Unum Therapeutics, a company developing a universal cellular immunotherapy to treat multiple cancers, has appointed Jörn Aldag to its board of directors. Aldag brings over two decades of experience leading innovative biotech companies.

“Jörn is one of the true pioneers in building companies that bring novel and potentially curative therapies to patients with severe conditions, and we are very excited to have him join our board,” said Chuck Wilson, Ph.D., president and CEO of Unum Therapeutics. “With his experience, I expect Jörn to provide invaluable insights to our team as we continue to build Unum, seek to bring our Antibody-Coupled T-cell Receptor (ACTR) therapy to patients, and work to change the way cancer is treated.”

Aldag currently is the chairman of Molecular Partners, Zurich, Switzerland—a company developing a new class of small protein therapies called DARPins. Until recently, he was the chief executive officer of the gene therapy company uniQure, the first company to ever receive approval of a gene therapy product from a Western regulatory agency.

“As cellular immunotherapies emerge as one of the most promising approaches in oncology, Unum’s leadership team and ACTR technology position the company for success,” said Aldag. “I am looking forward to working with the board and Unum’s management during the next phase of the company’s growth.”

Before his tenure at uniQure, Aldag was president and CEO of Evotec, a company focused on small molecule drug discovery. There he successfully developed a pipeline of CNS programs and drove the acquisitions of LSE-listed Oxford Asymmetry and NASDAQ-listed Renovis.