Simrit Parmar | Founder
cellenkos

Dr. Simrit Parmar is founder of Cellenkos Inc., a clinical stage biotech company focused on developing allogeneic T regulatory cell therapy products for treatment of patients with autoimmune diseases and inflammatory disorders. Dr Parmar received her hematology/ oncology fellowship training at Northwestern University and completed a bone marrow transplant fellowship at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2006, she joined as faculty at the UT Southwestern Medical Center and Dallas VA Medical Center. In 2009, Dr Parmar went back and joined as faculty at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. In her research laboratories, Dr. Parmar developed an allogeneic cord blood-derived regulatory T cell therapy platform. Dr. Parmar published her research findings in peer-reviewed journals and was awarded several peer reviewed grant funding. Dr. Parmar was also the proud recipient of the inaugural R. Lee Clark Fellowship award in 2014. Her research was translated into Phase 1/ 2 trial of 3rd party cord blood regulatory T cells for the prevention of GVHD. Based on her promising translational research, in 2016, the T regulatory cell technology was licensed into the biotech start-up company, Cellenkos Inc., that continued to fund Dr Parmar’s laboratories through a sponsored research agreement. In 2024, Dr Parmar joined Texas A &M University, as director of Therapeutic Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship. Since then, Cellenkos Inc has developed a robust pipeline, with four clinical products that have  treated 75+ patients across different disease indications: i) Phase 1 trial of CK0801 for treatment of bone marrow failure, ii) Randomized, placebo control, double-blinded, multicenter trial of CK0802 for treatment of COVID-19 ARDS, iii) Randomized, placebo control, double-blinded, multicenter trial of CK0803 for treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and iv) Phase 1b trial of CK0804 as add-on therapy to ruxolitinib for the treatment of myelofibrosis. Dr. Parmar is one of the founding members of the Asia Pacific Hematology Consortium, which focuses on advancing the field of hematology/oncology through continued education, collaboration, and fostering innovations. She also previously chaired the radiation injury treatment network (RITN) committee at MD Anderson Cancer Center and served on the board of the Global Affairs Committee for the Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT).