Diego Vargas, Ph.D. is Vice President of Cell Therapy at Link Cell Therapies. After his academic training Diego worked at Pfizer and Allogene, where he and his team developed Potency Enhancements for Allogeneic CAR T cell Therapies. After Allogene, Diego joined Serotiny, a Bay Area startup focusing on high-throughput library-based optimization of Cell and Gene Therapies. At Serotiny, Diego led the Research Team which validated the company’s platform and supported the signing of strategic external partnerships with Tessera Therapeutics and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
Diego obtained his B.S. in Biology (Immunology specialization) from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru. He then obtained his Ph.D. from The University of Texas Medical Branch, studying the immune response to the intracellular parasite Leishmania. Diego then pursued post-doctoral training in the Vaccine Branch of the National Cancer Institute where he developed novel HIV vaccines based on adenoviral vectors. He then became a Staff Scientist in the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases where he worked on developing CAR T cells to eradicate HIV infection.
Diego has co-authored 37 scientific publications and is an inventor on 3 patent applications.
