Raphael A. Clynes MD, PhD

Dr. Clynes has more than 25 years of medical research experience with expertise in immuno-oncology discovery and development with several patents and more than 80 publications including in prestigious journals such as Science, Nature Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Dr. Clynes has contributed to significant translational advances in medicine, including studies providing the rationale for engineering Fc domains to enhance the efficacy of antibody therapeutics in cancer, as well as proof-of-concept studies establishing the clinical utility of JAK and Syk protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors in T-cell-mediated autoimmunity.

Prior to joining Xencor, Dr. Clynes served as group medical and scientific director of immuno-oncology in early clinical development at Bristol Myers Squibb. He was a co-founder of Vixen Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Aclaris Pharmaceuticals). Prior to joining BMS, he served as an associate professor at Columbia University in the departments of medicine, microbiology, pathology, and dermatology, where he was an NIH investigator with more than 20 years of continuous funding in cancer and autoimmunity. At Columbia, Dr. Clynes held several leadership positions, including head of the Laboratory of Cellular Immunology and Immunogenetics, head of the Flow Cytometry Translational Research Core, head of the Clinical Flow Cytometry/HLA laboratory, and co-director of Tumor Immunology in the Irving Cancer Center.

Dr. Clynes earned his medical degree and a doctorate in biochemistry from Stony Brook University and earned his bachelor's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also was a resident in internal medicine at the Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, and a fellow in hematology and oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University in New York. Dr. Clynes has participated as a consultant and scientific advisory board member with several biopharma companies and on numerous NIH and Research Foundation Scientific Review Committees. Dr. Clynes is the recipient of numerous honors including the Kimmel Scholar, Lupus Scholar, Arthritis Investigator, and Cancer Research Institute Awards.