Rafael Amado MD

Dr. Rafael Amado, M.D., has been the Chief Medical Officer of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc since March 16, 2015. Dr. Amado has 12 years of experience within the biotech and pharma industries. He leads Adaptimmune's clinical strategy and is responsible for clinical trials across the U.S. and Europe under strategic collaboration with GSK, as well as leading the development of pipeline of wholly-owned research programs. He served as the Head of Oncology Research & Development of GlaxoSmithKline Inc. (GSK). He was responsible for integrating oncology R&D activities, from drug target identification to clinical development and registration globally.

He joined GSK in 2008 as Vice President of Clinical Development and served in positions of increasing responsibility, including Senior Vice President and Head of Oncology Clinical Development. He oversaw the development and registration globally of over 15 novel indications across six products and led the development of a pipeline of products in novel areas of cancer biology. Prior to joining GSK, he served as an Executive Director of Therapeutic Oncology at Amgen from 2003 to 2008, where he was responsible for development activities of several assets.

He trained as a Hematologist/Oncologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he remained as faculty for eight years until joining Amgen in 2003. Dr. Amado holds an M.D. from the University of Seville School of Medicine and performed his residency in Internal Medicine at Michael Reese Hospital, a University of Chicago Affiliated Hospital and his fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles.