Istvan Kovacs

Background

About Istvan Kovacs

I am a physician-scientist interested in the development of transformative cell and gene therapy products. Treating cancer patients in the haemato-oncology ward and seeing family members both winning and losing the battle against cancer motivated me to pursue a career in immuno-oncology research and development. Bringing novel therapies from bench to the bedside gets me out of bed in the morning. As Head of Gene Engineering at GammaDelta Therapeutics I have transformed a primarily non-engineering focused gammadelta T-cell company into a gene engineering focused organisation. With my team, we have established a strong engineering platform consisting of various viral and non-viral engineering tools. Currently, I oversee the gene engineering activities of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) modified armoured and unarmoured skin and blood-derived gammadelta T-cell platforms to develop the next pipeline of allogenic gammadelta T-cell therapies. I project and matrix-lead the pre-clinical development of GammaDelta Therapeutics’ first gene engineered product (GDX014) for the treatment of haematological malignancies. I love combining strategic thinking with rigorous experimental research during my daily work; a challenging project, a novel idea, an interesting target or indication float my boat. I love learning new skills, discovering areas that are out of my comfort zone and ideally, I would like to experience the entire lifecycle of ATMP development. I thrive in a dynamic, high speed environment and I believe a can-do attitude can set you up to success.