Marcin Kortylewski, PhD, is a Co-Founder of AptaDir Therapeutics and a full Professor of Immuno-Oncology at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, where he leads a lab focused on precision cancer immunotherapies.

He earned his MS in Biotechnology from Adam Mickiewicz University and his PhD in Molecular Biology from Poznan University of Medical Sciences in Poland, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at RWTH Aachen in Germany and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.

Kortylewski is a pioneering expert in oligonucleotide immunotherapeutics who first identified STAT3 as a master regulator of tumor immune evasion and invented a targeted oligonucleotide delivery platform for tumor-associated myeloid cells; he holds multiple US patents and received the Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy in 2016.

Beyond AptaDir, he co-founded Duet Biotherapeutics, co-founded Olimmune (acquired by Scopus BioPharma in 2021), founded iSTAT Therapeutics, and has served as a Scientific Advisor at Scopus BioPharma, reflecting a strong track record of translating academic discoveries into biotech ventures.

AptaDir's proprietary DiR platform targets aberrant DNA methylation at the single-gene level, with lead asset Aptadir Ce-49 advancing toward clinical trials for Myelodysplastic Syndrome, and broader pipeline applications targeting Fragile X Syndrome and other intractable cancers.