Matthew Spear, M.D.

Throughout his past 30+ years of experience in oncology and gene therapy research and development, Matt has combined deep scientific expertise with functional leadership across both academic and industry roles. He served previously as an Associate Professor at USC Keck School of Medicine and UCSD Medical School / UCSD Cancer Center, where he managed a clinical practice and led drug discovery, gene therapy research and oncology clinical trial programs.

In industry roles, Matt led multiple oncology clinical development programs at Pfizer before subsequently serving as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President at Nereus Pharmaceuticals. He was then appointed Head of Oncology and Head of Biotherapeutics at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals. He subsequently held Clinical Development leadership roles at Incyte Therapeutics and Sangamo Therapeutics before being appointed Chief Medical Officer at Poseida Therapeutics, where he led clinical development of multiple CAR-T cell and gene therapy programs. Most recently, Matt served as Chief Development Officer / Chief Medical Officer at Denovo Biopharma.

In addition to his industry and academic leadership roles, Matt has contributed extensively to the scientific and medical communities, serving as a CIRM CAR-T Principal Investigator, member of NIH / NCI study sections, as a CPRIT grant reviewer, on biotechnology and pharmaceutical company Advisory Boards, and on IRB/SRC committees and scientific journal editorial review committees related to cancer and gene therapy, as well as in authoring numerous scientific manuscripts and patent applications.

Matt received his BA from Johns Hopkins University and MD from Stanford University, followed by postgraduate training at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard University.

Denovo Biopharma
Chief Development Officer/Chief Medical Officer

Poseida Therapeutics, Inc.
Chief Medical Officer

Incyte
VP, Clinical Development

Sunovion Pharmaceuticals
Head of Oncology, Head of Biotherapeutics

Nereus Pharmaceuticals
Chief Medical Officer, Senior Vice President

USC Keck School of Medicine
Associate Professor

Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Resident/Fellow

‍Stanford University School of Medicine
M.D., Medicine

The Johns Hopkins University
B.A., Biology