Vicki Plaks is a Principal Scientist with the Department of Translational Medicine at Kite, A Gilead Company. Vicki is supporting development of CAR-T therapeutics in B cell malignancies. As a Translational Lead to clinical programs, Vicki is focusing on clinical pharmacology and biomarker strategies to expand YESCARTA into new indications. Vicki is also leading reverse translation studies to facilitate next generation programs as well as understanding mechanisms of CAR-T related toxicities.
Prior to Kite, Vicki had worked at Genentech, where she gained experience in supporting cancer immunotherapy antibody drug development, while leading bioanalysis, circulating biomarker strategies and assay development for solid tumors.
From her time as a postdoc and Assistant Adjunct Prof at UCSF, Vicki gained expertise in leading pre-clinical targeted cancer drug discovery research for breast cancer. She focused on tumor stromal immunobiology and cancer stem cell signaling. Thus far, Vicki published numerous (29) first author, senior author and collaborative peer-reviewed publications.