Switzerland
Christian Klein is specialized in the discovery, engineering and preclinical development of (bispecific) mAbs for immunotherapy. He is CSO & co-founder of a biotech startup. Previously, he was CXO & Drug Maker @Curie.Bio working with founders of seed stage biotechs. As a distinguished scientist, research project/program leader & mentor he made key contributions during 22 years @Roche pRED to 1) Preclinical development/approval 1st Type 2 CD20 GlycoMab obinutuzumab in CLL incl. combo with venetoclax, NHL and I&I, 2) Project initiation/discovery 1st Ang-2/VEGF bsAb in ophthalmology faricimab, 3) Discovery/preclinical development 1st 2+1 CD20-TCB glofitamab, 4) Preclinical R&D on 25 clinical bsAbs, IgG-FPs/immunocytokines, CAR-Ts: CEA212Pb PRIT, trontinemab, BS-CD20, CD19-TCB, alnuctamab, stopped: vanucizumab, cibisatamab, simlukafusp, tobemstomig, forimtamig, WT1-TCB, FAP-4-1BBL, CD19-CD28, PD1-IL2v, englumafusp. He lead teams developing CrossMab®, 2+1 TCB, 4-1BB/CD28 costims, (PD1-cis) immunocytokines, next gen biologics, 212Pb-PRIT, P329G-CAR®-T platforms, and contributed to research on the IGF-1R mAb teprotuzumab and Nutlin MDM2i. Overall, as drug hunter (co-inventor) he contributed to 4 (2) approved drugs with GAZYVA, VABYSMO, COLUMVI, TEPEZZA/SYCUME, 34 (27) NMEs entering PhI with, 6 (6) in development and to collaborations w/ Affitech, Chugai, CRUK, Engmab, GNE, GoTx, Immatics, ImmunoCellular, Innovent, NimbleTx, Pieris, OranoMed, VLST and championed GoodTx's acquisition. 1998 he received a diploma in biochemistry from University Tübingen as scholar of the Studienstiftung working at the MPI for Biology, and 2002 a doctorate from TU Munich working on p53/MDM2 at the MPI of Biochemistry w/ R. Huber & Roche. 2002 he joined Roche Pharma Research Penzberg’s Therapeutic Protein Initiative as Postdoc, 2003 became Lab Head and 2007 Department Head Discovery Oncology. 2010 he joined Roche Innovation Center Zurich as Head Oncology Programs taking on additional roles as Department Head CIT-3 2015 and Site Head RICZ 2019. Since his habilitation 2017 he is an external lecturer for biochemistry @LMU Munich. He contributed to 250 publications, 250 patent families, is associate editor of mAbs, antibodies, Fonc, Fimmu, Trends in Drug Discovery and organized Keystone's Antibodies as Drugs Symposium 2019. He received the Drug Discovery of the Year 2015 award by the British Pharmacological Society, Roche pRED leadership medal, multiple Roche pRED, 3 Roche Awards of Excellence, 5 Inventors’ Gold Medals, Clarivate's Highly Cited Researcher award 2024 & 2025, h-index 82
External Lecturer for Biochemistry
In his role as a CXO and Drug Maker at Curie.Bio Christian Klein worked with the founders of seed stage companies to help and enable them with his and Curie.Bio’s expertise to advance novel and innovative concepts and drugs embodiments in the therapeutic antibody field towards series A and the clinic.
Translational Cancer Biology, Module E, PhD Program in Cancer Biology by UZH & ETH Zürich
2019 Christian Klein took on the additional role as Site Head for Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Roche pRED's Center of Excellence for Cancer Immunotherapy. In this role he represented RICZ in the Roche pRED Site Head forum and management committees and represented RICZ externally.
In his function Christian Klein contributed to pRED Roche Innovation Center Zurich's (bispecific) antibody based cancer immunotherapy (CIT) discovery projects e.g. the development of its technologies like the immunocytokine, 2+1 T cell bispecific, 4-1BB costimulator, next gen biologics and P329G-CAR® T-cell platforms as Head Oncology Programs and Department Head Cancer Immunotherapy Discovery 3 responsible for a team of >20 scientist and co-workers. He continued to act as research project leader for a number of research and clinical stage projects and platforms, and helped to define clinical development strategies. Over the years he contributed to more than 30 projects entering clinical trials. He also participated in the evaluation and due diligence of external assets with Roche Partnering e.g. as a discovery champion he was instrumental for the acquisition and subsequent integration of Good Therapeutics 2022.
From 2010-2015 Christian Klein contributed to pRED Roche Innovation Center Zurich's antibody based cancer immunotherapy (CIT) discovery projects as Head Oncology Programs. In this role he lead the development of its platform technologies like the immunocytokine and T cell bispecifics (TCB) platform and acted as research project leader for a number of research and clinical stage projects and helped to define clinical development strategies. In his role he initially lead preclinical development of a number of projects e.g. CEA-IL2v RG7813 (EIH 2013), FAP-IL2v RG7461 (EIH 2015) or CEA-TCB RG7802 (EIH 2014), Roche's 1st TCB in clinical trials. He also participated in the evaluation and due diligence of external assets with Roche Partnering. 2011 he was appointed as Expert Scientist and 2014 as Distinguished Scientist. As preclinical science leader on the GAZYVA Life Cycle Team he lead research on the glycoengineered Type II CD20 antibody GAZYVA/GAZYVARO (obinutuzumab, GA101) from preclinical (2005) to clinical (EIH 2007) to pivotal trials (2009/10) and acted as non-clinical pharmacology expert for the filing with health authorities. GAZYVA received Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA and was the 1st drug under BTD and the 1st glycoengineered antibody to receive FDA/EMA approval. GAZYVA is now approved for 1st line treatment of CLL combined with chlorambucil (2013/2014), R/R fNHL combined with bendamustine followed by GAZYVA monotherapy (2016), 1st line fNHL combined with chemotherapy (2017) and 1st line treatment of CLL combined with venetoclax (2019).