ARTAX BIOPHARMA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President
- Eli Lilly & Company Research Laboratories
Dr. Nirula is Senior Vice President, Immunology, for Eli Lilly & Company Research Laboratories, based at the Eli Lilly & Company Biotechnology Center in San Diego. Dr. Nirula joined Eli Lilly & Company in 2015 and is responsible for the Company's discovery, research, and early phase clinical development in immunology. He has also served as the medical leader for Eli Lilly & Company's work during the COVID pandemic that led to emergency authorization for the Company's multiple therapeutic neutralizing antibodies. Prior to joining Eli Lilly & Company, Dr. Nirula held leadership positions at Amgen, and at Biogen Idec, and was involved in several research programs and regulatory filings spanning diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and vasculitis.
Dr. Nirula earned his undergraduate degree in molecular biology from UC Berkeley, his medical degree from UCLA School of Medicine, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He subsequently joined the faculty in the Division of Rheumatology at UCSF Medical Center. Dr. Nirula has published extensively in premier peer-reviewed medical journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Nature Immunology.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Executive Chairman
Dr. Walts has served as Executive Chairman since February 2017 and has been an advisor to Artax since July 2015. Alan also serves as Executive Chairman of PIC Therapeutics, Chairman of Aura Biosciences, is a co-founder and Board Observer of Arrakis Therapeutics, a Board Observer of Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, and is a Director of the Termeer Foundation. Dr. Walts is a US-based Venture Partner with Advent Life Sciences and is an Advisory Board member of the ALS Investment Fund. Dr. Walts has over 25 years of industry experience at Genzyme in business development, business strategy, research and development, general management, and venture capital. Prior to leaving Genzyme in 2013, he most recently managed Genzyme's corporate venture fund, Genzyme Ventures (now Sanofi Ventures). Dr. Walts received a Ph.D. in chemistry from MIT in 1985, carried out post-doctoral research in biochemistry at MIT with Professor Christopher Walsh, and completed the executive Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School.
Andre Hoekema retired in 2023 from Galapagos N.V. (Euronext and NASDAQ: GLPG) where he was the former Chief Business Officer since 2005, overseeing M&A, pharma partnering and IP. Over his forty-plus year biotech career Mr. Hoekema held positions at Invitrogen Corporation (MD Corporate Development Europe), Crucell (Business Development), DSM Life Sciences and Syngenta MOGEN (Research and Project Management) and Genentech Inc. (Research Scientist). Mr Hoekema received a masters and PhD from Leiden University and has authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles and is the inventor of over 20 series of issued patents. Mr. Hoekema also serves as a member of the supervisory boards of biotech start-up companies Fibrocor (Canada), and Mimetas BV and Sapreme BV (both located in Holland).
Andres Gagete, PhD has more than a decade of experience in the biotech and academic sectors. Prior to Artax, Dr. Gagete was the Innovation Director for Bioncotech Therapeutics. He is currently coordinating R&D and operations for Artax, including leadership of program management. Dr. Gagete has held post-doc research positions at the Spanish National Cancer Center (CNIO) and "Principe Felipe" Research Center (CIPF) in Valencia, Spain. Dr. Gagete holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Valencia.
Job Titles:
- Artax Founder
- Program Director at the National Research Council of Spain
Dr. Alarcón is Program Director at the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC) and Head of TCR-mediated Signal Transduction Laboratory. An expert on T cell receptor-mediated signaling, his laboratory aims to elucidate the stoichiometry of the TCR and study the mechanisms of assembly and intracellular retention. He also investigates the existence of redundant and specialized roles in signal transduction for each TCR subunit.
Dr. Alarcón holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Biology with Special Class Honors from UAM, Madrid. From 1985 - 1990 he completed a period of postdoctoral training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He has been professor at Center for Molecular Biology "Severo Ochoa" (CSIC), Madrid since 1990. Dr. Alarcón has received a number of research awards, including Hoechst Marion Roussel and Carmen y Severo Ochoa awards. He is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization since 2000 and has published 158 scientific articles on TCR biology.
