Andreas was a Director in the Autoimmunity, Transplantation & Inflammation group at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. In this position, he was involved in many aspects of early to late drug development for immune-mediated diseases, taking several modalities to clinical trial and late stage development. He also supported multiple deals with startups. Prior to this, he worked at the Central Research Laboratories at Ciba Geigy, doing research on immune cell trafficking. Andreas studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and started his career as a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Christoph has extensive industry experience in pharmaceutical drug discovery, preclinical development, and support of clinical development programs. He has led several therapeutic candidates from discovery to IND, including multispecific antibody modalities. Christoph has a deep scientific background in the areas of cancer immunotherapy, immunology, and inflammation. Before joining Anaveon in 2019, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Roche, Pfizer, and COI Pharmaceuticals and has built and led cross-functional R&D and strategic teams in both pharma and biotech environments. Christoph obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Zurich and did his postdoctoral training in B cell immunology and innate immune receptor signaling at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

Gary was named Chief Business Officer of Anaveon in May 2022. Gary has three decades of experience across healthcare. He was President & CEO of OrphoMed from 2018 to 2022. Before OrphoMed, Gary worked at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, where he was EVP & Chief Strategy Officer as well as President, Autoimmune & Rare Diseases. He was the Head of Global Health & Healthcare at the World Economic Forum. He served in senior executive roles at Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, Bausch & Lomb, Merck Serono, Novartis, and Wyeth. He earned a BA in Biochemistry summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts & Sciences, an MBA from its Wharton School, and an MD Alpha Omega Alpha from its School of Medicine. Gary practiced as a U.S. Navy general medical officer. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Nanobiotix as well as a Director on the Boards of Aldeyra Therapeutics and Rheon Medical SA.

Richard is a physician trained in internal medicine and board certified in Clinical Pharmacology. He brings almost 30 years of experience within the pharmaceutical and biotech industry covering the entire value chain from preclinical development through to commercialization. Over the last years his focus was early stage oncology development with translation of cytokines, ADCs or cell products into the clinics . Prior to joining Anaveon Richard served as Chief Medical Officer at Sotio Biotech, where he was shaping and leading the Clinical Development and Drug Safety functions and building the Swiss office. At Neovii Richard led the medical, scientific, regulatory and pharmacovigilance activities as Chief Scientific Officer and before that, as Chief Scientific Officer/ Chief Medical Officer at Aeterna Zentaris, he was successful in achieving FDA approval of Macimorelin. This was preceded by steady growth through several managerial career steps at Bayer, Peptor, Schwarz Pharma, UCB and Boehringer Ingelheim. He began his medical and scientific career as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan and later as a Resident in Internal Medicine at the University Erlangen, Germany.

Since 2016, Alexander has been dedicated to advancing innovative antibody-based therapies in immuno-oncology. Before joining Anaveon in June 2022, he contributed to the generation of novel antibody binder molecules in a mid-sized biotech company. Alexander holds a PhD in the field of cancer cell biology and antibody engineering, earned in Stuttgart. Throughout his academic journey, he collaborated closely with various academic partners and research organizations. His expertise encompasses the entire spectrum of antibody development, from early screening of binders derived from phage display, immune NGS, and immune library outputs. This proficiency extends to the process of developing multispecific antibody-fusion proteins, including in silico design and modeling, production, purification, and comprehensive biochemical and biophysical characterization.

Anaïs joined Anaveon in April 2024 as Scientist, bringing over eight years’ experience in in vivo/in vitro research in a pharmaceutical company. Before, she worked as Senior Scientific Associate in the Immunology Pharmacology department of Idorsia, where she was responsible for the development and execution of in vitro assays, rodent models of various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, and ex-vivo readouts. She contributed to several preclinical projects targeting G protein-coupled receptors and provided in vivo preclinical support by running efficacy and mechanistic studies. She holds a Master’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Strasbourg.

Arkadi is a dynamic, self-motivated professional with over 14 years of proven track record in consulting and finance top roles in international groups such as AUTONEUM and KOSTAL. He has extensive experience in Accounting/Controlling/Reporting, international Tax and Treasury and a high degree of transformational leadership skills in intercultural and international environments. He is experienced in building and adapting overall structures and organizations, implementing best practices and high performing teams. Arkadi holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Bielefeld in Germany.

