Translational Biotechnology Hosted Seminar by Andrew Gray from Karma Biotechnologies
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Lab Rat to CEO:
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Dr. Andrew Gray is an immune engineer and entrepreneur on a mission to bring treatments for autoimmunity into the 21st century. He is the cofounder and CEO of Karma Biotechnologies http://karmabiotech.com, a Los Angeles startup focused on developing Xavines™, universal therapeutics designed to shut down only the self-attacking rogue immune cells while leaving the rest of the immune system functional. Andrew was only eight years old when his mother was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a devastating and incurable autoimmune disease. This pivotal event – and frustration with his mother’s primitive treatment options – drove a lifetime of studying the immune system, how it works, and how it can be engineered. Andrew received his PhD in Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology from USC in 2011. During his studies, he helped develop a vaccine against prostate cancer, and was one of the first to show how tumors protect themselves from immune attack by hijacking the body’s natural protection systems against autoimmunity. It is these protection systems that Karma aims to reboot in autoimmune patients using Xavines™. Since receiving his PhD, he’s founded and advised multiple biotech startups, and helps assess novel technologies for several venture funds. Originally from the UK, Andrew came to the US with nothing but a place at Berkeley and a rucksack… which the airline lost. In his spare time he backpacks in the Sierra Nevada with his wife, staying off the grid until caffeine deprivation drives him back to civilization and espresso machines.
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