- Scientific Advisory Board member, Dr. Noriyuki Kasahara, appointed Chief Scientific Officer of GenVivo, to accelerate the achievement of major clinical milestones
SAN MARINO, Calif., Sept. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GenVivo, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering a patented, off-the-shelf vector platform to combat cancer by activating the patient’s immune system against the entire repertoire of their own tumor antigens, today announces the appointment of Dr. Noriyuki “Nori” Kasahara as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).
“With more than three decades of distinguished leadership in cancer research and vector technology, Nori brings a wealth of scientific and developmental expertise to GenVivo’s leadership team,” said Robert Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer at GenVivo. “His strategic insights will be invaluable as we advance our in vivo CAR-T and IL-12 vectors into the clinic and validate the GEN2 mechanism of action in our Phase 1/2 clinical trial.”
Dr. Kasahara has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles in the fields of gene therapy and genetic engineering. His pioneering work includes the development of tumor‑selective retroviral replicating vectors (RRVs) and the establishment of vector core facilities. As a scientific co‑founder of Tocagen Inc., his technologies advanced from first-in-human Phase I studies to multi‑center Phase III clinical trials. Prior to his appointment at GenVivo, Dr. Kasahara served as Chief Scientific Officer at 4D Molecular Therapeutics (4DMT), a publicly traded gene therapy biotechnology company, where he was also a member of 4DMT’s Board of Directors, and chaired the Board’s Science & Technology Committee.
“I am thrilled to join GenVivo, a company with exceptional potential to advance patient care through its unique genetic therapy platform technology,” said Dr. Kasahara. “I am eager to contribute my translational medicine expertise to support GenVivo’s highly accomplished and dedicated leadership team as we pursue clinical validation of our lead product candidate and continue to drive preclinical development of our emerging translational programs.”
Dr. Kasahara’s academic career spans prominent faculty positions at the University of Southern California (USC), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Miami, and most recently at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as the Alvera L. Kan Endowed Chair and Professor in the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Radiation Oncology and as a Principal Investigator in the UCSF Brain Tumor Center.
He has served as a consultant to multiple biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and on numerous scientific review panels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Cancer Research UK, and National Cancer Institute of Canada. He has also served on the Scientific Committee on Viral Gene Transfer Vectors and currently serves on the Global Outreach Committee for the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT). Dr. Kasahara was past President of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy of Cancer (ISCGT),and is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Japan Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (JSGCT).
Dr. Kasahara obtained his medical degree in 1986 from Tokyo Medical & Dental University (now Institute of Science Tokyo) and completed post-graduate clinical training with Board certification in Laboratory Medicine / Clinical Pathology at UCSF. He received his Ph.D. from UCSF in 1994 from the Interdepartmental Program in Endocrinology for his research with Professor Y. W. Kan, a pioneer in genetic diagnostics and recipient of the Lasker Award.
About GenVivo
GenVivo is a private, vertically integrated, clinical-stage biotechnology company founded to develop innovative genetic & immunologic therapies, which activate the patient’s immune system to treat cancer. GenVivo is committed to developing and manufacturing products that are rapidly deployed, and easily administered, personalizing, and yet off-the-shelf, with the goal of increasing cancer patient survival and improving quality of life. GenVivo’s first clinical candidate, GEN2, is currently in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in the US (NCT06391918). GenVivo’s pre-clinical pipeline includes an in vivo CAR-T/NK vector, GEN-310 and an IL-12 encoding vector, GEN-1013.
For more information, visit https://genvivoinc.com/
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