Christian joined Anaveon in March 2022 after his PhD in biochemistry at ETH Zurich. During his doctoral studies, he performed in-depth characterization of novel exported bifunctional fusion enzymes and in vivo selections of cyclic peptide libraries for protein-protein interaction inhibition by directed evolution. Before that, Christian has worked in the Protein Engineering Group at ESBATech, a Novartis Company, where he was responsible for the affinity maturation of scFv antibodies using phage display and the generation of bi-valent and bi-specific variants.

Christine has more than 40 years of experience in QA, QM and QC. She spent over 25 years at Roche Pharma/Vitamins with microbiological/pre-clinical analytics. She built up the GLP Test Facility, the ISO QM framework and computerized systems validations (CSV). As Head of Quality Management at Livec, she worked for several pharma companies worldwide. At Actelion she implemented QM to qualify the IT infrastructure and services hosting GXP validated systems, and therefore she supported all GXP businesses as Global IT Quality Manager. In the leadership of a biotech startup, she recovered the studies from potential clinical hold, assured the GCP re-inspection without critical findings, and elevated the company to a state of the art GXP level.

Daniela joined Anaveon in February 2022, bringing more than ten years of clinical research experience in cancer immunology, autoimmunity, and allergy to the Anaveon Team. She previously worked as a Senior Scientist in Biomarker Discovery at Scailyte in Basel and as a Clinical Research Scientist at Sanquin in Amsterdam, where she was involved in early phase clinical trials. Daniela received her PhD in immunology from the University of Palermo in Italy, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer immunology at the University Hospital of Basel.

Dmitry joined Anaveon in February 2025 from HAYA Therapeutics where he contributed to securing a strategic partnership valued at up to $1 billion, raising equity financing, and played a key role in obtaining significant non-dilutive funding. An award-winning science communicator with seven accolades, Dmitry holds a PhD in Immunology & Infection from the University of Lausanne, an MSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Bonn, and an MD in Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology from Sechenov Moscow Medical University. His global academic and professional background enables him to bridge scientific innovation with business strategy.

Julie joined Anaveon in October 2021 as Clinical Trial Manager. Over the past 7 years, she has worked as project manager conducting global phase I to phase III clinical trials in a wide range of therapeutic areas, in biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies located in France, Switzerland, and USA. Julie graduated from the faculty of pharmacy of Lille (France) with a PharmD and holds a master’s degree in project management and Clinical Operations.

Our Head of Biomarkers and Bioanalytics Kirsten joined Anaveon in June 2021 initially as preclinical lab head. Kirsten previously worked at Roche pRED where she led preclinical drug discovery projects using locked nucleic acids, small or large molecules to modulate the immune response in the fields of antibiotics, virology, and autoimmunity. Before that, Kirsten was Oberassistentin/senior scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich focusing on the immune response in chronic viral infection. She obtained her PhD in Freiburg, Germany. Kirsten has broad immunology expertise and especially likes T cells.

Laetitia started her carrier in 1999 in academic research at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, and later at the Institute for Immunology of the LMU in Munich, working on DC and B cells fundamental research with transgenic mice. She joined Micromet (acquired by Amgen) to take part of the development on Bi-Specific T cell engager (BITE) technology and gained experience in toxicology studies. Laetitia spent the last 13 years at Roche, developing in vitro immunosafety assays, investigating the immunogenicity and pharmacodynamic properties of new bi-specific monoclonal antibodies in mice. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnologies from Lyon Catholic University, France.

Laetitia brings extensive experience in pharmaceutical drug discovery, preclinical development, and clinical support to the Anaveon team. She has led multiple preclinical candidates from discovery to IND, focusing on small molecules targeting GPCRs in autoimmunity and neuroinflammation. Previously, she held increasingly senior roles at Actelion, Idorsia, and Roche, specializing in pharmacology, immunology, and clinical biomarkers. Laetitia earned a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Paris-Saclay, focusing on CXCR7 antagonists for multiple sclerosis, and holds a Pharm.D. and M.S. in Safety Pharmacology from the University of Lorraine.

Nicole joined the Anaveon team in October 2020, bringing with her more than ten years’ experience in pharmaceutical research. Previous to Anaveon, she held a position as Senior Scientist at Novartis, where she gained expertise in various aspects of drug discovery research. She was involved in several preclinical and early clinical projects, mainly in the field of autoimmunity, transplantation and inflammation. Nicole holds a Master’s degree in Biology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich.

Patrizia joined Anaveon after obtaining her PhD degree from ETH Zürich. Her doctoral thesis focused on the generation of novel tumor-specific antibodies and antibody-fusion proteins for the immunotherapy of various cancer types. Before that, Patrizia spent one year at UCSF in the USA as a Junior Scientist, studying the antitumoral effects of oncolytic viruses in combination with immunecheckpoint inhibitors. She holds a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a Swiss federal diploma as Pharmacist.

As a digital native, Pius is happy to use his influence to ensure that Anaveon remains modern, digital and open to cooperation with third parties. Pius previously worked on research and development in energy harvesting technologies and wireless communication at the Institute of Embedded Systems in Winterthur. He then held positions in which he was responsible for technology or was project manager of digitalization projects for various Swiss food companies. In addition to his part-time employment with Anaveon, Pius is currently working as an application developer.

With 20 plus years of financial consolidation, project management and training experience in the pharmaceutical / chemical industries and with a BSBA in Finance and International Business, Reem enjoys making good use of her experience to help organize and facilitate good administrative solutions for the Anaveon management and team as an Executive Assistant.

As a pharmaceutical assistant and nurse, Simone brings a broad and long-standing experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector. She spent over 12 years at Roche Pharma within Marketing and QA as a personal Assistant to the Head of Department as well as 10 years of executive support to the Head of Diagnostic Hematology and the medical team at the University Hospital in Basel. Simone is passionate about patient care and coordinates the activities of Anaveon’s expanding clinical development team.

Stephanie joined the Anaveon team from a Swiss clinical stage oncology start up, where she was the Head of Corporate Affairs & Human Resources. Previously, she held management positions with increasing responsibilities in investment advisory, strategy development and sales & marketing. She has experience across various industries and geographic regions and is passionate about entrepreneurship and organizational development. Stephanie holds an MBA from IE Business School, Madrid.

Virginie joined Anaveon in April 2023 as Clinical Trial Leader. She has more than ten years of experience in clinical trials, including data management and IRT, gained at CROs and pharmaceutical companies. Previously, she worked at Novartis as a Trial Manager in Global Drug Development on a Phase I/II study in haematology and in Global Medical Affairs on Phase II and III studies in solid tumours.

Virginie holds a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Lille (France) and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Toledo (USA).

Alex is a Principal of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. He is a Director on the Board of Anaveon. Previously, he was a member of the Healthcare Investment Banking team at Jefferies, where he worked on a range of financings and mergers and acquisitions across the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Alex has a PhD in Immunology from the University of Cambridge.

Alice is a Principal of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. She is also currently Head of Operations at Purespring Therapeutics. Alice is a Board member of iOnctura and Forcefield, and serves as an Observer on the Boards of Purespring and Anaveon. Prior to joining Syncona, Alice was an Investment Banking Analyst within Barclays’ Healthcare Corporate Finance and M&A team, where she worked on transactions involving pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies. Prior to Barclays, Alice worked briefly at AbbVie and Janssen. Alice holds a Doctorate degree in Pharmacy from the University of Lille 2 (School of Pharmacy, Lille, France). She holds a Masters in International Health Policy & Health Economics from the London School of Economics.

Allison is Chief Executive Officer at Avillion LLP, a London-based drug development company focused on the co-development and financing of late-stage pharmaceuticals. A trained clinician with more than 30 years of senior leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry, an expert in oncology drug development, she is now responsible for identifying high-potential drug opportunities to fund and operationalize clinical development programs through to regulatory approval. Previously, she held senior R&D roles at Wyeth, BMS, and Novartis and has secured numerous US and EU drug approvals. Allison also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Agenus Inc. plus Chair of Oxsonics. She is a Senior Advisor to Blackstone Life Sciences and a Special Advisor to Abingworth.

Andreas was a Director in the Autoimmunity, Transplantation & Inflammation group at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. In this position, he was involved in many aspects of early to late drug development for immune-mediated diseases, taking several modalities to clinical trial and late stage development. He also supported multiple deals with startups. Prior to this, he worked at the Central Research Laboratories at Ciba Geigy, doing research on immune cell trafficking. Andreas studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and started his career as a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Audrey is a Senior Associate at Forbion and joined the team in 2021. At Forbion, Audrey focuses on the firms’ Growth Opportunities Fund concentrating on private growth capital, European cross over financing and under-valued public companies. Audrey started her career with Kurma Partners, a well-known venture capital firm based in Paris, specialized in the financing of innovation in healthcare and biotechnology. Prior to joining Forbion, Audrey was an Associate with Bpifrance – Large Venture, the Growth fund managed by the French Sovereign Wealth Fund. Audrey received her MSc in Biology from Université de Technologie de Compiègne (France) and is a graduate of ESCP Europe with a major in Biopharmaceutical Management.

