Celyad Oncology’s case study: validation approach for accelerated mycoplasma testing

Dr Sarah Snykers

Cell Therapy Manufacturing Unit Director at Celyad

Sarah is Director of the Cell Therapy Manufacturing Unit at Celyad, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapies for cancer. She has over 10 years of experience in cell therapy, biomedical research, development and quality control. She is a pharmacist from education and has a PhD in pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences, specialised in stem cell biology. In 2010, she joined Promethera BioSciences, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of cell therapy products based on allogeneic adult stem cell technology to treat liver diseases. She headed the R&D, QC and Preclinical Departments. In 2015, she joined Celyad. Sarah initially led the immune-oncology program at R&D level, focused on technology transfer, product characterization and optimization. In 2016, she became Head of the QC Department, covering release of clinical products and raw material, analytical method development and translational research activities. In 2020, all operational activities including Production, QC, Validation and Tech transfer of processes, methods, equipment, raw material and viral vector became under her responsibility.