Dr. Ghania Chikh Named Senior Director, Vaccine Development at Acuitas Therapeutics

Dr. Ghania Chikh has joined Acuitas Therapeutics, Inc. as Senior Director, Vaccine Development, Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Ying Tam recently announced.

In this senior leadership role, Dr. Chikh will oversee the vaccine development program, working with Acuitas’ global partners. She will also lead internal programs focused on identifying, developing and optimizing the proprietary Acuitas lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology to support next-generation mRNA LNP vaccines.

“Dr. Chikh brings decades of experience in drug development, with a specialty in vaccine development and immunotherapeutics, to her new role at Acuitas,” said Dr. Tam. “Dr. Chikh’s expertise and leadership skills are invaluable as we grow to meet the increased demand for our clinically validated LNP technology. We are thrilled to have her join the team.”

Dr. Chikh has extensive experience with vaccines and LNP delivery technology. In fact, she completed her PhD thesis on developing a cancer vaccine using LNP. Prior to joining Acuitas, Dr. Chikh’s career included serving as a Senior Director of Pre-Clinical Research at EnGene Inc., managing the development of non-viral gene therapy for localized expression of immunomodulatory proteins in mucosal tissues for inflammatory diseases and cancer treatments. She was also a senior member of the R&D team for Pfizer Inc., developing vaccines against infections, allergies, addictions and cancers.

Dr. Chikh looks forward to dividing her time, working from her home office in Ottawa, Ont. and onsite at Acuitas in B.C., where she will also resume her love of hiking.