AltruBio Announces Formation of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Advisory Board

World-renowned medical experts with extensive experience in treating patients with inflammatory bowel disease join AltruBio to support clinical advancement of ALTB-268 for the treatment of ulcerative colitis

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AltruBio Inc. (“AltruBio” or “the Company”), a clinical stage biotech company developing novel immune checkpoint enhancers to address the unmet need in immunological and inflammatory diseases, with a lead candidate in ulcerative colitis (UC), today announced the formation of its inflammatory bowel disease clinical advisory board (IBD CAB), comprising esteemed physicians and Professors David T. Rubin, MD, Walter Reinisch, MD, PhD, Bruce Sands, MD, and Britta Siegmund, MD, PhD.

The IBD CAB will collaborate closely with AltruBio’s leadership team to support clinical initiatives in IBD, including advancing its novel immune checkpoint enhancer PSGL-1 agonist antibody, ALTB-268, which is currently being tested in an open-label, dose exploration Phase 2a study in participants with moderately to severely active UC who are refractory to advanced therapy (ASCEND-UC 2a; NCT06109441). The IBD CAB will also offer guidance to shape long-term clinical development strategies as AltruBio progresses towards initiating a randomized, placebo-controlled, global Phase 2b study (ASCEND-UC 2b) in participants with moderately to severely active UC who are refractory to either conventional or advanced therapy in 2026.

“We are honored to welcome Professors Rubin, Reinisch, Sands, and Siegmund to our Clinical Advisory Board focused on inflammatory bowel disease,” said Dr. Judy Chou, President and Chief Executive Officer of AltruBio. “Their extensive experience in treating patients with ulcerative colitis will be instrumental in guiding the clinical path forward for ALTB-268 in this chronic and biologically diverse disease. This CAB of distinguished physicians adds significant credibility to AltruBio’s approach and the potential of our novel therapies in IBD. Their expertise will be invaluable to our clinical progress in ulcerative colitis, and we look forward to collaborating to further advance our science and pipeline for patients in need.”

Professor David T. Rubin, Chair of the Board, added, “I am particularly excited about the opportunity to support AltruBio’s novel science and approach for ALTB-268 in ulcerative colitis, especially after the promising results we saw with the company’s first-generation molecule in UC. The highly differentiated mechanism of action of ALTB-268 that targets PSGL-1 to downregulate chronically activated late-stage effector T cells, has the potential to be a groundbreaking therapy for patients with limited effective options, and I look forward to working together with my colleagues on this CAB to help shape its clinical development pathway.”

AltruBio’s IBD Clinical Advisory Board is comprised of the following members:

David T. Rubin, MD, Chair of the Board
Professor David T. Rubin is the Joseph B. Kirsner Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pathology, Chief of the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition and Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at the University of Chicago Medicine. He is associate faculty member at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, associate investigator at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center and a member of the University of Chicago Committee on Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics. He is the immediate past Chair of the National Scientific Advisory Committee of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and Chair of the International Organization for the Study of IBD. Professor Rubin’s research is focused on disease modification in IBD including clinical trial designs, novel measures of inflammation and prevention of adverse outcomes, and quality of life in IBD. He has twice received the ACG’s Governor’s Award of Excellence in Clinical Research (2003 and 2013), and in 2020, Professor Rubin received the Sherman Prize for Excellence in Crohn’s and Colitis. In 2023, he received both the UChicago Michael Reese Lectureship Award (for outstanding faculty who have developed novel teaching and clinical research that advances healthcare) and the distinguished UChicago Arthur H. Rubenstein Mentorship in Academic Medicine Award. Professor Rubin is currently a senior editor of the 12th edition of Sleisenger and Fordtran’s Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease, and an author on more than 600 articles on management of IBD, including the 2025 ACG Guidelines for ulcerative colitis. He earned a medical degree with honors at The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine where he also completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowships in gastroenterology and clinical medical ethics.

Walter Reinisch, MD, PhD
Professor Walter Reinisch is the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He is a founding member of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation and was assigned as an honorary member after having contributed in various positions. He is also a member of the International Organisation for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Professor Reinisch was an active member of the Scientific and Public Affairs Committee of the United European Gastroenterology organisation and headed the Austrian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group. Previously, he held the Audrey Campbell Chair in Ulcerative Colitis Research at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada from 2013 to 2016. Professor Reinisch has also either written or made contributions to ~ 500 publications on IBD and remains active in all aspects of IBD research. Professor Reinisch graduated at the Medical University of Vienna, where he finished his training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology.

Bruce Sands, MD
Professor Bruce Sands is the Dr. Burrill B. Crohn Professor of Medicine at the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Previously, he was Medical Co-Director of the Crohn's & Colitis Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he also served as the hospital's Acting Chief of the Gastrointestinal Unit as well as Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Professor Sands is an American Gastroenterological Association Fellow and a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology. In 2006 he was named Humanitarian of the Year by the New England Chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, and the Massachusetts General Physician Organization honored him for "Excellence in Action" in recognition of his distinguished patient care. He has authored more than 250 original manuscripts, including as lead investigator of the landmark studies ACCENT 2, UNIFI and VARSITY, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and SEAVUE in the Lancet. Professor Sands served as an Associate Editor for the field's leading journal, Gastroenterology, from 2011 to 2016. Professor Sands received his medical degree at Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts and completed a residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He then completed clinical and research fellowships at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2001 Professor Sands also earned a Master of Science in Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health.

Britta Siegmund, MD, PhD
Professor Britta Siegmund is a leading gastroenterologist with extensive experience in both clinical and translational research in inflammatory diseases, including IBD. Professor Siegmund currently works as a Professor and Director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Infectious Disease and Rheumatology at the University Hospital Charite in Berlin, Germany. Professor Siegmund is widely recognized for her contributions to the field of gastroenterology and has published over 480 scientific publications. She is actively involved in various professional organizations and is President-Elect of the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation. Professor Siegmund received her MD at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and continued her training as postdoc in the lab of Charles Dinarello in Denver, USA and completed her training for gastroenterology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

About AltruBio Inc.
AltruBio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel therapies leveraging immune checkpoint agonism to address unmet medical needs in immunological and inflammatory diseases. The Company’s lead candidate, ALTB-268, acts as an immune checkpoint enhancer, designed to activate natural pathways that downregulate a chronically overactivated immune system to restore balance. ALTB-268 operates through a unique mechanism of action, targeting PSGL-1, a key immune checkpoint regulator. It preferentially targets and downregulates chronically activated late-stage effector T cells, leading to their exhaustion and apoptosis. Currently being evaluated in a Phase 2 trial in ulcerative colitis, ALTB-268 holds the potential to be a pipeline in a product to address a range of inflammatory diseases, which AltruBio plans to explore in upcoming Phase 2 trials. Led by an expert team with successful track records in drug development and commercialization in immunology, AltruBio is dedicated to delivering safer, more effective, and durable biologic treatments to improve the lives of patients.

Contacts

AltruBio Inc:
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info@altrubio.com

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Luke Shiplo
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