Denis is Vice President, WRDM, Head of Partnering Innovation, and Managing Partner of Pfizer Ventures. Denis capitalizes upon his experience in evaluating external opportunities to identify and manage equity investments. He currently has responsibility for Pfizer’s investments in AnTolRx, Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals, EvolveImmune Therapeutics, FoRx Therapeutics, Metabomed, MISSION Therapeutics and Palleon Pharma. His prior investment responsibilities include Bolt Biotherapeutics (BOLT), eFFECTOR Therapeutics (EFTR), and NextCure (NXTC). Previously, Denis served as Head of Oncology Licensing for Worldwide R&D at Pfizer from 2010 to 2018. Previously, Denis worked for Merck, DuPont Pharma, and GSK. He contributed to the approval of three marketed therapeutic agents including nelarabine, trametinib, and dabrafenib. Denis received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dieter Weinand is an experienced business leader in the pharmaceutical industry and is the former Chair and CEO of Bayer Pharmaceuticals. During a career stretching back over 30 years he has held various responsibilities in general management, commercial, operational and strategic leadership roles, leading business operations in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the United States for companies including Bayer, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Sanofi.  He has also led the development, launch, and commercialization of products in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular diseases, oncology, dermatology, immunology, and respiratory and inflammatory diseases. He is currently Chair of the Board of Replimune (REPL), Umoja, and Inspirna, and Executive Chair of the Board of Mnemo Therapeutics as well as serving on the Board of Meliora Therapeutics. He earned an M.S. in pharmacology and toxicology from Long Island University, New York, and a B.A. in biology from Concordia College, New York.

Florian is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund (NVF) in Basel, Switzerland. Previously, he worked as a Scientific Manager for the R&D Committee of the Novartis Board of Directors, and before that, he held various scientific and drug discovery roles at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, including as Laboratory Head in target discovery and in early clinical research as Translational Medicine Expert, Autoimmunity. Florian received his MSc degree in Biochemistry from Free University Berlin and his PhD with great distinction in Biochemistry from Ruhr University Bochum, and he completed his postdoctoral training at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

Jasper is a former Merck executive who joined Forbion as General Partner for its Growth Opportunities Fund. Before Forbion, Jasper was Senior Vice President and Managing Director at M Ventures (venture arm of Merck) which he joined in 2009. There he led a team of 21 investment professionals and with a fund size of €400 million invested in over 50 portfolio companies spanning biotech, life sciences tools, and tech companies across the investment spectrum. His track record includes the successful exits of Prexton Therapeutics, Epitherapeutics, Galecto, ObsEva, Translate Bio, and F-Star. Jasper holds a PhD in Pharmacy from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Roel Bulthuis is Managing Partner and Head of Investments of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. He manages the investment team and utilises more than 20 years of life science venture capital, business development and investment banking experience to help Syncona deliver value through the investment cycle. He is a Board member of iOnctura and Anaveon. Roel joined Syncona from Inkef Capital, an Amsterdam-based venture capital firm focused on life science investments. As Managing Partner and head of healthcare, he led the firm’s growth into a leading European healthcare VC platform. Before this he served as SVP and Managing Director of Merck Group’s M-Ventures for almost 10 years, where he played an instrumental role in creating the business and building it into a leading corporate venture capital fund.

Tim Anderson is a Managing Director at Blue Owl and a member of the Healthcare Opportunities Investment Team. In his role, he focuses on investments in biotechnology, diagnostics, and digital medicine companies and sits on the Fund’s Investment Committee. Previously, Tim was a co-founding member and Managing Director of Cowen Healthcare Investments, the predecessor to Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities. Prior to his role at Cowen Healthcare Investments, Tim was a biotechnology investment banker at Cowen and Company. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Lycia Therapeutics, F2G, Anaveon, Autobahn Therapeutics and Scipher Medicine. Tim previously served as a Board Member or Board Observer of Tourmaline Bio, Vectiv Bio Holdings, Therachon, Precision Biosciences, Livongo Health, Cadent Therapeutics, Cullinan Oncology and Compass Therapeutics. Tim received a BA in both Economics and Government & Legal studies from Bowdoin College.