Luba Greenwood – BioLeader Interview
Managing Partner, Binney Street Capital Venture Fund (October 2024) Luba Greenwood is a distinguished executive, investor, and company builder with over 20 years of experience in the healthcare and tech sectors. Luba has served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board of Kojin Therapeutics, a leader in ferroptosis. She currently serves as the Managing Partner of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Venture Fund, Binney Street Capital (BSC), which she has founded, investing and building companies across therapeutics, diagnostics, and digital sectors. She has also served as a lecturer at Harvard University in the School of Engineering and [...]
Aneesh Karatt Vellatt – BioLeader Interview
CSO & Co-Founder, Maxion Therapeutics (September 2024) Dr Aneesh Karatt Vellatt is Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder at Maxion Therapeutics Ltd (Cambridge UK), a company focused on developing antibody treatments for diseases driven by ion channels and GPCRs. Dr Karatt Vellatt was also Co-Founder of IONTAS Ltd and holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge. Key milestones in your career journey to date? At the age of nine, winning a quiz competition led me to accidentally receive a biography of Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, meant for older students. It recounted the remarkable story of how 20 year [...]
Andreas Katopodis – BioLeader Interview
CEO & Co-Founder, Anaveon (July 2024) Andreas Katopodis is the Co-founder of Anaveon with 26 years’ experience at Novartis and Ciba-Geigy and previously faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology. At Anaveon, he has completed multiple funding rounds and led the team which developed two compounds currently in Ph I/II studies. At Novartis he was responsible for early target discovery for immune mediated diseases, such as solid organ transplantation and autoimmunity. He also developed multiple candidates from early research to clinical studies. Andreas obtained his PhD Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA [...]
Anja Harmeier – BioLeader Interview
Chief Executive Officer, Rewind Therapeutics (July 2024) Anja Harmeier is an experienced drug developer, scientist and entrepreneur in neuroscience and rare diseases. She brings extensive R&D and operational capabilities complemented by a strong track record in company development and venture capital. Anja joined Rewind from Pureos Bioventures where, as Partner, she was responsible for investments in innovative life sciences companies in the US and Europe including Vico Therapeutics, Corlieve Therapeutics (acquired by UniQure), and River Renal 2 and River Renal 3. Prior to Pureos, Anja held several positions at F. Hoffman-La Roche, initially joining the Neuroscience R&D group before working [...]
Ian Nicholson – BioLeader Interview
Operating Partner, Advent Life Sciences LLP (April 2024) Ian has over thirty-five years of international experience in management and transactions within the life sciences sector. He is currently Chairman of Bioventix plc, a Board Trustee of LifeArc, a leading UK medical research charity. Ian is also an Operating Partner at London-based Advent Life Sciences LLP, a leading life science venture investor. Ian previously spent eight years as CEO of the privately held antifungal drug development company F2G Limited and before that was CEO of the oncology R&D company, Chroma Therapeutics Limited. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President, Business [...]
Hugo Fry – BioLeader Interview
CBO & MD, 20Med Therapeutics (March 2024) Hugo Fry is Chief Business Officer and Managing Director of 20Med Therapeutics and Chief Commercial Officer at Imbria. 20Med is establishing a polymeric nanoparticles (PNP) platform that stands as a leading alternative to LNPs in the delivery of mRNA vaccines, especially for seasonal influenza. Imbria is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing new treatments for cardiometabolic disorders. Hugo was previously CEO of RQ Biotechnology, a discovery company dedicated to developing treatments and preventative therapies based on potent broad-spectrum mAbs. Hugo has almost 30 years of senior management and executive experience in the pharmaceutical [...]
Melanie Lee – BioLeader Interview
Founder of Think-10.com, former CEO of LifeArc (March 2024) A seasoned Executive and Non-Executive Director across Pharma and Medtech companies, including FTSE 100 biotech, large public and small venture backed boards. Melanie has a strong background in corporate development of strategy in public and private companies to their next phase of growth and is widely connected across the global healthcare sector. She now focuses on a portfolio career concentrating on new technologies and innovation to transform the opportunities for human health and wellbeing. Melanie’s most recent NED appointment is with privately owned, Portuguese based, BIAL where she is particularly engaged [...]
Paul Little – BioLeader Interview
Operating Partner, Lundbeck Foundation & CEO, Vesper Bio (February 2024) Paul Little is Operating Partner at Lundbeckfonden BioCapital and CEO of Vesper Bio. Paul has a PhD in organic chemistry, he undertook postdoctoral research into the synthesis of natural product phorboxazole before moving to industry as a medicinal chemist. Paul later moved into development, CMC, toxicology and early clinical trials at various biotech companies over the last 20+ years including approaching a decade in management and investing. Vesper is a clinical stage biotech and world leader in sortilin receptor biology. Its lead programme uses a sortilin inhibitor to rebalance levels [...]
Gill Dines – BioLeader Interview
Chief Scientific Offer, Juvenescence (November 2023) Gillian (Gill) Dines is a highly accomplished pharmaceutical executive with 30+ years of experience in research, development, approval, and commercialization of new medicines in both “Big Pharma” and as an entrepreneur in the Biotech environment. She has led the successful development and global approval of medicines and devices in a number of therapeutic areas including neuroscience, oncology, immunology, respiratory and rare diseases. Before joining Juvenescence she was Senior Vice President and Head of Research and Early Development at Jazz Pharmaceuticals. In this role she led integration and organisational restructuring to build a novel pipeline [...]
Richard Bungay – BioLeader Interview
Chief Executive Offer, Imophoron (November 2023) Richard was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Imophoron in November 2022. Formerly, he was Chief Executive Officer of AIM-listed Diurnal Group plc, where he led the sale of the company to Neurocrine Biosciences in October 2023. He has over 25 years’ experience in senior roles in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, including as CFO & COO at Mereo Biopharma and CEO of Chroma Therapeutics. Richard has been involved in fundraisings totalling over $250 million, along with the negotiation and execution of multiple business development deals. He also has extensive experience of taking novel [...]