Innate Immune System Activators for Cancer: Art Krieg on The Long Run

Art Krieg is today’s guest on The Long Run.

Art is the founder and CEO of a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup called Zola Therapeutics.

Art Krieg, founder and CEO, Zola Therapeutics

Zola is developing an oligonucleotide drug candidate to activate a family of Toll-like receptors known as TLR7 TLR8 and TLR9. Activating these receptors is thought to spur the innate immune system to attack cancer cells.

Art designed the molecule himself and believes it could be the biggest thing he’s done in a long and distinguished career. He is a physician-scientist who’s considered one of the founders of the field of oligonucleotide therapies. These drugs consist of short strands of synthetic RNA or DNA to do some specific job. 

Art became enthralled with this type of medicine when he was a rheumatologist, thinking about how oligos might modulate the immune system. When he was on the faculty at the University of Iowa in the 1990s, Art discovered the immune stimulatory CpG DNA motif, which led to a new approach to immunotherapy and vaccine adjuvants. He then moved over from academia to industry, living through a historic boom in cancer immunotherapy in the 2010s. His most recent company, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, developed a TLR9 agonist for cancer which was acquired by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for $250 million in 2022.

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Now, please enjoy this conversation with Art Krieg on The Long Run.