Jonathan Zalevsky was appointed Nektar’s Chief Research & Development Officer in October 2019 to lead all aspects of the R&D organization, including research, clinical development, regulatory affairs, and biologics process development. Dr. Zalevsky joined the Company in 2015 and has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since 2017. During his tenure at Nektar, Dr. Zalevsky’s expertise in immunology, and across biological modalities and therapeutic areas, has helped fuel the growth of the company’s immuno-oncology and immunology pipeline. Dr. Zalevsky led the early development for bempegaldeskleukin and NKTR-358.
Prior to joining Nektar, Dr. Zalevsky was Global Vice President and Head of the Inflammation Drug Discovery Unit at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. As the leading immunologist for Takeda, he was responsible for an immunology pipeline that spanned from early target discovery to late-stage development and marketed products. Prior to his work at Takeda, Dr. Zalevsky worked in research and development at Xencor, where he oversaw the discovery and development of Xencor’s first four clinical-stage assets.
Dr. Zalevsky received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Tetrad Program at the University of California, San Francisco. He received dual B.S. degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.