Courtney Beers, Ph.d.

Biography

Courtney is the Vice President of Cancer Immunotherapy for Tizona. She is leading discovery and development work on Tizona’s immuno-oncology and autoimmunity programs. Most recently, Courtney was the Head of Cancer Immunotherapy at Oncothyreon, where she spearheaded several novel immune modulatory biologic programs. Prior to that, Courtney held roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen and Immunex in the Therapeutic Innovation Unit, as well as the Oncology Discovery Research. Her immuno-oncology research resulted in multiple discovery programs that are key pillars in Amgen’s current immunotherapy strategy and product pipeline. During her tenure at Amgen, Dr. Beers was the Global Research Lead for Imlygic® (talimogene laherparepvec), the first oncolytic viral immunotherapy to win FDA approval. She also led Amgen’s GITR agonist program from inception to phase 1 clinical trials. Courtney earned her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Washington under Dr. Alexander Rudensky, the world leader in understanding the development and immune suppressive functions of regulatory T cells.

Research Interest

Courtney is the Vice President of Cancer Immunotherapy for Tizona. She is leading discovery and development work on Tizona’s immuno-oncology and autoimmunity programs. Most recently, Courtney was the Head of Cancer Immunotherapy at Oncothyreon, where she spearheaded several novel immune modulatory biologic programs. Prior to that, Courtney held roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen and Immunex in the Therapeutic Innovation Unit, as well as the Oncology Discovery Research. Her immuno-oncology research resulted in multiple discovery programs that are key pillars in Amgen’s current immunotherapy strategy and product pipeline. During her tenure at Amgen, Dr. Beers was the Global Research Lead for Imlygic® (talimogene laherparepvec), the first oncolytic viral immunotherapy to win FDA approval. She also led Amgen’s GITR agonist program from inception to phase 1 clinical trials. Courtney earned her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Washington under Dr. Alexander Rudensky, the world leader in understanding the development and immune suppressive functions of regulatory T cells.