Dr. Merkel will receive the award during the 2023 ACR Convergence Meeting in San Diego, CA for his outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology
EMERYVILLE, Calif. Nov. 11, 2023 – Kyverna Therapeutics (“Kyverna”), a patient-centered clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing cell therapies for patients suffering from autoimmune diseases, congratulates Peter A. Merkel, M.D., M.P.H., a member of the Kyverna’s scientific advisory board, on receiving the 2023 ACR Distinguished Clinical Investigator Award by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). The recognition is given annually to a member who exhibits outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology.
“All of us at Kyverna celebrate this well-deserved recognition of Dr. Merkel’s impact in the field of rheumatology”, said Peter Maag, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Kyverna Therapeutics. “His support of Kyverna’s autoimmune disease trial program, including KYSA-1, our Phase 1 clinical trial of KYV-101, an investigational CD19 CAR T-cell therapy for the treatment of lupus nephritis, has helped bridge the gap between innovative science and patient impact.”
Dr. Merkel is a professor of medicine and epidemiology, and chief of the division of rheumatology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an internationally recognized research and clinical expert in vasculitis and scleroderma, diseases he has studied for more than 25 years. Dr. Merkel’s research focuses on clinical trial design and conduct, outcome-measure development, clinical epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and biomarker discovery. He has authored over 400 scientific publications.
Dr. Merkel has been a Kyverna Advisory Board member since 2022.
About Kyverna Therapeutics
Kyverna Therapeutics is a clinical-stage cell therapy company with the mission of engineering a new class of therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The Kyverna therapeutic platform combines advanced T-cell engineering and synthetic biology technologies to suppress and eliminate the autoreactive immune cells at the origin of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Kyverna’s pipeline includes next-generation chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies in both autologous and allogeneic formats with properties well suited for use in B cell-driven autoimmune diseases. By offering more than one mechanism for taming autoimmunity, Kyverna is positioned to act on its mission of transforming how autoimmune diseases are treated.
For more information, please visit https://kyvernatx.com.
Kyverna Media Contact:
Katie Dodge
+1 (978) 360-3151
Katie.Dodge@RuderFinn.com