About Us

About Us

Company Overview

Prescient Therapeutics (ASX:PTX) is a clinical-stage biotech company  developing personalised medicine approaches to cancer, including targeted and cellular therapies.  Prescient’s technologies emanate from prestigious world class centres including Yale, Penn, Oxford and Moffitt.

Targeted therapy

Prescient’s first in class targeted therapy – PTX-100 – is currently in clinical development and showing encouraging activity in diseases of unmet need.

Cell therapies

Prescient owns the exclusive rights to two next-generation cell therapy platform technologies, OmniCAR and CellPryme – both with the potential to enhance CAR-T therapies and overcome challenges faced by current generation approaches

Prescient works tirelessly alongside our world-class collaborators to develop truly differentiated therapies that have the capacity to help cancer patients live longer, better quality lives.

Our Team

Steven Yatomi-Clarke

CEO and Managing Director

Steven took over as CEO of Prescient Therapeutics in 2016 and has overseen its progression from start-up phase. Steven manages a team in Australia and the US and has been instrumental in strategy development; licensing; initiating and managing clinical trials; fundraising and business development.
Previously, Steven had a distinguished career as an investment banker specialising in the life sciences sector, where he was consistently one of the country’s most prolific bankers, involved in primary and secondary offerings, corporate advisory and M&A assignments. In particular, Steven leveraged his combined backgrounds in science and finance to identify undervalued and unlikely opportunities and structure deals for the mutual benefit of companies and investors.
Steven holds a Bachelor of Science with an Honours Degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and a Bachelor Commerce majoring in Economics, both from the University of Melbourne. He has been a collaborator on various immunotherapy research projects.

Steven Engle

Non-Executive Chairman

Steven Engle has over two decades of experience leading biotechnology companies to develop and launch breakthrough therapies like the nicotine patch and has worked with the FDA in multiple disease areas, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, and autoimmune. Most recently, Steve was the CEO of Gradalis, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of personalized cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer, and which is preparing a clinical study for product registration in patients with ovarian cancer. Prior to that, he was the CEO of CohBar, a clinical-stage, publicly-held biotechnology company developing mitochondria-based therapeutics to treat chronic diseases and extend healthy lifespan. Previously, he served as Chairman and CEO of antibody therapeutics company XOMA, which developed antibody drug candidates for many of the major pharmaceutical companies, and of B-cell tolerance therapeutics company, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company, which focused on patients with Lupus. He is a former Director on the board of BIO and BayBio industry associations, and former Chair and Director of BIOCOM. Currently, Mr. Engle is a member of the board of directors of several companies. Mr. Engle holds M.S.E.E. and B.S.E.E. degrees from the University of Texas with a focus in biomedical engineering.

Dr James Campbell

Non-Executive Director

Dr James Campbell brings to Prescient a solid track record as a scientist and commercial executive. Dr. Campbell has more than 20 years of international biotechnology research, management and leadership experience and has been involved in the creation and/or transformation of multiple successful Australian and international biotechnology companies.
He is currently CEO of Patrys Limited, a company developing novel antibody therapeutics for oncology.
He was previously the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Chemgenex, which was acquired by Cephalon for $230 million in 2011. His responsibilities ranged from IP management to licensing and business development and as a member of the executive team, he helped steer and transform the company from a $10 million research based entity to a company with completed clinical trials and regulatory dossiers submitted to the FDA and EMA before its $230 million sale.
Dr Campbell also has experience advising private biotechnology companies in the US and New Zealand with capital raisings and partnering negotiations.

Dr Allen Ebens

Non-Executive Director

Allen Ebens, Ph.D. brings over twenty four years of drug development experience in oncology and hematology, beginning in drug discovery at Exelixis before moving to Genentech where over 11 years he worked from concept to clinic across multiple therapeutic platforms including antibodies, small molecule drugs, antibody-drug conjugates, and T cell recruiting antibodies.
Dr. Ebens was recruited from Genentech to establish oncology discovery research at Juno Therapeutics (a CAR-T pioneer), and served as Senior Director, Immune Oncology at NGM Biopharmaceuticals.
He is currently Chief Scientific Officer of Vera Therapeutics. Dr. Ebens’ scientific contributions include numerous peer-reviewed publications of original research, a significant patent portfolio, and the advancement of nine discovery projects from initial concept to clinical development for multiple targets including one marketed therapeutic. He completed his PhD at UCLA and postdoctoral training at UCSF.

