About Us

Taku Yoshida joined Universal Cells as President in 2023 with more than 15 years experiences in oncology drug discovery and translational research. Prior to Universal Cells, he served as Executive director, head of Oncology research from 2018 to 2021, and Vice president, head of Immuno-Oncology research from 2021 to 2023 at Astellas. Through his career in Astellas, he significantly contributed to build innovative pipeline with filling 9 INDs originated from his discovery team. He also led multiple research collaborations with external partners such as biotech companies in the US, and served as joint steering committee member.

Before joining Astellas in 2015, he spent at Eisai from 2007 to 2015 in oncology discovery team, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at Dana Farber Cancer Institute from 2010 to 2012.

He earned his Ph.D in Immunology from Kyoto University.

Noboru Yamaji is the President and Chief Intelligence and Liaison Officer of Universal Cells. He has more than 30 years of industrial experience with Astellas, where he has been involved in research activities for biologics and corporate-wide strategy making for antibody and regenerative medicine/cell therapy and its implementation as Head of the corresponding research departments. He has experience in working at bio venture companies, Genetics Institute in Cambridge, MA as a visiting scientist from 1991 t0 1993 and Agensys in Santa Monica, CA as Director, Target Discovery for monoclonal antibodies in the oncology field from 2008 to 2012.

Dr. Yamaji received a Masters degree and Ph.D from the University of Tokyo. He once served as vice chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Forum for Innovative Regenerative Medicine (FIRM), an industrial association for regenerative medicine in Japan.

Ryan received a Ph.D in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. There his research focused on using gene editing and in vitro models to understand the impact of common cancer associated mutations on tumor cell biology. Following this, he joined Universal Cells and has taken on positions of increasing responsibility within the research group. He currently oversees projects related to further development of gene-edited Universal Donor Cells and the development of various therapeutic cell types.

Gary Dos Santos joined Universal Cells in the spring of 2023 as the Director of Facilities and Operations. Previously, he was the Operations Director at Eurofins Genomics Blue Heron, where he successfully implemented ISO13485/GMP in a synthetic biology facility. Prior to that, he was the Director of Method Validation and Laboratory Operations at Nexelis (recently acquired by Q-Squared). As a scientist, Gary was part of the Stemcell Technologies R&D team that commercialized mTeSR and StemVision. He also made significant contributions to the development of the NK cell therapy IP and IND submission for Indapta Therapeutics. Gary has a BS in biochemistry and an MS in Microbiology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Akina joined Universal Cells in 2018, bringing with her experience in assay development and optimization of pluripotent stem cell cultures and differentiation. At Universal Cells she leads the Clinical Gene Editing team that generate final Universal Donor clinical clones for various cell therapy programs across Astellas and beyond. She also leads the Process Development team that continues to build on our editing technology platform. Since joining Universal Cells she has built and expanded her team and continues to grow their capabilities to include new editing techniques and documentation systems. She enjoys working with the project teams and is excited to contribute to the efforts to bring Universal Donor Cells to the clinic.

Akina grew up in Japan and moved to the United States to attend Vassar College where she received her BA in Biology and Chinese. She obtained her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, on her work studying the biochemistry of enzymes involved in the maturation of peptide hormones such as insulin/neuropeptides. She then moved to Seattle to do a postdoctoral fellowship, switching fields to stem cell biology and retinal differentiation. There she was involved in mapping expression of key markers in the developing human retina, and used this to evaluate whether miRNAs could be used to speed up and improve robustness of differentiation.

Coming Soon!

Kyle Knobloch joined Universal Cells in 2023, bringing over 17 years of experience in Project, Program, and Alliance Management across diverse therapeutic areas and modalities. His experience includes building out project management organizations and leading high priority teams to developing stage gate frameworks and overseeing technical governance. Most importantly, Kyle is passionate about advancing science with curative-intent from the bench to the clinic, for only then can patients be served.

Prior to Universal Cells, Kyle was Head of Program Management at Century Therapeutics and before that, program managed the multiple myeloma franchise at Juno Therapeutics. Kyle received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder in MCD Biology and Biochemistry and an MBA in Finance from Pepperdine University.

Mark joined Universal Cells in 2024 with over 17 years of experience focusing on NK cell, T cell, and macrophage biology and is a recognized expert on NK cell responses to infection and cancer. He received his Ph.D. in Immunology at University of Washington. During his post-doc in Lewis Lanier’s lab University of California, San Francisco, Mark investigated the function of NK cells during viral infection. Mark most recently came from Bristol Myers Squibb where he led a team in translational research investigating the mechanisms of action, potential indications, and combination strategies for early clinical development of immune cell engagers in hematology and oncology. Prior to that, he led research on the mechanisms of action and development of adjuvanted vaccines at IDRI, focusing on tuberculosis, influenza, and enteric disease.

Lisa joined Universal Cells in 2016, bringing over 14 years of experience working in research labs at the University of Washington in the departments of Medical Genetics and Pediatrics. Her work at the University of Washington was focused on the development of recombinant AAV as a tool for in vitro gene editing, as well the generation of pluripotent stem cell based disease models. Since joining Universal Cells Lisa has built a department which encompasses rAAV production and the development of molecular and cell based assays used to characterize gene edited PSC lines.

Lisa grew up in eastern Washington and earned a B.S. in biochemistry at Washington State University.

Mary Prieve joined Universal Cells in 2022, bringing nearly two decades of experience in the development of cellular and nucleic acid therapeutics to treat indications in oncology, infectious disease, and metabolic disorders. She has built and led teams with diverse sets of backgrounds including hematopoietic stem cell expansion and differentiation, genetic engineering, mRNA and siRNA formulation and delivery, and animal pharmacology.

Prior to Universal Cells, Dr. Prieve spent 3 years at Deverra Therapeutics where she led the preclinical research team to develop an NK cell product and file two INDs to treat patients with COVID-19 and AML. She grew up in California and moved to Seattle in 1999 to do a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Washington. She received a BS degree in chemistry from University of California, Santa Barbara and a PhD in biological sciences from University of California, Irvine.