K. Garcia

Co-Founder & Member of Scientific Advisory Board, Coherus Biosciences

Search every verified K. Garcia interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. K. Christopher Garcia, a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has been active in discussing his work on protein engineering for cancer and autoimmune disease treatments. In a July 2025 podcast appearance, Garcia described his approach to science, stating that he could "outwork and outsuffer anybody" and advising others to pursue research that is "interesting and important." He noted that he is a scientific co-founder of several biotech startups, including Synthekine, ALX Oncology, and 3T Biosciences, and a frequent collaborator with Nobel laureate David Baker. Garcia also recently won the Max Cooper Prize in Immunology. In a 2021 award lecture, Garcia detailed his lab's work on cytokine pharmacology, describing the engineering of partial agonists for cytokines such as IL-10, IL-12, and gamma interferon. He stated that by "detuning cytokine signal strength," his team has created molecules that retain desired anti-inflammatory or anti-tumor effects while reducing toxicity or pro-inflammatory side effects. Garcia disclosed that he is a founder of Synthekine, where several of these molecules have been licensed for commercialization. In a separate December 2024 talk, Garcia discussed autophagy as a mechanism for maintaining health and cognitive function)Skip to content