Before founding Sound Bioventures, Mr. Breum was a Senior Partner at Lundbeckfonden Ventures, where he worked for 12 years, and led investments and served as a member of the board of directors in companies including: Sanifit (sold to Vifor Pharma), Aura Biosciences (Nasdaq: AURA), Spero Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SPRO), Nexstim (Nasdaq First North: NXTM), Biomup (Euronext: BUP).
Prior to that, he was CEO of the venture backed diagnostics company, ilochip A/S (technology sold to DELTA, now FORCE Technology). Before that Mr Breum worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 15 years in a range of different positions in R&D, Project Management, Sourcing, Quality Assurance, and Business Development & Strategy, for Lundbeck, Novo Nordisk and Niels Clauson-Kaas. While working at Lundbeck, Mr. Breum was part of spinning Veloxis (sold to Asahi Kasei) out of Lundbeck, and served on the board of the Lundbeck Foundation.
Chris VanDeusen, Ph.D. brings more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical sector, with extensive expertise in drug discovery and development having contributed to or been the inventor of multiple compounds entering into pre-clinical development. Previously, Dr. VanDeusen was the head of the Chemistry division within Tissue Protection and Repair at Sanofi and Genzyme, leading global project teams in the areas of inflammation and fibrosis. Dr. VanDeusen earned a BA in Chemistry from Wittenberg University and a PhD from Stanford University.
Dr. Batty brings more than 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry in medical affairs and clinical development leadership positions, including as CEO and as CMO at private and publicly held companies, and as a transplant surgeon. Prior to joining Artax, Dr. Batty was VP of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for CTI, Inc., a privately held contract research organization. Previous roles included Chief Medical Officer at Medeor Therapeutics, which developed an organ transplantation cell therapy platform to avoid the use of pharmacologic immunosuppression; Chief Executive Officer of ImmunArray Ltd., and Vice President of Global Medical Affairs for Genzyme Transplant and Oncology Group. Dr. Batty was also a Global Director of Medical Affairs for the belatacept immunosuppression program while at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Dr. Tormo is the founder of Artax Biopharma and served as CEO. Prior, he was CEO of Bioncotech Therapeutics, a oncology clinical stage drug development company. Dr. Tormo has also founded biotech and healthcare investment firms including Biocapital Advisors, Restaura Biotech, Gentauris and Polymer Therapeutic Solutions. Dr. Tormo has been awarded important prizes related to innovation and entrepreneurship, including TR35 2011 from MIT and the Biogen Foundation award. Dr. Tormo is most recently a Partner with Columbus Venture Partners. In addition to Artax, Dr. Tormo currently serves on the boards of Bioncotech Therapeutics (Chairman), Polymer Therapeutic Solutions and Nubesis. Dr. Tormo holds a BSc from the University of Valencia, Spain, a PhD in Immunology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Bonn, Germany, and a master's degree in biotechnology management (MBM) from IE Business School, Madrid.
In 2010, Mr. Santini retired from a distinguished career with Eli Lilly and Company that spanned nearly three decades. During his tenure at Lilly, Mr. Santini held various leadership positions of increasing responsibility, including manager of various international regions, President of the women's health franchise and President of U.S. operations. Mr. Santini capped his career at Lilly as a member of the company's executive committee and as Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development. In addition to Artax, Mr. Santini currently serves on the Board of Directors of Horizon Therapeutics, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Intarcia Therapeutics, Collegium Pharmaceutical and AMAG Pharmaceuticals. He previously served on the boards of SORIN SpA, Vitae Pharmaceuticals until their acquisitions, and of Allena Pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Santini, fluent in four languages, holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Bologna and an MBA from the University of Rochester.
James G. Krueger, M.D., Ph.D. serves as Head of the Laboratory for Investigative Dermatology and as the D. Martin Carter Professor in Clinical Investigation and Dermatology at The Rockefeller University. He is co-director for the Center for Clinical and Translational Science at The Rockefeller University Hospital and has been serving as the Hospital's Chief Executive Officer since July of 2008. Dr. Krueger uses psoriasis as a model to study inflammatory diseases that involve Th17 cells, a subset of T cells. His work has formed the scientific basis for the highly successful treatment of psoriasis with a range of biologic immune drugs that target the "Type 17" inflammatory immune axis.
