SEJELAS - Key Persons
Antoine is the CEO at MicrofluidX, which he co-founded in 2018. Prior to this, he worked as a management consultant at McKinsey, in Brussels and Sydney, with projects spanning the technology, pharma and hardware sectors across the manufacturing, procurement, commercial, and strategy functions. He graduated in 2012 with PhD in Engineering from Cornell University, USA, specialising in fluid flow, applied computational model optimisation, and uncertainty quantification. He holds a Master in Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris, France, where he was also part of the varsity crew team.
Christian Grøndahl received his Doctor of Medical Science, PhD and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degrees from University of Copenhagen and his MBA from IMD, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Christian worked as a veterinary physician/surgeon and assistant professor before moving to pharma and biotech where he has spent the last 20+ years in R&D, Corporate and Executive roles.
Before co-founding SNIPR Biome, he served as the CEO of Kymab Ltd. in Cambridge, UK, and was partner in the investment arm of The Wellcome Trust, London, Syncona LLP. Christian has been part of starting several companies. In addition to SNIPR Biome, this includes Freeline Therapeutics, Gyroscope Therapeutics, Quadrucept Bio Ltd., and Folium Food Science. Christian served as Executive Vice President, CSO and Head of R&D in Zealand Pharma and was part of taking the company through an IPO in 2010. Christian served in VP and Corporate VP roles with Novo Nordisk, heading up Cancer and Inflammation, Women's Health, eClinical Development and Corporate Development and Strategy. Christian is the co-inventor on 20+ patents and patent applications licensed to public and private companies.
Presently, Christian serves as Chairman of the Board of Tubulis GmbH (Munich, Germany); Co-founder and CEO, SNIPR Biome APS (Copenhagen, Denmark), Co-founder and Director, QUADRUCEPT BIO Ltd. (Cambridge, UK), Co-founder and Chairman of the Board, FOLIUM SCIENCES Ltd. (Cambridge, UK),
Cécile Tardy-Srinivasan leads the DayOne Health 4.0 Accelerator. In this role, she supports international digital health startups to scale up at the interface with biopharma companies.
Dr. Dominik Hartl is a distinguished medical professional and industry leader with expertise in clinical practice, academic research, and senior management positions in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. Currently serving as the Chief Medical Officer at Granite Bio, he plays a pivotal role in developing monoclonal antibodies for autoimmune disorders, inflammation, and fibrosis. Previously, he served as the Chief Medical Officer at QUELL Therapeutics, leading groundbreaking CAR-Treg cell therapies and securing significant funding. With a background in pediatrics and immunology, Dr. Hartl's academic affiliations include the University of Tübingen, and he has provided patient care at renowned institutions such as Yale University.
Dr. Hartl has held senior positions at Roche, Novartis, and other leading companies, overseeing early clinical development and implementing clinical biomarkers in autoimmune, inflammatory, and fibrotic diseases. His contributions to scientific literature are extensive, and he co-authored the book "Principles of Biomedical Sciences and Industry." With a remarkable track record in translating scientific ideas into tangible treatments, Dr. Hartl is highly respected for his expertise, leadership, and commitment to advancing medical knowledge.
Dr. Margrit Schwarz is a Life Science executive, entrepreneur and board director with 25+ years strategic and scientific leadership experience in the global biopharma and life science industry. She is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with Biorigin / Novo Holdings, and has held C-level positions with multiple startups including Genevant Sciences, Draupnir Bio, HepaRegeniX. Former roles include VP External Innovation Roche, VP Cardiorenal Diseases Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Research Director Cardiovascular Diseases Amgen.
Margrit has overseen preclinical R&D and IND-enabling phases for multiple development candidates, including discovery and preclinical development of the anti-PCSK9 therapeutic antibody AMG145, launched as Repatha for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia in 2015. Margrit currently serves as a board director at Altamira Therapeutics and on the Advisory Boards of Evla Bio and Immunethep. She is also a contractual expert with Innosuisse, and jury member / start-up coach with the European Innovation Council. Margrit holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cologne, Germany, and an MBA from Columbia University, NY.
Who inspired you to get into the life sciences? My interest for life science was nurtured by my father, who was both a chemist and a photographer; he took me along on hikes and then to the lab where I spent hours staring through a microscope, examining the things I had just picked up on the trail. It instilled in me a deep fascination for all things ‘Nature', from patterns of life that repeat regardless of scale, to endless curiosity for - simply put - why things are the way they are!
Job Titles:
- Chief Business Officer at Cureteq AG
Dr. Sarah Holland is currently Chief Business Officer at Cureteq AG in Switzerland. She has over 30 years of biopharma industry experience. Sarah was CBO of VectivBio AG during the IPO on NASDAQ and drove the acquisition and integration of Comet Therapeutics as well as a substantial Japan partnering deal with Asahi Kasei. VectivBio is now being acquired by Ironwood for $1bio.
Job Titles:
- CEO of HeroSupport SA ( LTD )
Giovanna Dipasquale is the CEO of HeroSupport SA (LTD), a start-up spin-off of Geneva University Hospital (HUG) that produces 3D-printed immobilization devices for medical applications using proprietary tools and software. The first application deals with breast cancer radiotherapy. Giovanna is also a Medical Physicist trained at the University of Pisa (Italy) and holds Swiss certification as a medical physicist and expert in radioprotection. With a good clinical practice certification, she conducted a clinical trial on the medical device developed for breast cancer, Venus Shell™, as the principal investigator.
Giovanna started in radiotherapy in 2001, working first at the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV). Since 2003, she has worked in radiation therapy at HUG, where she introduced modern treatment radiotherapy and Stereotactic RadioSurgery. With a background in research (CERN, Medipix collaboration), Giovanna likes to investigate new techniques and has helped set up new protocols in her department, such as prone breast radiotherapy, implementation of electromagnetic transponders for real-time tumor tracking (prostate and lung SBRT), radio-biological modeling, and 3D-printing. In her position as a medical physicist, she also teaches at the radiation therapist school (HES). Active in the community, she is a scientific journal referee (Radiation Oncology, Physica Medica, The Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics, IEEE, etc) and has been a board member of the Scientific Association of Swiss Radiation Oncology, as well as responsible for the Varian onsite training school in HUG. In her free time, Giovanna enjoys planning for the next adventure with her husband, 2 daughters, and dog.
Josephine is a recruitment specialist with extensive experience in Sales, Business Development, Account Management, and Information Technology.
Born and raised in Indonesia, Josephine completed her studies in International Hospitality Management in Switzerland. Her passion for people and creating connections led her to focus on sourcing and hiring top talents.
Tord Labuda received his PhD from Lund University in Sweden after postdocs at AZ and UC San Diego, Tord initially pursued an academic career holding a position as an associate professor at the Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen working on Inflammation and immunology. In 2008 he transitioned to the pharma industry and has spent the last 15 years in various leadership positions at LEO Pharma spanning early research, translational medicine, clinical development, medical affairs, and commercial roles.
Tord has lived and worked in Tokyo Japan for close to seven years where he was VP R&D for Japan and later VP R&D Asia Pacific overseeing all research and development activities in the region for LEO Pharma. In 2021 Tord took the position as president and representative director of LEO in Japan.
After returning to Scandinavia Tord held a position as VP and Head Global clinical development and has also pursued BoD work. He is currently a member of the board of directors at NanoEcho in Lund Sweden.