Scientific Advisors
Richard J. Ulevitch
Venture Partner, 5AM Ventures. Chairman Emeritus at the Scripps Research Institute.
Almost 30 years of research in basic mechanisms of innate immune response and of injury resulting from inflammation. Discoveries include the characterization of LPS Binding Protein, the function of CD14 and the discovery of p38 MAP kinase. Board member of Anaphore and advisor to Aravis. Previously Scientific Advisor to the Lombard Odier Immunology Fund.
Karsten Kristiansen
Head of Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen
Previously Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Southern Denmark.
Particular interests are adipocyte differentiation, peroxisome proliferator activated receptors and gene induction technologies.
Pim Stemmer
Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Amunix Inc. California.
Previously founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Avidia Inc. Invented Avidia's antibody replacement technology in 2001. Founder and VP R&D of Maxygen, Inc. and inventor of Maxygen's DNA Shuffling and Molecular Breeding technologies, which also led to spin-offs Codexis Inc. and Verdia Inc. Scientific advisor for BectonDickinson, Codexis, Surromed. Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985 on molecular genetics of pathogen-host interactions.
Garry Nolan
Associate Professor, Department of Moelcular Pharmacology, University of Stanford.
Co-Founder of Rigel Inc. Interests are Cloning/cDNA libraries, Flow Cytometry, Retroviral and Viral delivery systems, Transcription and Promoter Biology, HIV-1, Tat transporter proteins, Novel Apoptosis proteins and intracellular signaling relating to apoptosis, oncogenes and anti-oncogenes, NF-kappa B, NFAT, single cell measures of transcription.
Morten Kielland-Brandt
Professor & Director of Center for Microbial Biotechnology, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark.
Research is within yeast genetics and physiology, in particular nutrient sensing.
Kjell Sakariassen
Founder and CEO of KellSa s.a.s. which provides medical advice and R&D training to biotech companies in Europe and USA within the therapeutic areas of haemostasis/thrombosis, metabolism and inflammation.
Kjell was Worldwide Head of Pharmacology at Serono, Director of Pharmacology at Pharmacia and Director of Discovery Research for Nycomed and has in particular extensive expertise in the anti-platelet therapeutic area gained in profiling Linotroban, Clopidogrel and Aspirin.
Jay E. Birnbaum
Drug development consultant. Prior to starting his own consulting company focused on ethical and OTC dermatologicals, devices, and cosmeceuticals, Jay was vice president of global project management at Novartis/Sandoz, where he had responsibility for strategic planning and development of the company's dermatology portfolio, including Lamisil®, world’s largest dermatology brand of antifungal with peak sales over $1 billion in 2004.
Jessica Mann
Head of CVDC GmbH, Basel.
Founder and CEO of CVDC GmbH, Basel. Jessica is a cardiologist with long-standing experience in the cardiovascular and metabolic drug development arena; in particular as Medical Director and member of the Management group at Speedel. Before joining Speedel, Jessica worked for Roche and Novartis.
Michael S. Marriott
Drug development consultant.
Advisor to the Biotechnolgy and Venture Capital Industries worldwide. Michael has extensive pharmaceutical industry experience in the anti-infectives field. His early career was at Pfizer where he held increasingly senior positions, including leading the microbiology team that discovered and developed fluconazole (Diflucan), which reached peak sales over $800 million. Michael was also Director for Anti-Infectives of GlaxoSmithKline.