Vice President of Research & Development and Head of Virology Kineta, Inc. Seattle, WA
Dr. Kristin Bedard leads Kineta’s discovery research programs focused on immunology infectious disease and oncology consisting of a diverse pipeline of therapeutic and vaccine adjuvant candidates. Under her direction, Kineta established the AViiD platform for identifying novel innate immune modulators, broad spectrum antiviral and vaccine adjuvant drug classes. Additionally, the virology team has progressed the direct-acting antiviral lead, LHF-535, into formal preclinical development for the hemorrhagic viral disease, Lassa Fever. She leads a multi-functional scientific team responsible for the selection and advancement of drug candidates for respiratory, hepatitis, emerging viruses and immuno-oncology indications at Kineta.
Dr. Bedard received her undergraduate degrees in Microbiology and Biochemistry at Pennsylvania State University and earned a PhD degree in Molecular Virology from University of California, Irvine where she studied the host cell- virus interactions of RNA viruses. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center studying viral induced cancers. Dr. Bedard’s work has led to three highly regarded NIH research grants and four NIH contracts for therapeutics and vaccine adjuvants, resulting in more $55 million of research funding for Kineta and our collaborators. She is the co-inventor on fifteen filed U.S. patent applications for novel classes of antivirals, adjuvants, immune agonists and corresponding methods of identification. Her focus on host driven therapies is instrumental in shifting the paradigm of adjuvant and antiviral drug development strategies.
