Laia Crespo

Laia joined Sanofi Ventures in 2018 with a background in biotech investing primarily in Europe. Prior to Sanofi, Laia served as Investment Director for Ysios Capital, a Venture fund based in Barcelona, where she led investments and served on the Boards of OxThera (Sweden), Minoryx Therapeutics (Spain) and Inbiomotion (Spain), and as an Observer with AM-Pharma (The Netherlands). Earlier in her career, Laia was part of the European New Business Development team of Janssen-Cilag, a pharmaceutical company of the Johnson & Johnson group, where she assessed commercial and scientific licensing-in opportunities. Previously she worked as a researcher in the UK in companies such as Spirogen (now AstraZeneca), Medivir and UCB-Celltech.

Laia currently serves as a board observer for NodThera.

Laia graduated in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona, where she also completed a Master in Science and a PhD with honors. Laia holds an MBA from Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.

Reza Halse

Rez has over twelve years of therapeutic discovery and development experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries through management roles in the UK and US. In the UK he established research operations and led drug discovery efforts at Xcellsyz Ltd, a venture capital backed start-up, which was sold in 2004. He then moved to Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA, where he directed drug discovery projects in a variety of disease areas, ranging from diabetes to neglected infectious diseases. While at Novartis he also established innovative drug discovery collaborations with academia and non-profit organizations, in an initiative aimed at incubating new areas of research. Following Novartis, he joined a well-capitalized biotech organization, funded by a venture philanthropist, and led programs at various stages of discovery and development using an entirely virtual operating model. Rez holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in cell biology both from Newcastle University, UK. Rez currently represents the Fund on the Boards of Adheron Therapeutics, Spero Therapeutics and Project C.

Nanna Lüneborg

Nanna joined Novo Holdings in 2012, and spent four years in Novo Seeds, where she helped build a strong portfolio of seed and Series A stage companies. She led the initial investments and served on the Boards as Director or Observer at Inthera, IO Biotech, MinervaX, Pcovery, Forendo and Galecto. Nanna joined Novo Ventures in 2016 and has been involved in both private and public investments, including successful public listings of Orphazyme (ORPHA), ObsEva (OBSV), and Inventiva (IVA). She currently serves on the boards of NodThera, ReViral, Stargazer and Lava.

Prior to her time at Novo Holdings, Nanna was part of the life science investment team at Apposite Capital, a London-based venture fund, where she participated in both primary and secondary investments, with multiple deals leading to highly successful exits for the fund, including Convergence, Ulthera and Cancer Partners UK. She has previously worked at Cancer Research UK as a research analyst, and as a consultant to various biotech and healthcare venture projects during her MBA. Nanna received her PhD in Neuroscience from University College London, an MBA with distinction from University of Cambridge, and a 1st class BA from University of Oxford.

Stefan Luzi

Stefan Luzi joined Gilde Healthcare in 2015. He is focusing on venture and growth capital investments in the biopharmaceutical and life science instruments sectors. He led the investment in Lava Therapeutics B.V. and was part of several other investments. He represents Gilde on the boards of Lava Therapeutics B.V. and Lumicks B.V. Prior to joining Gilde, Stefan worked at Merck KGaA where he completed several international assignments including the Global Business Intelligence and MS Ventures divisions. Additionally, he was involved in various consulting projects spanning the pharmaceutical and chemical departments at Merck and co-moderated Merck Serono’s innovation competitions. Stefan holds a MSc in Biotechnology degree from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and a MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise degree from the University of Cambridge (UK). He also completed a PhD program with Sir Gregory Winter at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK), where he developed a bicyclic peptide-based drug discovery platform.

Guido Magni

Guido Magni, M.D., Ph.D., is a Partner with Versant Ventures. He brings deep experience in drug development from multiple accomplishments at leading global pharmaceutical companies including Roche and Wyeth. Guido held the position of Global Head of the Medical Science Department at Roche for 12 years and built a track record that includes the approval of 15 new drugs across various therapeutic areas during this time, including blockbuster products Cellcept, Pegasys, Mabthera, Xeloda, Herceptin, Tamiflu and Tarceva. Guido brings this critical expertise to Versant portfolio companies by providing guidance on their clinical and regulatory strategies.

Joël Jean-Mairet

Joël is managing partner and co-founder of Ysios Capital. Previously, he co-founded Glycart Biotechnology in 2001 and was its CEO until it was successfully sold to F. Hoffmann La-Roche four years later. Glycart Biotechnology was the originator of the anti-CD20 antibody – obinituzumab/Gazyva®, the first breakthrough designated drug approved by the FDA for B-CLL. He holds an MS in Biotechnology and a PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich.

Joël is currently on the boards of directors of Aura Biosciences, Sanifit Therapeutics, Ona Therapeutics, Executive Chairman of Inbiomotion, Chairman of SpliceBio and board observer at AM-Pharma. He has been Chairman of the board of Cellerix/Tigenix (now Takeda), board observer at Biovex (now Amgen). Joël has earned numerous awards, including the Wall Street Journal’s Europe Innovation Award in 2001.

