Fred Ramsdell

Dr. Ramsdell received his Ph.D. from UCLA and did post-doctoral work at the National Institutes of Health, then joined Immunex Research Corporation to characterize T cell activation and tolerance, including the cloning and characterization of a variety of TNFR family members and their respective ligands. In 1995, he joined Darwin Molecular Inc. (later acquired by Celltech R&D, Inc.) to establish and lead its immunology program. At Darwin Molecular, Dr. Ramsdell developed programs in immunology and genetics that led to the discovery of Foxp3 and determined this to be the defining gene for regulatory T cells, the absence of which leads to the fatal human autoimmune syndrome, IPEX. After moving to ZymoGenetics, Inc. in 2004, Dr. Ramsdell identified and characterized several novel proteins with regulatory activity in lymphoid cells. In 2008, he moved to Novo Nordisk to establish the Inflammation Research Center in Seattle, where he led the Discovery Immunology group. In 2014, he joined aTyr Pharma as VP of Immunology, and in 2016 joined The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI).