TROBIX - Key Persons


Adv. Nadav Kidron

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Chief Executive Officer & Director of Oramed Pharmaceuticals
Mr. Kidron serves as Chief Executive Officer & Director of Oramed Pharmaceuticals, a company originating from the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, which he co-founded in 2006. At Oramed, Nadav raised about $100M for the company. He also executed the largest licensing deal between a Chinese company and an Israeli biotechnology company totaling US$650M of anticipated investment in the project from the Chinese partner.

Chanan Morris - CFO

Job Titles:
  • CFO
  • Member of the Management Team
  • CFO of U.S
Mr. Morris is a result-oriented manager with over 30 years of experience as a CFO in privately and publicly traded enterprises. He has vast experience in international negotiations, staff management, finance and operations and possesses strong leadership, analytical and planning skills. Chanan has served as CFO of U.S. publicly traded companies including Artemis Therapeutics Inc (ATMS) and Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (GLMD), where he oversaw the successfully completed in 2014 Nasdaq initial public offering, raising USD 38 million. Chanan has worked extensively with the Infinity Venture Capital Group and managed a number of the group's portfolio companies, in the United States, China and Israel. He has served in CEO, CFO, COO and Director roles. Chanan also is the CFO of IMED Infinity Medical, Limited Partnership (TASE: IMED). Chanan received his Bsc in Accounting from Northeastern University (USA).

Dr. Adi Elkeles - CEO, Chairman, Founder

Job Titles:
  • CEO
  • Chairman
  • Executive
  • Founder
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Senior Executive
Dr. Adi Elkeles is a Senior Executive who has a proven track record in leading biomed entrepreneurship and innovation for close to 20 years. Having held key executive positions in several biotechnology companies, he managed the development of technologies from early pre-clinical stages through market approval and sales, led numerous business and licensing deals, and strategic development activities. Prior to founding Trobix Bio, Adi served as VP Business Development at Ramot, the Technology Transfer Office of Tel Aviv University where he led business development, licensing and strategy for the Life Sciences sector. Before joining Ramot, Adi was Chief Technology Officer and Chief Business Development Officer at Micromedic, a cancer diagnostic cluster company. In this role, he led commercialization, in licensing and out licensing activities. Previously, Adi served as CEO of Zetiq Technologies Ltd., a cancer diagnostic company, where he advanced the company from the pre-clinical stage to the point of having a fully commercial product and a portfolio of pipeline products in the clinical stage. Preceding Zetiq, Adi held several managerial positions leading pre-clinical development programs for anti-cancer at BiolineRx, a technology incubator as well as leading programs for infectious diseases at XTLbio. Adi holds a PhD from Tel Aviv University, an MBA from the College of Management, and he completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Adi is an alumnus of the Paul Merage Life Science Executive Leadership Program of UC Irvine, California.

Dr. David Pompliano

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
  • Discovery Scientist
David Pompliano PhD is a drug discovery scientist, entrepreneur and executive with 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Working with venture-capitalists and academicians, he creates scientifically precocious, game-changing new commercial enterprises based on groundbreaking discoveries in academic science. He co-founded, and served as CSO of, Revolution Medicines (RVMD, a Third Rock company) and Lodo Therapeutics (an Accelerator company acquired by Zymergen, ZY), co-founded and is CEO of Daros, was co-founder and CEO of BioLeap, and raised over $70m in Series A financing. He also serves on the Boards of Directors and Scientific Advisory Boards of several biotechnology companies, government agencies and philanthropies. Earlier, as a senior pharmaceutical executive at GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, he led drug discovery teams that produced pre-clinical credentials for >30 development candidates and five registered anti-infective (Recarbrio, Altabax) and oncology (Tykerb, Votrient, Promacta) drugs. As Principal and Owner at Sanderling Consulting LLC, he assists investors, companies and philanthropies in setting drug discovery strategy, in executing the operations of preclinical discovery and development, and in evaluating pharmaceutical assets. Dr. Pompliano earned the BS and Ph.D degrees in Chemistry from the University of Virginia and from Stanford University, respectively, and conducted research in enzymology and molecular biology as a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow in Jeremy Knowles' laboratory at Harvard University. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers in the areas of infectious diseases and cancer drug discovery and mechanistic enzymology and has presented over 50 invited lectures internationally."

Dr. Maoz Gelbart

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Team Leader
  • Head of Bioinformatics
Dr. Maoz Gelbart is a seasoned team leader with a versatile skill set spanning data science, bioinformatics, and software development. At Trobix Bio, Dr. Gelbart spearheads bioinformatics efforts, applying cutting-edge computational techniques to extract valuable insights from large biological data sets. His work enhances the success rates of experimental teams, informs experimental design and yields novel DNA constructs with specific biological functions. He has held leadership positions in various tech companies, where he played a pivotal role in conceiving and developing software products driven by complex algorithms. His extensive expertise covers a wide spectrum of computational biology, including the development of advanced algorithms, the creation of data analysis pipelines, and the interpretation of complex genomic and proteomic data. During his Ph.D. studies in bioinformatics and virus evolution at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Gelbart specialized in developing algorithms for analyzing genetic sequence data from viruses. His research provided crucial insights on their natural hosts and the selection pressures they exert.

Dr. Ziv Lifshitz

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • VP R & D
Dr. Lifshitz is an experienced microbiologist with a proven track record managing early stage research and development programs in the area of anti-microbial therapeutics. At Trobix Ziv heads our R&D. Prior to joining Trobix Bio, Ziv served as a senior scientist at Zolex Ltd., where he led the development steps from hit screening and characterization to demonstrate efficacy in preclinical studies. Previously, Ziv served as research investigator in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. There, he led clinical research of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, mechanisms of infection and routes of dissemination. Ziv attained deep scientific understanding using the implementation of next generation sequencing (NGS) technology and became an expert in investigating the in-vivo pathogenesis of various infectious agents using different animal models. Ziv holds a PhD from Tel Aviv University where he investigated the molecular pathogenesis mechanisms of the human pathogen Legionella Pneumophila.

Keren Primor-Cohen

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • CEO of Ramot
Keren Primor-Cohen serves as the CEO of Ramot. She has extensive and unique experience in leading complex technology transactions with Israeli and multinational companies in various fields.

Mr. Eitan Dekel - Managing Director

Job Titles:
  • Managing Director
  • Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Eitan Dekel is the managing director, Orbia Ventures. An experienced investor and corporate development executive, Mr. Dekel was a partner at Magma, one of Israel's best venture capital funds. He also led the corporate development team at Ceva, a NASDAQ traded company. Eitan served on the boards and actively supported the growth of many other startups. Currently, Eitan is heading the Corporate Venture Fund for Mexichem, a $7B public company, which is a leading provider of products and solutions across multiple sectors of industry and commerce from construction and infrastructure to agriculture, healthcare, transportation, telecommunications, energy and more. Eitan holds a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion Institute, Israel and an MBA from the University of Manchester, England.

Mr. Eyal Agmoni

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Founder and Chairman of the Chartered Group
Mr. Eyal Agmoni is the Founder and Chairman of the Chartered Group which comprises of dozens of portfolio companies globally located in Japan, Singapore, Germany, Thailand, Luxembourg and Israel, focusing its' business development mainly in Europe and Asia. Eyal graduated from New York University Stern School of Business (NYU Stern), London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and HEC School of Management, Paris (HEC Paris) with three MBA diplomas granted from each school. Prior to that, Eyal attended the City University in London and graduated with a BSc degree in Business Administration & Finance with honors.

Prof. Alex Lepak

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
  • Physician
  • Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin
Prof. Lepak is an active physician, educator, researcher, and leader of antimicrobial stewardship. His research pursuits are in performing and translating antimicrobial pharmacodynamic (PD) studies (both in vivo animal models and patient level data) to optimize therapy against numerous pathogens. Specifically, this research has included medically important fungal and bacterial pathogens, including those that are difficult to treat and/or have drug resistance determinants. An additional area of active study is antimicrobial drug development using in vivo animal models. His lab has evaluated hundreds of pre-clinical and clinical compounds and is internationally recognized for drug development and drug optimization via PK/PD approaches. Dr. Lepak's studies have been internationally recognized with numerous invited presentations and over 130 publications and presentations at meetings. Clinically, he attends regularly on all infectious disease consult services and is the director of antimicrobial stewardship at UWHealth. He leads quality improvement and research projects focused on improving antimicrobial and diagnostic test utilization. Based on his expertise in PK/PD and stewardship, he is a leader in GNR resistance mechanisms and treatment strategies. His leadership and expertise have led to national and international recognition and invitations to provide guidance for numerous groups including: USCAST, CLSI, GARDP-REVIVE, ICAAC, ECCMID, ASM, IDSA, and the US FDA.

Prof. David Hooper

Job Titles:
  • Chief
  • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
  • Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Prof. David Hooper is the Chief of the Infection Control Unit and Associate Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also former Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at MGH. Dr. Hooper's research has focused on mechanisms of antimicrobial action and resistance. His laboratory has received continuous funding from the NIH for the past 30 years, and he is a recipient of an NIH Merit Award. He is author of over 200 peer-reviewed articles on mechanisms and epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance and 76 book chapters and other articles. Dr. Hooper is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a Member of the Association of American Physicians. In 2016 he received the Antimicrobial Research Award from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). He has served as Chair of the Drug Discovery and Antimicrobial Resistance Study Section of the NIH and Chair of the Scientific Program Committee of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy of the ASM. He is past President and past Meetings Board Chair of the ASM, has served on the editorial board of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, and is Deputy Editor of The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Prof. Itamar Shalit

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor
  • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
  • Retired
Prof. Itamar Shalit is an Associate Professor (emeritus) in Pediatrics, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University and a leading authority in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Itamar served as the Director of the Infectious Diseases Unit and Director General of Schneider Children`s Hospital, tertiary care, referral pediatric center for the entire State of Israel. He also served as the Director General of the Carmel Hospital and the Chairman of the Israeli Society for Infectious Diseases. In addition, he served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of leading pharma and biotech companies including Bioline Rx, Teva Innovative Ventures, NasVax and Integra Ltd. Itamar is currently serving as an active member on several national committees at the Israeli Ministry of Health including the Advisory Board on Infectious Diseases and Immunization; the National Committee on Measles, Mumps and Rubella Eradication; and the Polio Eradication Committee. He was awarded the Certificate of Appreciation Declaration by the World Health Organization for outstanding efforts and success in poliomyelitis eradication in Israel. Itamar is an author of more than 90 peer reviewed scientific publications and holds an MD degree from the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University and an MPA (Master in Public Administration) from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA.

Prof. Udi Qimron

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
  • Professor of Clinical Microbiology, Tel - Aviv University
As an Independent Principal Investigator at Tel Aviv University for the last 10 years, Prof. Qimron led one of the most productive labs in the Faculty of Medicine. He won the "Best Publication Award" consecutively three times in a row since the establishment of the prize in 2015. Furthermore, Udi's lab has published over 30 scientific papers, many of which are in top tier journals such as Nature, Nature Microbiology, PNAS and more. Moreover, a recent groundbreaking study was published in Molecular Cell and it is featured on the cover page of the journal. Udi has been invited to contribute his opinions and/or review articles by leading journals including Nature, Science, Cell and Molecular Cell, reflecting the recognition of his professional expertise. In addition, Udi is recognized as a leading expert in the CRISPR-Cas field, particularly as an expert in the adaptation step of the bacterial immune system. As such, he has reviewed dozens of articles in recent years for top journals and has been invited as a guest and speaker to numerous top conferences in the field. As an established and known expert in the CRISPR-community, Udi was chosen to Co-Organize the International 2016 CRISPR Meeting in Israel and the 2019 CRISPR-Technology Meeting in Germany. The European Research Council recognized his excellence by awarding him an ERC Starting Grant, an ERC Consolidator Grant and an ERC PoC Grant. Udi was also appointed to Head the PhD Program of Tel Aviv University Medical Faculty. The leadership of Tel Aviv University recognized his achievements and promoted him as the youngest tenured Associate Professor at 38 years old. Thereafter, he became the youngest Full Professor in the Tel Aviv University Medical Faculty at 41 years old.