Asgard Therapeutics appoints Professor Dr Wolfram Brugger as Chief Medical Officer as it advances transformative ‘personalized off-the-shelf’ immunotherapy toward clinical development

• Medical oncologist (ex AstraZeneca, MorphoSys, Autolus Therapeutics) joins to advance Asgard’s lead asset AT-108 into Phase 1 clinical development
• AT-108 is a transformative immunotherapy that triggers a personalized immune response against a patient’s tumors, despite being an off-the-shelf drug
• Asgard is currently progressing IND-enabling studies of this first-in-class therapy, which reprograms cancer cells in vivo, forcing them to present their antigens to the immune system
  
  

LUND, Sweden, April 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asgard Therapeutics, a privately held biotech company pioneering in vivo direct cell reprogramming for cancer immunotherapy, today announces the appointment of Prof Dr Wolfram Brugger as Chief Medical Officer. Prof Dr Brugger, who has been involved in more than 130 Phase I-III clinical oncology trials with numerous modalities across a wide variety of cancer types, including solid tumors, will strengthen Asgard’s leadership as it prepares to transition to a clinical-stage biotech.

Cristiana Pires, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Asgard Therapeutics, said: “Strengthening our leadership team with Wolfram, who is such a highly experienced clinical trials expert and practicing medical oncologist, is a privilege and we are excited to welcome him on board. Wolfram’s proven capabilities and track record will ensure that Asgard is perfectly positioned as we advance AT-108 towards the clinic."

Prof Dr Wolfram Brugger, incoming Chief Medical Officer of Asgard Therapeutics, said: “I’ve always been driven by bringing new modalities to patients, and I am excited to be developing a ‘personalized off-the-shelf’ immunotherapy which has great potential to help patients with a wide variety of cancers. Asgard’s in vivo cell reprogramming technology has transformative potential, and the pre-clinical proof-of-concept data, both published and upcoming data to be presented at key scientific conferences, is highly convincing. Having treated hundreds of cancer patients in clinical trials throughout my career, I look forward to utilizing my experience to shape Asgard’s clinical strategy, driving AT-108 through clinical development.”

Wolfram joins Asgard from NASDAQ-listed Autolus Therapeutics where he led the global clinical development program of AUTO1 (AUCATZYL® / obe-cel), an autologous CD19 CAR T therapy, in hematological and autoimmune indications. AUTO1 received FDA approval in 2024 for relapsed / refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and conditional approval was granted by the EMA and MHRA in 2025. Prior to this he was at MorphoSys where he headed the global clinical development program for the monoclonal antibody tafasitamab across various blood cancer indications. Tafasitamab (in combination with lenalidomide) was granted accelerated approval by the FDA in relapsed/refractory DLBCL in 2020 and conditional approval by the EMA in the same indication in 2021. At AstraZeneca, he was global medical lead for Phase I / early Phase II trials for several oncology assets in numerous cancer types, including testing them in combination with checkpoint inhibitors.

Prior to moving into drug development, he was Chief & Medical Director in the Department of Hematology, Oncology, Immunology & Infectious Diseases at a Teaching Hospital of Freiburg University in Germany. He holds an MD and PhD from Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg and Eberhard-Karls University Tübingen, Germany, with a specialist registration in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Hematology.

Asgard is currently focused on advancing IND-enabling studies and CMC activities to support clinical development of AT-108. Key proof-of-concept data on AT-108 were published in 2024 in the high-impact, peer-reviewed journal Science¹.

For further information, please contact:

Asgard Therapeutics
Cristiana Pires, Co-founder and CEO   
Email: cristiana.pires@asgardthx.com

Optimum Strategic Communications
Mary Clark, Stephen Adams, Elena Bates
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8142 3740
Email: asgard@optimumcomms.com

Notes to Editors

About Asgard Therapeutics
Asgard Therapeutics is a privately held biotech company pioneering in vivo direct cell reprogramming for cancer immunotherapy. The company builds on ground-breaking and proprietary reprogramming technologies to develop gene therapy products designed to set in motion efficient and personalized immune responses. Asgard Therapeutics aims to establish a pipeline of off-the shelf cancer immunotherapies that trigger personalized anti-cancer immune responses for the benefit of cancer patients in need. Asgard is backed by Novo Holdings, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Industrifonden, RV Invest and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. For more information, please visit: www.asgardthx.com     

About AT-108
AT-108 is a first-in-class, off-the-shelf gene therapy that directly reprograms tumor cells into a rare subset of dendritic cells critical for mounting efficient cytotoxic T cell responses, cDC1 cells (conventional dendritic cells type 1). Reprogramming forces the tumor cells to present their tumor antigens, ultimately leading to a personalized anti-tumor immune response. It is based on a replication-deficient adenoviral vector that delivers three proprietary reprogramming factors into tumor cells, rewiring their gene expression signatures and thus “programming” them to become antigen-presenting cDC1-like cells.

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¹ http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn9083

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