Aya Jakobovits, Ph.D.
Aya Jakobovits has over 25 years track record in starting and growing biotech companies, which developed novel technologies and therapeutic products. She founded Adicet Bio, Inc. in 2014 and served as its President and CEO until March 2018. She served as a Venture Partner at OrbiMed from 2011-2016. Previously, from 2010-2013, Dr. Jakobovits served as the President and Founding CEO of Kite Pharma, Inc., acquired in 2017 by Gilead for $11.9 billion. Before joining Kite Pharma, she served as Executive Vice President, Head of Research and Development at Agensys, Inc., an affiliate of Astellas Pharma Inc. Before Agensys acquisition by Astellas in 2007 for $537 million, Dr. Jakobovits served as Agensys’ Senior Vice President, Technology and Corporate Development and Chief Scientific Officer and led its R&D, clinical, business, and corporate development operations. Prior to Agensys, she served as the Director, Discovery Research and Principal Scientist at Abgenix, Inc., which was spun out of Cell Genesys, Inc. and based on the XenoMouse® technology developed under her leadership. Abgenix was acquired by Amgen Inc. for $2.2 billion.
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She serves on the Board of Directors of Adicet Bio, Dyve Biosciences Inc., UCLA Technology Development Corporation, and Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd.
Dr. Jakobovits received her B.Sc. cum laude from the Hebrew university of Jerusalem, her M.Sc. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Life Sciences from the Weizmann Institute of Sciences, Israel, and was a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF and Genentech. Dr. Jakobovits is an author of over 50 scientific publications and inventor of over 120 issued patents.