CLEARA BIOTECH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Supervisory Board
Anela joined Apollo in 2020 and has since been helping shape R&D strategy and clinical development plans in the fund's venture creations. She takes an active role and supports companies both as an advisor and operator as needed. She currently serves on the board of directors of several companies including Samsara Therapeutics, Booster Therapeutics and Refoxy Pharmaceuticals. In addition, Anela helps evaluate new investment opportunities and initiates company creation projects, especially in the area of neurodegeneration and brain health. Before joining Apollo Health Ventures, she worked at a boutique consulting firm Catenion where she has managed international projects for Big Pharma and biotech upstarts regarding R&D strategy and advised top tier VC's and hedge funds on their investment decisions. Anela holds a PhD in neurobiology from the Free University of Berlin and her work was published in top-ranked peer-reviewed journals.
Clementine Nicholls-Dohmen is the Cleara Biotech Executive Assistant with a very broad experience in many areas. Clementine studied at the Higher Institute for Interpreters and Translators in Brussels, Belgium and is consequently perfectly bilingual (Dutch, English) and can express herself in Spanish, French and German.
Furthermore Clementine gathered a lot of experience by assisting executive and sales officers in different international companies such as, Koninklijke Nederlandse Papierfabrieken, Conticommodity Services, Protein Technologies, Watt Global Media and Ariëns Schoonderbeek Advocaten, as well as management of the family firm as an independent entrepreneur. This makes Clementine a very efficient multitasker, well organized, able to meet deadlines and work well under pressure, show leadership in getting the job done and working successfully as a team player.
Diana has over 7+ of research experience into senescence and its role in aging and cancer. She is an expert on in vitro drugs screens, (mutant) p53 signaling and advanced in vivo cancer models. She has extensive experience with molecular and cellular techniques and translational research. She is co-inventor on two patents. Following her undergraduate work on how tumor-derived inflammatory factors affect chemotherapy response, she pursued a Ph.D. on the role of anti-senescence therapy in cancer and aging. As she moves forward in her career within Cleara, she wants to pursue meaningful research which can impact human health directly.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Member of the Chairman of the Board
Dr. Angelos Stergiou has more than 20 years of biopharma experience and is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. Prior to founding SELLAS in 2012, Dr. Stergiou co-founded Genesis Life Sciences, Ltd. (now Genesis Research), a boutique health economics and pricing-reimbursement and health access company, where he served as President and Chief Operating Officer from 2009 to 2011. From 2002 to 2009, Angelos held international positions of increasing responsibility in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including PAION AG, Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, BioVest International, Analytica International and Anavex Life Sciences. During this time, Dr. Stergiou held roles ranging from Head of Clinical Research and Vice President of Product Development, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operations Officer with responsibility for medical affairs, clinical research and development, pharmacovigilance, clinical operations, project management, regulatory affairs, biostatistics and chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC).
Angelos has led and overseen research endeavors in all phases of clinical development across many indications, including CNS, cardiovascular, oncology, respiratory and autoimmune diseases, and has a broad understanding of all aspects of clinical development and medical affairs. He has designed and implemented research projects in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and Europe. He was a member of the joint steering and oversight committee of PAION AG with Forest Laboratories, Inc. He also led the Phase 3 development of a therapeutic cancer vaccine, BiovaxID, into completion which was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology plenary session in 2009 and holds a patent on the technology.
Angelos holds a Doctor of Medicine from the US American Institute of Medicine and a Doctor of Science (honoris causa) degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College and received his Bachelor of Sciences degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College with a major in Pre-Medicine, Biology and Chemistry.
Angelos was until recently a member of the Board of Trustees at Kentucky Wesleyan College and is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, an active member of the World Medical Association, a member of the American Academy of Physicians in Clinical Research, a member of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals, and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Job Titles:
- Project Control and Finance
Edo Brinksma has over 20 years of experience in finance and (project) control. Edo started his career at the Big-4 audit firm Deloitte. Edo has been working as a freelance (finance) consultant since the beginning of 2007. As a freelance consultant Edo was engaged in (senior) financial positions of public and private entitiessuch as UMC Utrecht, Princess Maxima Center, the municipality of Zwolle, Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE, Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands) etc
Esmée Bouma is a fully certified in vivo research technician with 10+ years experience in cell biology, translational models and laboratory management. She maintains the professional laboratory environment where Cleara Biotech executes its Utrecht-based experiments. She graduated from the "Life Sciences" program of the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. Prior to joining Cleara in 2019, Esmée developed herself as an experienced technician at Imperial College London and the University Medical Center Utrecht. Now she is a key player in management of the lab: maintaining laboratory supplies, equipment and proper storage and shipment of samples. With her broad practical experience in the lab, she is also responsible for conducting peptide efficacy studies, inventory, logistics and quality control experiments.