Dr Ellen Feigal

Non- Executive Director

Dr Feigal is currently a Partner and Head of the Biologics practice at global life sciences advisory firm, NDA Partners LLC, where she leads efforts in designing and executing product development and regulatory strategies in the areas of cell therapies, medical imaging, hematology and oncology. She is also adjunct faculty at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University, where she teaches FDA drug law and medical research ethics and law.

Dr Feigal was formerly Senior Vice President overseeing research and development with the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a world-leading research foundation working to accelerate development of new disease modifying treatments and cures for patients with chronic diseases; Executive Medical Director, Global Development at US biotech company Amgen Inc (NASDAQ: AMGN); Vice President of Clinical Sciences at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, and directed the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute.

Dr Feigal serves as a Board member for Xencor Inc (NASDAQ: XNCR) a biotechnology company developing engineered antibodies and cytokines for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. She is also a Director of NextCure (NASDAQ: NXTC) a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing new immunotherapies to treat cancer.

Dr Feigal holds an M.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. She completed an internal medicine residency at Stanford University and a hematology oncology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr Gavin Shepherd

Non-Executive Director

Dr Shepherd is an accomplished medical professional with 25 years of experience in medicine and a proven track record in driving success in various specialist consulting businesses. After completing his medical qualification at Flinders University, he completed specialist training as a consultant Occupational and Environmental Physician with a fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He graduated dux of his Graduate Diploma in OH+S at Adelaide University and he completed his GAICD qualification in 2011. He is a serial Australian biotech investor and a non-executive director of Lateral Pharma Pty Ltd.

Melanie Leydin

Company Secretary

Melanie Leydin is a highly experienced CFO and Company Secretary with 25 years of experience in the accounting profession and 15 years of experience in company secretarial services

Steven Yatomi-Clarke

CEO and Managing Director

Steven took over as CEO of Prescient Therapeutics in 2016 and has overseen its progression from start-up phase. Steven manages a team in Australia and the US and has been instrumental in strategy development; licensing; initiating and managing clinical trials; fundraising and business development.
Previously, Steven had a distinguished career as an investment banker specialising in the life sciences sector, where he was consistently one of the country’s most prolific bankers, involved in primary and secondary offerings, corporate advisory and M&A assignments. In particular, Steven leveraged his combined backgrounds in science and finance to identify undervalued and unlikely opportunities and structure deals for the mutual benefit of companies and investors.
Steven holds a Bachelor of Science with an Honours Degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and a Bachelor Commerce majoring in Economics, both from the University of Melbourne. He has been a collaborator on various immunotherapy research projects.

Steven Engle

Non-Executive Chairman

Steven Engle has over two decades of experience leading biotechnology companies to develop and launch breakthrough therapies like the nicotine patch and has worked with the FDA in multiple disease areas, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, and autoimmune. Most recently, Steve was the CEO of Gradalis, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of personalized cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer, and which is preparing a clinical study for product registration in patients with ovarian cancer. Prior to that, he was the CEO of CohBar, a clinical-stage, publicly-held biotechnology company developing mitochondria-based therapeutics to treat chronic diseases and extend healthy lifespan. Previously, he served as Chairman and CEO of antibody therapeutics company XOMA, which developed antibody drug candidates for many of the major pharmaceutical companies, and of B-cell tolerance therapeutics company, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company, which focused on patients with Lupus. He is a former Director on the board of BIO and BayBio industry associations, and former Chair and Director of BIOCOM. Currently, Mr. Engle is a member of the board of directors of several companies. Mr. Engle holds M.S.E.E. and B.S.E.E. degrees from the University of Texas with a focus in biomedical engineering.

Dr James Campbell

Non-Executive Director

Dr James Campbell brings to Prescient a solid track record as a scientist and commercial executive. Dr. Campbell has more than 20 years of international biotechnology research, management and leadership experience and has been involved in the creation and/or transformation of multiple successful Australian and international biotechnology companies.
He is currently CEO of Patrys Limited, a company developing novel antibody therapeutics for oncology.
He was previously the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Chemgenex, which was acquired by Cephalon for $230 million in 2011. His responsibilities ranged from IP management to licensing and business development and as a member of the executive team, he helped steer and transform the company from a $10 million research based entity to a company with completed clinical trials and regulatory dossiers submitted to the FDA and EMA before its $230 million sale.
Dr Campbell also has experience advising private biotechnology companies in the US and New Zealand with capital raisings and partnering negotiations.