Erik van den Berg

Erik has over twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He is the CEO of AM-Pharma and board member of several (bio)tech companies. Previously, as a senior executive at Organon (currently Merck) he was responsible for leading the Company’s global biotechnology business development. Erik executed over 20 transactions and partnerships, most recently a $600M option to acquire AM-Pharma by Pfizer and raised more than €130M in equity and debt financing. He concluded his Masters in chemistry from the University of Utrecht and an MBA from Manchester Business School both with honors.

Andrea van Elsas, PhD (Chairman)

Andrea van Elsas joined Lava as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board In April 2018. He is a venture partner with Third Rock Ventures. Previously, he served as Chief Scientific Officer at Aduro Biotech following the acquisition of BioNovion, a company he co-founded in 2011. From 1999 to 2011, he held various positions at Organon (acquired by Schering-Plough and later by Merck) in Oss, The Netherlands, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He directed the immuno-oncology portfolio and led the anti-PD1 program that later became known as pembrolizumab. As a postdoctoral researcher, Andrea worked in the lab of 2018 Nobel Laureate Jim Allison at the University of California, Berkeley and is a co-inventor on the original anti-CTLA-4 patents that formed the basis for the development of ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor approved in 2011 by the FDA for the treatment of melanoma. Dr. van Elsas holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and Oncology from the University of Leiden.

Dane Wittrup, PhD

Prof. Dane Wittrup attended the University of New Mexico as an undergraduate, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachlor’s in Chemical Engineering in June 1984. Wittrup went on to attend the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he worked with Prof. James Bailey on flow cytometry and segregated modeling of recombinant populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After obtaining his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Biology in 1988, he spent a brief time working at Amgen before becoming an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. He moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September of 1999, where he is now the C.P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biological Engineering, in addition to working with the Koch Institute as the Associate Director for Engineering.

James Patrick (Jim) Allison, PhD

Dr. James Patrick (Jim) Allison is an American immunologist and a 2018 Nobel laureate who holds the position of professor and chair of immunology and executive director of immunotherapy platform at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. Dr. Allison has spent his career studying the regulation of T cell responses. His work led to the development of an antibody to human CTLA-4 called ipilimumab which became the first immune checkpoint blockade therapy ever approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The approval of ipilimumab cleared the path for the emerging field of immune checkpoint blockade therapy in the treatment of cancer. Currently, his work is focused on improving immune checkpoint blockade therapies and identifying new targets to unleash the immune system and eradicate cancer. Dr. Allison is a member of the National Academies of Science and Medicine and is currently Chair of the Department of Immunology, the Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair in Immunology, the Executive Director of the Immunotherapy Platform and Co-Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD

Dr. Sharma is a professor of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology in the Division of Cancer Medicine, the T.C. and Jeanette Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology, the Scientific Director of the Immunotherapy Platform and the Co-Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is focused on understanding resistance mechanisms within the immune system that impact anti-tumor responses and for more than a decade, she has been a principal investigator for multiple clinical trials to improve the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies. Dr. Sharma’s work on new pathways to treat prostate cancer implicated for the first time in a human tumor the checkpoint VISTA in inhibiting immune responses. In partnership with Dr. Allison, Dr. Sharma is currently exploring combinations of immunological therapies and targeted drugs in preclinical studies to treat a variety of cancers more effectively.

Dieter Kabelitz, MD

Dieter Kabelitz was a full professor at the University of Kiel and Director of the Institute of Immunology from 1999 to 2018, where he continues to work as a senior research group leader. Previously, he was Head of the Department of Immunology at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute, Langen/Germany, and Associate Professor at the University of Heidelberg/Germany. From 2011 to 2012 he served as President of the German Society for Immunology (DGfI). He was a Council member of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) and is the current chair of the Education Committee (EDU) of IUIS. His scientific expertise is in the field of the functional characterization of human gamma/delta T cells. Dieter Kabelitz’ major interest is to explore strategies around increasing the effector functions of gamma delta T cells for the potential use in immunotherapy of cancer. Prof. Kabelitz has more than 30 years of research experience in immunology and has published more than 390 papers in peer-reviewed journals and edited or co-edited several books.

Madhav V. Dhodapkar, MBBS

Madhav V. Dhodapkar, MBBS, is the Anise McDaniel Brock Chair and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Cancer Innovation and Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Dhodapkar serves as director of the Winship Center for Cancer Immunology, and as leader of the Cancer Immunology Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute. Prior to joining Emory, he served as Chief of Hematology, the Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology), and Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine. An expert in the treatment of multiple myeloma, he also was co-director of the Cancer Immunology Program within the Yale Cancer Center. Other faculty appointments include Myeloma Institute in Little Rock, Arkansas, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York, and The Rockefeller University in New York, New York. A board-certified hematologist and medical oncologist, Dr. Dhodapkar specializes in the treatment of multiple myeloma and other hematological malignancies. His primary clinical and scholarly focus is the immuno-biology of myeloma and the development of novel biological approaches to treat cancer.