Arbor Strengthens Focus on Therapeutics with Key Additions to Leadership Team

– Pam Stetkiewicz, Ph.D., Appointed Chief Operating Officer
– Kathryn McCabe, Ph.D., Named SVP, Head of Business Development

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Arbor Biotechnologies, an early-stage life sciences company discovering and developing the next generation of genetic medicines, announced today the appointments of Pam Stetkiewicz, Ph.D., as Chief Operating Officer, and Kathryn McCabe, Ph.D., as SVP, Head of Business Development. These appointments further expand Arbor’s leadership team and strengthen its focus on therapeutics.

“Bringing Pam and Katy on at this time represents a significant milestone for Arbor as we drive our genetic medicines portfolio to the clinic and partner with leading companies to bring engineered cell therapies to patients,” said Devyn Smith, Ph.D., CEO, Arbor Biotechnologies. “Their scientific expertise, business acumen, and extensive experience in cell therapy and gene editing will help us execute on this strategy to develop therapeutics with our tailored library of CRISPR-based genetic editors and modifiers.”

Pam Stetkiewicz is joining Arbor from Flagship Pioneering, where she was Senior Vice President, Global Program Leader at Flagship Pioneering Medicines. Dr. Stetkiewicz brings more than 20 years of extensive life-sciences pharmaceutical experience with recent experience at Editas Medicine as Vice President, Program and Alliance Management. At Editas, she led the team that filed the first IND for an in vivo CRISPR therapeutic (EDIT-101 for LCA10). Prior to Editas, Dr. Stetkiewicz worked at Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research for 13 years, in a variety of roles across science, alliance, project and portfolio management. Her last role at Novartis was as Executive Director, in Strategic Alliances which involved early business development and collaborations with external companies. She received her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. from the University of Rhode Island.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Arbor at this exciting time,” said Dr. Stetkiewicz. “The company has made significant progress in the discovery and development of innovative therapies, particularly in the genetic medicines space, and I am looking forward to helping fulfill the therapeutic promise of Arbor’s already impressive discoveries.”

Kathryn (Katy) McCabe is joining Arbor from Roche where she was Senior Director of Business Development based in Cambridge, MA. Over the last 20 years, she has combined her scientific knowledge, entrepreneurial spirit, and business experience to help transform novel modalities into new medicines at Roche, Lilly, Baxalta and GSK. Dr. McCabe has focused much of her attention on cell and gene therapy and has closed deals for CAR-T, diabetes cell therapy, in vivo gene editing, and gene therapy as well as led large strategic initiatives in these areas. In addition, she has had close interactions with a number of venture funds as the scientific lead for Lilly’s limited partnerships. Early in her career, Dr. McCabe led a team of senior scientists to develop stem cells for retina and corneal transplantation. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Marianne Bronner’s lab at Caltech, received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Behavior from the University of Washington, and her B.A from the University of Pennsylvania.  

“I look forward to finding partners that share our vision of bringing curative therapies to patients,” said Dr. McCabe.

About Arbor Biotechnologies
Arbor Biotechnologies is an early-stage life sciences company discovering and developing the next generation of genetic medicines. Co-founded by Feng Zhang and David Walt, Arbor uses its proprietary discovery engine to uncover unique CRISPR-based genetic modifiers with differentiated genetic editing and delivery capabilities. Following its strategic partnership with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to accelerate the path to the clinic for Arbor’s technologies, Arbor recently announced an agreement with Lonza. These partnerships further validate the breadth of applications of Arbor’s gene editing platform that can be custom tailored to address the underlying pathology of each genetic disease. Arbor’s pipeline of genetic medicines is focused on bringing curative therapies to all patients with genetic disease.

Media Contact:
Kelly Friendly
press@arbor.bio