NecstGen announces the addition of Johan Hyllner to its strategic advisory board. Johan Hyllner is leading expert in cell therapy and enabling technologies. He is professor of engineering biology at Linköping University, Sweden and head of the Cell Therapy BioPharmaceutical R&D at AstraZeneca. He was responsible for building five startups, including Cellartis and Cellectis, in the cell therapy field into successful international businesses.

“I am excited to join NecstGen’s advisory board. Cell and gene therapies offer great potential to provide something better than existing medicines. It is important to promote this next generation of medicines. NecstGen does this by actively supporting the first steps of their manufacturing. This will ultimately help combat some of the most complex diseases.” Says Prof. Hyllner.

Johan Hyllner obtained his doctorate at the University of Gothenburg. He is devoted to both scientific and industrial aspects of cell therapy, publishing over 60 peer reviewed articles in this field. Since 2012, he is adjunct Professor of engineering biology at the department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at Linköping University, Sweden. Throughout the last 20 years, Johan was a C-level executive in five startup companies in the cell therapy field and built these into successful international businesses. Among others, as CSO, he has been part of building Cellectis, Cellartis, SQC Lab and Vitrolife into thriving entities. From 2013 he held the position as CSO of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Ltd, London, a high-profile innovation centre established by the British government, where he helped grow the organization from 12 to 170 people. In 2019, he joined AstraZeneca, where he is leading Cell Therapy BioPharmaceuticals R&D. Here, he is responsible for the discovery and development of cell therapy based projects from discovery to clinic across cardiovascular, renal, metabolic, respiratory and immunological diseases. In this role, he oversees the strategic direction of this newly-formed department while building capabilities both internally and through collaborations. Prof. Hyllner brings vast experience in applied research through development to global marketing, manufacturing and commercialization of advanced cell-based products. In addition, he has extensive experience of strategic outlining and execution, external scientific relations, assessment of candidate projects and technical oversight of preclinical programs.