BOREA THERAPEUTICS SRL. - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Non Executive Director
• Sofinnova Partner

Dr. Jürgen Bauer has more than 22 years of experience in successful business development and technology transfer. As of May 2011, he is appointed as Deputy Managing Director and Head of Business Development at EMBLEM Technology Transfer GmbH, the commercial arm of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). He is responsible for translation of scientific results from the EMBL into commercial products via industry partnerships, collaborations, licensing and company building. He is a graduate of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt (Biology) and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology. After spending four years as a research scientist at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Dr. Bauer joined the R&D Center of Lesaffre International, the world leader in the baker's yeast market, where he was Head of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Team. In 2000 he joined Axaron Bioscience AG in Heidelberg, a joint venture of BASF and Lynx Therapeutics from where he moved on to Gentana GmbH, a biotech company providing gene expression analysis services based on its proprietary technology platform. After acting as CEO of Gentana for two years, Dr. Bauer joined EMBL Enterprise Management Technology Transfer GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory as Business Development Manager. As of May 2011 he is appointed as Deputy Managing Director of EMBLEM and responsible for Business Development. Dr. Bauer is alumnus of the Chemical Industry Fund within the German Chemical Industry Association and the St. Gallen Business School. He serves as board member of different companies, associations and consortia.

Lucia joined Sofinnova Partners in 2018 as a partner in the Sofinnova Telethon Fund, bringing her extensive experience in technology transfer and business development in the life sciences sector. Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, Lucia was the director of research & development at Fondazione Telethon, an Italian charity whose mission is to develop therapies for patients affected by rare and genetic diseases. Fondazione Telethon is Sofinnova's partner in the Telethon Fund, Italy's largest biotechnology fund. Lucia has over 20 years of experience in business development in life sciences, with an exceptional track record for identifying projects with strong translational potential, and developing them through solid intellectual property positions, technology transfer, regulatory affairs, and license agreements with industry partners. Before she joined Fondazione Telethon, Lucia was the director of technology transfer of San Raffaele Hospital, the largest private hospital in Italy and a leading national research center. Lucia has a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Padua in Italy and a Ph.D. in biotechnology from the University of l'Aquila, Italy, in association with the Harvard Medical School and conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Job Titles:

• Professor
• Professor of Neuroscience at the International School of Advanced Studies

Paul Heppenstall is Professor of Neuroscience at the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA), of Trieste. He has a Degree in Zoology from the University of Liverpool and holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh. Before establishing his laboratory at SISSA, he has been a Group Leader at EMBL. He has authored 55 publications on peer-reviewed scientific journals, which have been cited more than 5000 times (h index 47). In the last 15 years Prof Heppenstall has focused his research on how the neurons of the peripheral nervous system integrate and transmit signals, focusing in particular on transmission of nociceptive stimuli. His scientific approach takes into account the complexity of the organism as a whole; along the years he has developed new experimental models designed to interrogate complex biological questions related to the transmission of pain and itch, allowing the discovery of novel signaling pathways that could constitute attractive targets for the managing of pain and itch derived from several pathological conditions (neuropathic pain, cancer pain, itch associated to inflammatory or autoimmune diseases). In the last few years, Paul has refined his approach to the use of modified ligands to target specific populations of nociceptive neurons, while preserving the functionality of nearby neurons responsible for the transmission of other types of somatosensorial stimuli. The ultimate goal of this strategy is to offer novel therapeutic options to patients affected by chronic pain, a condition that severely affects quality of life, and where existing therapies are hampered by side effects and the risk of developing tolerance or addiction. In this view, Borea's proprietary AAV vector technology allows the generation of AAV vectors able to target a specific cell population withing the body, with the ultimate goal of delivering therapeutic proteins or eliminating cells responsible of pathological processes, in a safer and more efficient way.