licensing the technology to global companies with therapies that benefit from direct delivery.
SmartCella Solutions
SmartCella Solutions create novel mRNA therapies and platforms that enable cell-mediated delivery of protein and mRNA to specific regions, even within organs or microenvironments. A pipeline of projects within regeneration and tolerization, focusing on oncology, is in pre-clinical development.
Procella
Procella has advanced capabilities within stem cell therapy development and inhouse cGMP manufacturing of cell based therapies, with a proven platform to take stem cell projects from discovery phase to clinical development. A globally licensed cardiac stem cell therapy is entering clinical stages (in collaboration with AstraZeneca) and there is a growing pipeline of projects in different stages of development, with dopamine producing cells for Parkinson´s Disease and our own iMSCs most advanced.