Dr Allen Ebens

Non-Executive Director

Allen Ebens, Ph.D. brings over twenty four years of drug development experience in oncology and hematology, beginning in drug discovery at Exelixis before moving to Genentech where over 11 years he worked from concept to clinic across multiple therapeutic platforms including antibodies, small molecule drugs, antibody-drug conjugates, and T cell recruiting antibodies.
Dr. Ebens was recruited from Genentech to establish oncology discovery research at Juno Therapeutics (a CAR-T pioneer), and served as Senior Director, Immune Oncology at NGM Biopharmaceuticals.
He is currently Chief Scientific Officer of Vera Therapeutics. Dr. Ebens’ scientific contributions include numerous peer-reviewed publications of original research, a significant patent portfolio, and the advancement of nine discovery projects from initial concept to clinical development for multiple targets including one marketed therapeutic. He completed his PhD at UCLA and postdoctoral training at UCSF.

Dr Ellen Feigal

Non- Executive Director

Dr Feigal is currently a Partner and Head of the Biologics practice at global life sciences advisory firm, NDA Partners LLC, where she leads efforts in designing and executing product development and regulatory strategies in the areas of cell therapies, medical imaging, hematology and oncology. She is also adjunct faculty at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University, where she teaches FDA drug law and medical research ethics and law.

Dr Feigal was formerly Senior Vice President overseeing research and development with the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a world-leading research foundation working to accelerate development of new disease modifying treatments and cures for patients with chronic diseases; Executive Medical Director, Global Development at US biotech company Amgen Inc (NASDAQ: AMGN); Vice President of Clinical Sciences at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, and directed the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute.

Dr Feigal serves as a Board member for Xencor Inc (NASDAQ: XNCR) a biotechnology company developing engineered antibodies and cytokines for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. She is also a Director of NextCure (NASDAQ: NXTC) a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing new immunotherapies to treat cancer.

Dr Feigal holds an M.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. She completed an internal medicine residency at Stanford University and a hematology oncology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr Gavin Shepherd

Non-Executive Director

Dr Shepherd is an accomplished medical professional with 25 years of experience in medicine and a proven track record in driving success in various specialist consulting businesses. After completing his medical qualification at Flinders University, he completed specialist training as a consultant Occupational and Environmental Physician with a fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He graduated dux of his Graduate Diploma in OH+S at Adelaide University and he completed his GAICD qualification in 2011. He is a serial Australian biotech investor and a non-executive director of Lateral Pharma Pty Ltd.

Melanie Leydin

Company Secretary

Melanie Leydin is a highly experienced CFO and Company Secretary with 25 years of experience in the accounting profession and 15 years of experience in company secretarial services

Terry Chew, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer
  • Hematologist/oncologist with 20 years experience in biotech & pharma
  • 5 New Drug Applications including DaunoXome, Taxotere and DepoCyte
  • PTX is only 1 of only 2 ASX biotechs with a CMO that has successfully approved drugs

Upaly Bahadure

Director – Clinical Affairs & Operations
  • Over 17 years of experience in clinical development, driving programs from pre-clinical development through to regulatory submissions and successful commercialisation
  • Experience in leading global studies in oncology, including immuno-oncology
  • Formerly Beigene Global Clinical Program Lead
  • CRO experience with Chiltern International; Quintiles Research
  • Background in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Marketing

Mariam Mansour, PhD

Director – Clinical Development and Translational Sciences
  • Formerly Research and Clinical Lead at CSL.
  • Formerly Senior Research Fellow at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Academic career focused on immuno-oncology, leading preclinical development initiatives for early-stage portfolio assets for Bristol Myers Squibb and Genentech.
  • Over 17 years of experience in clinical development focusing in biologics, gene and cell therapy products.
  • Extensive background in developing therapeutic area portfolio strategies and managing clinical pipelines.
  • Expertise in devising and implementing biomarker and bioanalytical strategies to support nonclinical, GLP toxicology, pharmacology, and GCP clinical studies.

Luis Malaver-Ortega, PhD

R&D Manager
  • Over 10 years of experience in biomedical R&D gained through appointments at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), Me&Biotech, the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN), and The Hudson Institute of Medical Research.
  • Technical expertise in cell line development, genome editing, functional genomics, and bioprocessing.
  • Co-author and inventor in several scientific articles and patents in biotechnology and cancer research.