Dr. Krueger earned his bachelor's degree from Princeton University and his Ph.D. degree in Virology and Cell Biology from The Rockefeller University. He received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, where he also completed an internship in internal medicine and a residency in dermatology. Dr. Krueger is board certified in dermatology by the American Board of Dermatology and has been the recipient of numerous notable academic and industry honors throughout his career.
Joseph M. Lobacki brings more than 35 years of biopharmaceutical leadership experience to Artax. Prior to Artax, Mr. Lobacki most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Verastem, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. Previous experience includes Chief Operating Officer of Finch Therapeutics Group, and Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Council Member of Medivation, where he was responsible for the strategy and execution of commercial operations including leading a period of strong revenue growth for Xtandi, a treatment for advanced prostate cancer. Mr. Lobacki also held previous roles as Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Micromet Inc., where he led all commercial activities including medical affairs and strategic marketing. Prior to joining Micromet, Mr. Lobacki was Senior Vice President and General Manager at Genzyme Corporation, where he managed the launches of Mozobil and Clolar/Evoltra in the US and EU. Mr. Lobacki served as a director of Celator Pharmaceuticals, a public company acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals in 2016, and is currently on the board of Sutro Biopharma. Mr. Lobacki holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Boston College and a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston.
Dr. Steinman is a professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Pediatrics, and Genetics at Stanford University. He also served as the Chair of the Stanford University Interdepartmental Program in Immunology from 2003-2011. Dr. Steinman's research focuses on what provokes relapses and remission in multiple sclerosis (MS), the nature of the molecules that serve as a brake on the brain inflammation, and the quest for a tolerizing vaccine for autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes and neuromyelitis optica. He has developed two antigen specific therapies, using DNA vaccines, for MS and type 1 diabetes. He was senior author on the seminal 1992 Nature article that reported the key role of a particular integrin in brain inflammation. This research led to the development of the drug Tysabri, which is used to treat patients with MS and Crohn's disease. Dr. Steinman received his BA from Dartmouth College and his MD degree from Harvard University. He was a post-doctoral fellow in chemical immunology fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Dr. Steinman returned to Stanford University Hospital as a resident in pediatric and adult neurology and then joined the faculty at Stanford in 1980.
Maria Nichol, DPhil, is a qualified European and UK patent attorney with more than 20 years in the biotechnology industry providing commercially focused, strategic advice on IP and corporate development. From 2006-2022 Dr Nichol was VP, Corporate Development at Galapagos, leading the IP team and a key member of the business development department. Since leaving Galapagos, Dr Nichol has been working with a number of smaller biotechnology companies to assist with their IP strategy. Dr Nichol graduated with an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge (Girton College) and a DPhil from the University of Oxford (Linacre College).
Prof. de Rie is a board-certified dermatologist (1993) and vice-chair of the department of Dermatology of the Amsterdam University Medical Centres / University of Amsterdam since 2012. Before specializing in dermatology, he did a PhD in immunology. Previously he worked at the Dermatology department of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam and served as director and senior expert on translational dermatology at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Basel. He specializes in immunodermatology with a focus on psoriasis and auto-immune diseases. Prof. de Rie is especially interested in translational medicine, a field that explores how pre-clinical observations can be applied in clinical practice, resulting in more effective treatments for dermatology patients. Prof. de Rie has also served in various consultative and management capacities. Prof. de Rie is a board member of the European Society for Dermatological Research and chair of the Finance Committee of the European Academy for Dermatology and Venereology. He has published extensively in academic journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Nature, Archives of Dermatology, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and the British Journal of Dermatology.
