Fate Therapeutics, a company founded in late 2007 to commercialize stem-cell technology from several US academic institutions, said this week that it has added Dan Shoemaker as its chief technology officer.
Shoemaker was most recently chief scientific officer of ICx Biosystems. From 2003 to 2005, he was chief scientific officer of GHC Technologies; and from 1998 to 2003, he held several positions at Merck Research Laboratories, including director of target discovery, senior director at Rosetta Inpharmatics, and research fellow in the department of molecular neurosciences.
Shoemaker received his PhD in biochemistry from Stanford University and his BS in biochemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Fate Therapeutics is developing small molecules to activate the body’s own cells for regenerative medicine and to create and differentiate virus-free induced pluripotent stem cells for drug discovery and therapeutic development.
Last week, the company said that Rudolf Jaenisch, founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined Fate's team of scientific founders. The announcement coincided with that of Fate licensing IP from Whitehead related to Jaenisch's stem-cell reprogramming research.