Elena Matsa

Professor Elena Matsa, an expert in iPSC cell therapy, brings over 14 years of experience in iPSC biology, bioprocess development, analytical assays, genome editing, laboratory automation, and drug discovery and safety. Her career spans both the biopharmaceutical industry and academia, with a robust publication record in top tier journals. She is passionate about leading and advancing preclinical research programs, which include translational biology, bioprocess development, scaled manufacturing of cell therapies, disease model development, mechanism investigation, assay development, target identification and validation, and lead generation and optimization.

 Professor Matsa‘s academic tenure includes a postdoctoral fellowship and an Instructor role at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, where she investigated human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to model cardiovascular disease and cardiomyocyte-drug interactions. Since 2017, she has held several industry roles, notably serving as Director at Ncardia, a company specializing in iPSC-based drug discovery and safety assessment. At Ncardia, she employed cutting-edge technologies for next-generation sequencing, genome editing, and high-throughput automated characterization of hiPSC-derivatives, such as skeletal muscle cells, neurons, macrophages, and hematopoietic stem cells. Her efforts in high-throughput screening significantly advanced new therapeutic products toward clinical application.

 In her latest industry role as Senior Vice President in Cell Therapy Research at Cellistic, a company focused on process development and large-scale manufacturing of iPSC-based cell therapies, Professor Matsa contributed to the leadership team by providing expertise and strategic direction. She focused on bioreactor-based hiPSC specification toward immune cell types, including T-regulatory cells (Treg), Natural Killer (NK) cells, and T-cells.

Professor Matsa‘s extensive expertise encompasses essential functions for successful allogeneic cell therapy manufacturing, including iPSC differentiation, genetic manipulation, process development, phenotypic assay development, the efficacy and safety assessment of therapeutic modalities, and in vitro disease modelling.

Holding a joint appointment with UCC and NIBRT, Professor Matsa is dedicated to advancing the iPSC Cell Therapy field in Ireland and globally. Her research aims to enhance the purity, yield, and reproducibility of iPSC-based cell therapy manufacturing by establishing a collaborative research program involving UCC, NIBRT, industry and academic partners, as well as hospitals and patient groups.