iXCells Biotechnologies has appointed Steve Smith as Chief Executive Officer, elevating him from his previous role as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) as the San Diego-based company expands its induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) preclinical services portfolio.

A career built on commercial leadership in life sciences

Smith brings more than 25 years of experience across global life science tools and service organisations. His career includes senior roles at Thermo Fisher and Abcam — where he held positions including North American Sales Leader and Vice President of Cell Lines — before serving as CCO at seqWell, a provider of genomic library and multiplexing workflow solutions. His appointment signals a strategic shift as iXCells moves to support larger, more complex preclinical programmes and deepen multi-study collaborations with biotech, pharmaceutical, academic, and contract research organisation (CRO) partners.

Steve Smith, the new Chief Executive Officer at iXCells Biotechnologies

iPSCore and Project Mosaic at the forefront of growth

During Smith’s tenure as CCO, iXCells launched two key initiatives. iPSCore, the company’s discovery support platform, targets precision drug development in rare diseases by integrating project management and assay development capabilities to accelerate translation of complex research into actionable results. Separately, Project Mosaic is a pilot programme developing patient-specific models of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by adapting methodologies derived from oncology research — a clinically significant application given the unmet need in ALS therapeutics.

Alex Gulotta, Principal at Great Point Partners, commented: “His strategic vision and deep expertise in iPSC technologies and human cell-based research are exactly what we need to accelerate our mission.”

Smith said: “I am excited to lead iXCells through this next stage of growth, expanding our iPSCore end to end services, delivering actionable results in ongoing scientific partnerships, and providing customers with the consistency, scale, and collaboration required to advance complex discovery programs.”

For more information, visit: https://ixcellsbiotech.com