Job Titles:
- Preclinical Research and Peptides
Gerd has over 20 years of experience in the pharma- and biotech industry (R&D), including 11 years at Jerini AG (Berlin), directing medicinal chemistry and preclinical research activities, and 6 years at Oryzon Genomics (Barcelona) leading drug development in the field of epigenetic-based therapeutics. He has supported the discovery and development of several medicinal products from early research up to late stage clinical. He has broad experience in R&D of small molecules, peptides and peptidomimetics for a wide range of therapeutic areas. Additionally, he was leading several pharma collaborations and consulting for international biotech companies. He received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Konstanz with R. R. Schmidt on the total synthesis of complex carbohydrates, awarded with the "Byk-Preis", and performed his postdoctoral studies at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla and the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He has over 40 scientific publications and patent applications.
Job Titles:
- Head of Technical Operations
Laurens van Pinxteren, PhD, MBA has more than 20 years of experience as CMC/program management in the biotech industry including small entrepreneurial start-ups. He has strong experience in chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) in relation to scale up, tech transfer (process/methods), CDMO oversight, clinical supply chain, and quality regulatory affairs.
Laurens started his career, following an academic period and his MBA, as a consultant at the pharma/biotech consultancy firm Xendo (now ProPharma Group) followed by a program management position at CDMO OctoPlus. In 2010, he joined ProFibrix as Director Manufacturing & Supply and continued after the 2013 acquisition by The Medicines Company up to early 2016. At Profibrix, he was instrumental in obtaining MAA/BLA approvals for Raplixa in 2015. In early 2016, he moved to InteRNA Technologies as VP CMC & Regulatory Affairs and later became the COO. In 2014, he also started his own consultancy company (CMC Biotech Consultancy) and has since supported several (small) biotech companies in their CMC/RA activities for a wide range of drug substances and products.
Laurens received a Masters degree from the Wageningen University, NL, a PhD in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and a MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University, NL.'
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Cellular Aging at the Medical Faculty
Marco Demaria is an Associate Professor of Cellular Aging at the Medical Faculty of the University of Groningen, Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in Molecular Medicine at the University of Torino, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Valeria Poli. He joined the laboratory of prof. Judith Campisi at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, California USA, in the summer of 2010 to navigate through the complex phenotypes of senescent cells. He also started to be interested in therapeutic approaches to target the negative aspect of senescent cells. He moved to the University of Groningen and the European Research Institute for the Biology of Aging (ERIBA) in September 2015 as Group leader of the laboratory "Cellular Senescence and Age-related Pathologies". His research is focused towards understanding the cell non-autonomous functions of senescent cells, including their roles in tissue repair, cancer and aging. The goal of his group is to dissect positive and negative functions of cellular senescence in different physiological and pathological contexts, and to develop therapies aimed at modulating senescence-associated phenotypes. His laboratory is funded by several intramural and extramural agencies. Dr Demaria also serves as Editor in Chief for npj Aging and since January 2022 he is the President of the International Cell Senescence Association.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Supervisory Board Director
Marianne joined Apollo in September 2021 bringing more than ten years of experience in the life science industry spanning venture investing, strategy consulting and research. She is responsible for Apollo's investment and company building activities. Prior to joining the Apollo team, Marianne was a Principal with Wellington Partners, a pan-European Venture Capital firm investing in early- and growth-stage Life Science companies. In this role she led Wellington's investments in Confo Therapeutics and Imcheck Therapeutics, and supported portfolio companies across different stages of development. Before Wellington Marianne was an Investment Manager in the Life Science Team of High-Tech Gründerfonds where she managed a portfolio of seven companies and concluded the initial investments in Cardior Pharmaceuticals and Verovaccines. She represented the fund on the Boards of preOmics and coramaze technologies. Earlier in her career Marianne worked as a management consultant and supported pharmaceutical and medtech companies relative to strategy, portfolio and business unit development. Marianne obtained a Bachelor's and Master's degree with distinction in Biotechnology from the RWTH Aachen University and The Scripps Research Institute, and conducted her PhD research focusing on the molecular imaging of cardiac regenerative medicines. Her research has been honored with several awards and published in high-ranking journals.
Mariëtte van der Velden has over 10 years experience as an investor in Dutch life sciences and health care companies. For BOM Capital she realized many investments (25 million euro invested capital) and managed a portfolio of up to 13 ventures. In 2018 Mariette decided together with business partner Han de Groot to start and manage a new seedfund, Curie Capital, which now has a strong portfolio of promising health care companies making a significant impact to improve the health and life of patients.
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist
- Research Management
Marjolein Baar is a senior scientist at Cleara Biotech with 10+ years of experience in cellular senescence in cancer and aging. Her main interest is to study cellular processes that underlie organismal aging and she aims to provide starting points for the development of potential treatments. At Cleara she focuses on translation of Cleara's lead compounds, employing both cell and in vivo models. She plans projects and oversees experiments regarding compound screening, efficacy in multiple model systems, and pharmacokinetics. Before joining Cleara, Marjolein obtained her Ph.D. degree at the Erasmus University medical center in Rotterdam. Here, she drove multiple projects all aimed to unravel the mechanisms and functions of age-related DNA damage responses. A major part of this research focused on characterizing senescent cells and their effect on tissue homeostasis during aging and cancer. Her work resulted in a publication in Cell and aided in the foundation of Cleara.
