Kathy Seidl joined Takeda in December 2020, and since August 2021 has taken on the role of VP, Head of the Oncology Drug Discovery Unit leading a broad modality diverse oncology pipeline developing innovative therapeutics to best serve cancer patients. Kathy has over 20 years of drug discovery experience working on small molecules, biologics and cell therapies.  Prior to Takeda, Kathy served as VP Immunology, Research and Development and Strategy at SQZ Biotech in Watertown, MA, where she has overseen multiple cell therapy research programs in the areas of oncology and autoimmunity applying the novel cell squeeze® technology.  Prior, she was Director of Immunotherapy at bluebird bio in Cambridge, MA, leading preclinical teams developing CAR and TCR cell therapeutics for oncology indications. Previous to that, she worked at Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland, and Cambridge, MA, where she held several positions with increasing responsibility driving the strategy for Immuno-Oncology bispecific biologics and developing therapeutics against early drug discovery targets in autoimmune disease through small molecule, cell therapy, and biologics modalities. Previous experience in pre-clinical and translational research include Daiamed, Wyeth, and Pfizer, where she worked on small molecule and biologic modalities for immune regulation, including selective Jak inhibitors, such as tofacitinib.

Kathy received her Ph.D. in Genetics from Stanford University, where she trained as an immunologist and completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.  Since 2000, Kathy has worked in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry in preclinical drug discovery and development in both autoimmunity and oncology.