Dr. Geha is the James L. Gamble Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Allergy/Immunology/Rheumatology and Dermatology Division at Children's Hospital in Boston. His research interests are the molecular basis of primary immunodeficiencies and of atopic dermatitis. He has more than 500 published original articles, which have appeared in top journals such as Cell, Immunity, Nature, Molecular Cell or PNAS. Over the past 30 years Dr. Geha has trained more than 100 postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have risen to leadership positions in the fields of allergy and immunology. Among the honors he has received are the Mead Johnson Award for Pediatric Research, the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences Prize and the American Association of Immunologists Award for Human Immunology Research. Dr. Geha is a graduate of American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where he also completed his internship at the university's hospital in Lebanon. He completed residency and a post-graduate fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital.
Job Titles:
- Director
- General Partner at Advent Life Sciences
Dr. Parekh is a General Partner at Advent Life Sciences which he joined in 2005 bringing over 20 years of experience in biomedical research and as an entrepreneur and investor. After gaining an MA and DPhil from Oxford University, he pursued a successful career in molecular medicine before co-founding Oxford GlycoSciences (IPO on LSE and NASDAQ). Following its sale to UCB-Celltech, he became Chairman of Galapagos nv, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Novartis Venture Fund and a founding Director of Celldex Therapeutics. Since joining Advent, he has been involved with those portfolio Companies primarily engaged in the discovery of new medicines, including Avila, EUSA and Thiakis. Raj currently serves on the Board of several portfolio companies including Arrakis Therapeutics, Aura Biosciences and Levicept.
Richard Polisson, M.D., MHSc brings extensive experience from both industry and academia. Prior to Artax, Dr. Polisson was the Senior Vice President and Head of Translational Medicine at Sanofi-Genzyme Research and Development Center, responsible for managing and aligning research physicians with projects at the earliest stages of discovery research and directing the review and endorsement of all translational medicine inputs (e.g., disease indication selection, target credentialing, biomarker plan, "Proof of Concept" studies, and early human trials) across Rare/Genetic Diseases, Multiple Sclerosis/Neurology, Immune-Mediated Diseases, and Fibrosis and Tissue Repair. Dr. Polisson came to the biotech and pharmaceutical industry 22 years ago from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS), where he was Associate Professor of Medicine, Clinical Director of the Arthritis Unit, and Chair of the Mallinckrodt Clinical Research Unit Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr. Polisson has formal master's level training in the quantitative methods of clinical investigation and has 30 years of experience in clinical and translational research, beginning initially at the National Cancer Institute/NIH, and subsequently in academia at Duke and MGH/HMS. Dr. Polisson received his BS from Yale University and his MD from Duke University School of Medicine. He is the author of more than 120 manuscripts, chapters, and abstracts.
Dr. Armstrong is the former Chief Executive Officer, board member, and co-founder of Boston Pharmaceuticals. With more than 20 years of experience working in research and development in the biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Armstrong has been involved in the discovery and clinical development of programs across multiple disease areas. Dr. Armstrong created and led the small molecule R&D organization at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, CA. He subsequently co-led research at Lilly as Vice President of Global Medicinal Chemistry, was head of the translational medicine group Chorus, and was Vice President of Global External R&D. He served on the finance and scientific advisory boards of Lilly BioVentures. Prior to working in industry, Dr. Armstrong was a tenured Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California at Los Angeles. Dr. Armstrong received his BS in chemistry at UCSD, his PhD in chemistry at CSU, and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Harvard. In addition to serving as a board member for Artax Biopharma, Dr. Armstrong is an advisor to Gelesis and serves on the board of directors of early stage biotechnology companies Curza Therapeutics, Cloud Pharmaceuticals, and Entrega Bio.
Job Titles:
- Director of in Vitro Biology / Shannon
Dwyer brings 20 years of experience in in vitro Pharmacology and Drug Development including expertise in mechanism-of-action, signaling pathways, allosteric modulation and biomarker evaluation. Prior to Artax, Mr. Dwyer was a Research Investigator at Sanofi and its legacy companies for over 20 years, advancing several agents into development across multiple disease areas. Mr. Dwyer received his BS in Applied Chemistry from the honor's college at NJIT and his Masters in Chemistry from Purdue University.