Job Titles:
- Head of Preclinical Development
- Industry Executive
Dr. Teifel is a leading industry executive with a career spanning over 20 years in various therapeutic areas, including endocrinology and oncology. He has deep experience in translating research into clinical development. Over the course of his career, he has gained particular expertise in the design and implementation of non-clinical development programs for small molecule drugs, peptides, targeted therapies, and biologics, as well as in the continued non-clinical evaluation of drug candidates for global registration.
Dr. Teifel held various positions in industry with increasing responsibilities in pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, toxicology and translational sciences. He began his career in industry at Roche Diagnostics in the area of delivery systems / non-viral gene therapy. In 1999, Dr. Teifel joined the biotech start-up, Munich Biotech in Martinsried, Germany as a co-founder. As head of pharmacology & toxicology, he was responsible for the evaluation and non-clinical development of a novel vascular targeting technology for the development of anti-tumor diagnostics and therapeutics. In 2004, Dr. Teifel started his first term at Aeterna Zentaris where he held several positions in the field of preclinical development and translational research. In his capacity he was, among others, responsible for preparation of the non-clinical dossier for registration of macimorelin in the U.S. and EU in the indication AGHD. In 2019, Dr. Teifel left Aeterna Zentaris to pursue his career in non-clinical research and development at Cleara Biotech in Utrecht, The Netherlands. As head of translational sciences at Cleara Biotech, he was responsible for translating research on anti-senescent drugs into pre-clinical development in age-related diseases and late-stage cancer and returned to Aeterna Zentaris in 2021 and has been a consultant to Cleara since then.
Dr. Sarlis has (co-)managed the medical strategy prior and during the launch of 6 globally marketed products, helped progress 20 pipeline agents along their clinical development path, and has participated as a site investigator in 38 studies and 2 registries. He is an experienced clinician, senior medical researcher and recognized pharmaceutical and biotech industry leader. Until recently, Dr. Sarlis led the Medical Content function within Amplity Health. Prior to that, and in reverse succession, Dr. Sarlis served as CMO of The Lynx Group, a senior consultant for IPQ Analytics, as well as CMO of Sellas Life Sciences Group, Inc., where he led the clinical development of two peptide-based cancer vaccines. Before that, Dr. Sarlis served as Head of Medical Affairs at Incyte Corp. and held positions of increasing seniority at Sanofi, both in the US and France. Prior to his industry positions, he was a faculty member at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and the US National Institutes of Health. Dr. Sarlis obtained his Doctor of Medicine and DrMedSci degrees from the University of Athens, Greece, and a PhD from Imperial College, University of London. Dr. Sarlis is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (US), and is an elected Fellow of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Sarlis has published 135 articles and textbook chapters.
Peter de Keizer is the founder and managing director of Cleara Biotech B.V. He has 10+ years experience in valorization, intellectual property and preclinical research and development. He is and associate professor "Senescence in Cancer and Aging" at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands. Peter was trained as a molecular biologist at Utrecht University and Harvard Medical School / Mass General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA (2004). He performed is PhD in 2009 in the field of FOXO signaling, knowledge he employed during his postdoctoral work at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, CA, USA (2012) to develop the first compounds to eliminate senescent cells: FOXO4-based peptides. In 2017, he showed the translational power eliminating at least some types of senescent cells in mice, which resulted in a restoration of tissue homeostasis in models for aging and chemotoxicity (Cell, 2017; cited >700 times). In 2018, he joined the UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands, to investigate subtypes of senescence, where he became associate professor in 2020. Peter has been awarded several awards for his work on targeting senescence, including "talent extraordinary"(2013), ambassadorship of the Dutch Cancer Society (2017). He is a recurring guest in mainstream media on topics of aging and/or senescence and is regularly approached by policy markers for advice. He is an active member of the European Association for Cancer Research and the International Cell Senescence Association. Through Cleara Biotech B.V. he is dedicated to merge academic knowledge on senescence subtypes to develop new compounds and bring these to the clinic against late state cancer and chronic diseases.
Job Titles:
- Head of Structural Biology, Scientific Co - Founder
Tobias Madl is Full Professor for Integrative Structural Biology and Metabolomics at Medical University of Graz and has more than 15 years experience in structural biology and more than 140 publications in this field, including high-ranking journals. He works at the interface between structural biology, biophysics, cell biology and medicine. NMR spectroscopy and biophysical methods are the most important tools in his laboratory. In Graz, Tobias is Head of the inter-University Integrative Metabolism Research Center and Speaker of the International PhD program Biomolecular Structures and Interaction (BioMolStruct). Prior to joining Medical University of Graz in 2015, he was Research Group Leader at Technical University and Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany, and PostDoc at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and Technical University Munich. Tobias obtained his PhD degree with distinction in Chemistry from the University of Graz, and conducted his PostDoc research focusing on Integrative Structural Biology of RNA-binding proteins at Technical University Munich. His research has been honored with several awards and fellowships. Tobias research passion is to reveal the mechanisms of how disordered proteins mediate signal transfer via an intricate network of protein interactions and post-translational modifications and to discover and develop novel strategies to target these interactions in ageing and age-related diseases.