Nkarta, Inc. announced the promotion of David R. Shook, M.D., to the role of Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Shook has extensive expertise in cell therapy development and continues to lead Nkarta's global clinical development and regulatory operations. An early pioneer of NK cell therapy, Dr. Shook joined Nkarta in 2020 and was appointed as Vice President, Clinical Development in 2022.

Prior to joining Nkarta, he designed and led multiple first-in-human cell therapy clinical trials, including the use of CD19 CAR-NK cells, and he remains a practicing pediatric oncologist and transplant physician. He was a fellow, fellowship director and faculty member at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where he conducted research in the laboratory of Dario Campana, M.D., Ph.D., Nkarta's scientific founder.

Dr. Campana and Dr. Shook co-developed the membrane bound form of interleukin-15 (IL-15), a key component of Nkarta's engineered NK cell platform technology. He received an M.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a B.S. from Purdue University.