Tracey Owens PHD

CMC Project Manager
  • Experience in project management of drug substance, including synthesis, method development and qualification
  • Formerly Sterling Pharma Solutions and Thermo Fisher Scientific
  • PhD in chemical biology

Amber Weissenfluh

CMC Technical Lead
  • Highly experienced in reviewing batch records, CMC regulations and documenting CMC information for regulatory submissions
  • Expertise in optimising process chemistry
  • Formerly Patheon, Alcami, Viking Therapeutics
  • PhD in organic chemistry

Rebecca Lim, PhD

Consulting Scientist
  • Over 10 years of experience in allogeneic cell therapies for regenerative medicine
  • Initiated several first-in-human clinical trials for urgent unmet medical needs based on her research in cell therapies
  • Previously the Scientific Director for the Cell Therapies Platform at the Hudson Institute and an Associate Professor at Monash University
  • Crucial role in the tech transfer, product development and clinical delivery of Malaysia’s first CD19-targeted CAR-T trial.
  • Helped develop the RoteaTM Counterflow Centrifugal System for automated CAR-T manufacturing, now sold by Thermo Fisher Scientific

Said Sebti, PhD

Scientific Founder
  • Co-inventor of PTX-100
  • Named among top 20 Translational Researchers in the world by Nature Publishing Group

Terry Chew, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer
  • Hematologist/oncologist with 20 years experience in biotech & pharma
  • 5 New Drug Applications including DaunoXome, Taxotere and DepoCyte
  • PTX is only 1 of only 2 ASX biotechs with a CMO that has successfully approved drugs

Upaly Bahadure

Director – Clinical Affairs & Operations
  • Over 17 years of experience in clinical development, driving programs from pre-clinical development through to regulatory submissions and successful commercialisation
  • Experience in leading global studies in oncology, including immuno-oncology
  • Formerly Beigene Global Clinical Program Lead
  • CRO experience with Chiltern International; Quintiles Research
  • Background in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Marketing

Mariam Mansour, PhD

Director – Clinical Development and Translational Sciences
  • Formerly Research and Clinical Lead at CSL.
  • Formerly Senior Research Fellow at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Academic career focused on immuno-oncology, leading preclinical development initiatives for early-stage portfolio assets for Bristol Myers Squibb and Genentech.
  • Over 17 years of experience in clinical development focusing in biologics, gene and cell therapy products.
  • Extensive background in developing therapeutic area portfolio strategies and managing clinical pipelines.
  • Expertise in devising and implementing biomarker and bioanalytical strategies to support nonclinical, GLP toxicology, pharmacology, and GCP clinical studies.

Luis Malaver-Ortega, PhD

R&D Manager
  • Over 10 years of experience in biomedical R&D gained through appointments at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), Me&Biotech, the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN), and The Hudson Institute of Medical Research.
  • Technical expertise in cell line development, genome editing, functional genomics, and bioprocessing.
  • Co-author and inventor in several scientific articles and patents in biotechnology and cancer research.

Tracey Owens PHD

CMC Project Manager
  • Experience in project management of drug substance, including synthesis, method development and qualification
  • Formerly Sterling Pharma Solutions and Thermo Fisher Scientific
  • PhD in chemical biology

Amber Weissenfluh

CMC Technical Lead
  • Highly experienced in reviewing batch records, CMC regulations and documenting CMC information for regulatory submissions
  • Expertise in optimising process chemistry
  • Formerly Patheon, Alcami, Viking Therapeutics
  • PhD in organic chemistry

Rebecca Lim, PhD

Consulting Scientist
  • Over 10 years of experience in allogeneic cell therapies for regenerative medicine
  • Initiated several first-in-human clinical trials for urgent unmet medical needs based on her research in cell therapies
  • Previously the Scientific Director for the Cell Therapies Platform at the Hudson Institute and an Associate Professor at Monash University
  • Crucial role in the tech transfer, product development and clinical delivery of Malaysia’s first CD19-targeted CAR-T trial.
  • Helped develop the RoteaTM Counterflow Centrifugal System for automated CAR-T manufacturing, now sold by Thermo Fisher Scientific

Said Sebti, PhD

Scientific Founder
  • Co-inventor of PTX-100
  • Named among top 20 Translational Researchers in the world by Nature Publishing Group

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