Coulter Partners places Chief Scientific Officer at Sonata Therapeutics

Coulter Partners, the global experts in Executive Search and Leadership Development in Life Sciences, Health, and Tech, recently partnered with Sonata Therapeutics to strengthen their leadership team with the appointment of Francesco Marincola, M.D. as Chief Scientific Officer.

Sonata Therapeutics Inc. is a biotechnology company creating therapeutics that transform diseased cells into coordinators of cure.

Former Global Head of Research at Kite Pharma, Dr. Marincola brings over 30 years of research and development experience and will be responsible for accelerating Sonata Therapeutics’ vision to deliver novel therapeutics that reprogram diseased cells to drive robust, durable, and comprehensive cures for a broad range of diseases.

Volker Herrmann, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Sonata, comments: “Throughout his successful career across academia and industry over the last few decades, Franco has stood at the forefront of discovery and drug development. Having been a pioneering contributor to our collective understanding of the role of tumor microenvironments, his unique expertise in that field and in the development of cell therapies will be invaluable as we pursue strategies to reprogram entire cellular networks. We look forward to leveraging his vast experience and deep insights to help propel Sonata into the next phase of its exciting journey.”

He adds: “I truly enjoyed collaborating with the entire team at Coulter Partners. They provided an excellent selection of candidates with very thorough background research, making it easy for us to choose Franco as our new, exceptional CSO.”

Most recently, Dr. Marincola served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Cell Therapy Research at Kite Pharma, where he led the research efforts for the organization across hematologic malignancies and solid tumor indications. Prior to Kite, he held numerous industry roles, including President and Chief Scientific Officer at Refuge Biotechnologies, Distinguished Research Fellow in Immune Oncology at AbbVie, and Chief Research Officer at Sidra Medical and Research Centre. Before joining the biopharma industry, Dr. Marincola spent more than two decades at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he served as the Chief of Infectious Disease and Immunogenetics.

Dr. Marincola is the former President of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for multiple peer-reviewed publications and the prominent Cancer Immunotherapy Principles and Practice textbook. Throughout his career, he has authored more than 600 peer-reviewed publications. He received his M.D. from the University of Milan, Italy, and completed his residency at Stanford University.

Commenting on his appointment, Dr. Marincola said: “I am incredibly excited to join the Sonata team. The company’s strategy represents the first systematic approach to reprogramming diseased multicellular networks to deliver holistic therapeutic solutions for cancer and a broad range of diseases. Sonata’s vision to transform drug development from a trial-and-error process to one guided by actionable insights into how cellular networks propel biological dysfunction could shift the paradigm of our industry. I look forward to working with the Sonata team to pioneer this new approach to drug development.”