Lift Therapeutics Appoints Daniel Passeri as Chief Executive Officer
Veteran biotechnology executive, Daniel Passeri brings more than three decades of experience in oncology and immunotherapy drug development
Interim CEO Dr. Bo Rode Hansen resumes role as member of the Board of Directors of Lift Therapeutics and assumes role as President -
London, September 23, 2026 – Lift Therapeutics (‘Lift’ or ‘the Company’) today announced the
appointment of Daniel Passeri, MSc, JD, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Mr. Passeri brings over 30 years
of experience in oncology drug development, corporate strategy, and executive leadership, most recently
serving as CEO of Cue Biopharma, where he led the company from inception into clinical development.
Mr. Passeri succeeds Bo Rode Hansen, PhD, a member of Lift’s Board of Directors since 2023, who was
appointed Interim CEO earlier this year during the search for a permanent CEO. Dr. Hansen will resume
his role as a member of the Board of Directors and assume the role of President, where he will continue
to leverage his deep corporate strategy and drug development experience to support the Company’s
clinical development progress. LIfT Biosciences has been renamed Lift Therapeutics.
“Dan’s appointment as CEO and Bo’s appointment as President comes at an important inflection point
for Lift Therapeutics, as we prepare to advance our lead immuno-Modulatory Alpha Neutrophil (iMAN)
program into first-in-human studies in early 2027,” said Antonin de Fougerolles, PhD, Chairman of the
Board of Lift Therapeutics. “Working closely together, they bring broad strategic experience and
expertise in developing novel cancer immunotherapies and building world-class organisations. I look
forward to working with them both as we develop what we believe will become a disruptive breakthrough
and a new standard of care for cancer patients. On behalf of the Lift Board, I also want to thank Bo for
stepping in an interim capacity to establish strategic focus and look forward to their combined
contributions in accelerating Lift into a clinical-stage company. ”
“The innovative approach of the iMAN platform harnesses the potent and broad spectrum anti-tumour
activity of N1 neutrophils to modulate the tumour microenvironment, representing a potential
therapeutic breakthrough in cancer treatment,” said Daniel Passeri, Chief Executive Officer of Lift
Therapeutics. “iMANs have the potential to overcome resistance to existing cancer therapies and
address a significant unmet need for patients with metastatic solid tumours who have exhausted
standard-of-care treatment options. I am honoured to join at this pivotal stage and work closely with Bo
to lead the team as we advance our first iMAN therapeutic into the clinic in early 2027, while continuing
to build a differentiated portfolio of transformational, allogeneic, neutrophil-based therapies designed
to address some of the most challenging solid tumours.”
“We are very pleased to have Dan’s experience in drug development and corporate strategy at this
important stage of the transition into a clinical -stage cancer therapeutics company. With Dan’s addition
to Lift’s senior management team, we have the full depth of experience and judgement to effectively and
efficiently guide the company forward through the next stages of our corporate development as we aim
to establish iMANs as a new standard of care for treating cancer, ” said Dr. Bo Rode Hansen, Director
and President of Lift Therapeutics.
Mr. Passeri joins Lift Therapeutics with significant experience as an executive at leading biotechnology
companies. From 2017 to 2025, he served as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Cue
Biopharma, where he successfully helped build functional teams to guide the company through
discovery, preclinical and clinical development stages of corporate development for multiple
immunotherapy programmes and helped establish collaborations with Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim,
and Ono Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he was CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Curis, Inc.,
a clinical-stage oncology company, where he also held the roles of President, Vice Chairman of the
Board, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Planning during his 15-year tenure with
the organisation. Mr. Passeri received a JD from George Washington University Law School and an MSc
in biotechnology from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of London.
About Lift Therapeutics
Lift Therapeutics is pioneering a new class of immunotherapy for hard-to-treat cancers based on
allogeneic immuno-Modulatory Alpha Neutrophils (iMANs)®. Our proprietary, long-lived iMANs harness
N1 neutrophils’ innate tumour-homing and infiltrating attributes, combined with their ability to directly
kill cancer cells and orchestrate broader immune responses, offering a powerful treatment option to
potentially overcome cancer resistance mechanisms, such as a suppressive tumour environment and
immune evasion. Backed by deep immunology and neutrophil biology expertise, combined with a
scalable manufacturing process, Lift Therapeutics’ platform represents a novel opportunity to reshape
the standard of care for cancer patients with the prospect of having a major impact for patients.
For more information, please contact:
Lift Therapeutics
Email: info@Lift-Tx.com
Media enquiries
Trophic Communications
Jacob Verghese
Phone: +49 151 7441 6179
Email: Lift@trophic.eu
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