Ghania Chikh

Dr. Chikh has over 21 years experience in drug development. She acquired her experience in both academic and biopharmaceutical/biotechnology settings. She served as a Senior Director of Pre-Clinical Research at EnGene Inc., managing development of a non-viral gene therapy for localized expression of immunomodulatory proteins in mucosal tissues for inflammatory diseases and cancer treatments. Prior to EnGene, Dr. Chikh worked as a senior member of the R&D team for Pfizer Inc., developing vaccines against infections, allergies, addictions and cancers. Several vaccine projects she was involved in have undergone clinical trials and are currently still ongoing. In addition to leading PoC and IND packages, Dr. Chikh was also managing biomarker and clinical assay development.

Before Pfizer, Dr. Chikh held positions at INEX Pharmaceuticals (currently Arbutus) and Coley Pharmaceuticals. She was also a Research Fellow at the BC Cancer Agency. Dr. Chikh obtained her PhD in Immunology/Biochemistry from France and conducted her PhD thesis on nanoparticle-based cancer vaccines at the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at the BC Cancer Agency. Dr. Chikh has published numerous manuscripts and has invented/co-invented various applications leading to several patents within the immunotherapy field.