Making transcription factors druggable

Elmar Maier

Chairman (Independent)

Elmar Maier is a seasoned deal maker with a long-standing track record in the life science industry and a reputation of getting deals done.

Elmar founded/co-founded GPC Biotech in 1997, EM Biotech in 2009, iOmx Therapeutics in 2016 and ROSCUE Therapeutics in 2020 and served for over 25 years as CEO, CBO and/or COO. He was involved in raising capital through several private financing rounds, taking GPC public in Europe and the United States, and negotiating multiple asset purchase, M&A and partnering transactions as well as a number of licensing deals generating several hundred million dollars cash upfront in addition to very significant milestone payments and royalties.

Since 1999, Elmar served as a Board member for several life science companies, such as GATC Biotech (acquired by Eurofins in 2017), Panoptes Pharma (acquired by EyeGate Pharma in 2020) and Vetter Pharma.

Elmar holds a degree in Chemistry and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz, Germany. He was a Scientist at the ICRF Laboratories in London and Department Head at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin.

Sebastian Kreuz

Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund

Sebastian Kreuz studied Technical Biology in Stuttgart (Germany) and holds a PhD in molecular biology and immunology. With more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery within the pharmaceutical industry, he has a strong scientific background in various disease areas and is familiar with a broad range of therapeutic modalities.

Sebastian started his industrial career in 2004 by joining Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) as a research scientist in the functional genomics group, where he established novel experimental platforms based on RNAi and viral vectors for exploration of early drug targets. In the following years, Sebastian held various positions within BI’s R&D organization thereby further broadening his expertise in pharmacology and translational research.

From 2015 to 2019, Sebastian joined BI’s newly formed Research Beyond Borders department to implement a platform concept for virus-based gene therapy as a novel treatment modality for BI. During this time he also established a global collaboration network in the gene therapy space with collaborations in Europe, China and the US.

Sebastian joined the BI venture fund (BIVF) in June 2019. In addition to QUANTRO Therapeutics, he serves as a board member of Abalos Therapeutics GmbH and Rewind Therapeutics NV.

Dirk Ullmann

Evotec

Dirk Ullmann has more than 22 years’ experience in drug discovery research and collaborative business. In his role as Global Head of Drug Discovery Services he oversees the operational business together with core responsibility for the scientific strategy of the company in Hit Identification, Structure-based Drug Discovery, Protein and Cellular Sciences, ADME-Tox and DMPK, Compound Management, Proteomics and Metabolomics.

Before joining Evotec he held a position as Chief Scientific Officer at Proteros, Munich, after an initial 11 years with Evotec. Dirk Ullmann obtained his PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Leipzig, Germany, on protease-catalysed peptide synthesis and did his post-doctoral training on protein engineering at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (USA).

Stefan Ameres

Scientific co-founder

Stefan Ameres is a molecular biologist, Professor of RNA Biology at the University of Vienna, Group Leader at the Max Perutz Labs, Vienna, and Adjunct Group Leader at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), Vienna. Stefan received his PhD in 2006 from the University of Vienna, Austria, and conducted his postdoctoral research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, MA, USA.

He has published over forty highly regarded papers in leading journals, which have been cited more than 6,000 times, and he has delivered more than seventy oral presentations at international conferences. Stefan has received numerous prestigious awards and grants, including the Houska Award (B&C Private Foundation, 2018) and three ERC Grants. In 2016 he was selected as an EMBO Young Investigator, and he has been an elected member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Young Academy) since 2015.

Johannes Zuber

IMP, Vienna

Johannes Zuber is a medical doctor and, since 2011, Group Leader at the IMP, Vienna. Following his MD graduation in 2003 and a clinical residency at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany, he undertook postdoctoral research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), NY, USA.

His scientific achievements are recorded in over 160 publications in leading peer-reviewed journals with over 8,000 citations, and 80 oral presentations at international conferences. Johannes has received two ERC Grants (2013 and 2019), was selected as an EMBO Young Investigator in 2014, and won the German Cancer Award (Deutscher Krebspreis) in 2016. In 2020 he was promoted to Senior Scientist at the IMP.

Stefan Ameres

Max Perutz Labs, Vienna

Stefan Ameres is a molecular biologist, Professor of RNA Biology at the University of Vienna, Group Leader at the Max Perutz Labs, Vienna, and Adjunct Group Leader at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), Vienna. Stefan received his PhD in 2006 from the University of Vienna, Austria, and conducted his postdoctoral research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, MA, USA.

He has published over forty highly regarded papers in leading journals, which have been cited more than 6,000 times, and he has delivered more than seventy oral presentations at international conferences. Stefan has received numerous prestigious awards and grants, including the Houska Award (B&C Private Foundation, 2018) and three ERC Grants. In 2016 he was selected as an EMBO Young Investigator, and he has been an elected member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Young Academy) since 2015.

Lars Zender

University Hospital Tübingen

Lars Zender is Professor of Medical Oncology and Director and Chairman of the Department of Medical Oncology and Pneumology at University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. He also serves as spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence iFIT (EXC2180) “Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies” and as Managing Director of the National Center for Tumor Diseases, partner site southwest (NCTSW).

Lars’ scientific work focuses on the identification of novel therapeutic targets to overcome therapy resistance in solid tumours. He developed novel mosaic (chimaeric) liver cancer mouse models that enable high-throughput functional genomic analyses, including shRNA and CRISPR/Cas screens, directly in vivo.

He is co-founder of the Tübingen Center for Academic Drug Discovery and Development (TüCAD2), which conducts drug development projects for prioritised, functionally identified therapeutic targets. To date, three small molecule drugs from the TüCAD2 pipeline have entered first-in-human studies.

Another key focus of Lars’ scientific work is cellular senescence. His laboratory studies the senescence-associated secretory phenotype and how senescent tumour cells and pre-cancerous cells are recognised and cleared by the immune system. Lars has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Cancer Award.

Josep Tabernero

VHIO, Barcelona

Josep Tabernero holds MD and PhD degrees from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, and he is currently Head of the Medical Oncology Department at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Director of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and Professor of Medicine at UVic-UCC. He has been Principal Investigator of several Phase I pharmacodynamic studies and translational projects with tumour-directed targeted therapies and immune-based therapies.

His research aims at potentiating molecular therapies targeting specific oncoproteins and accelerating more effective personalised cancer medicines for patients displaying genetic lesions or pathway dysregulation.

Dr. Tabernero serves on the Editorial Boards of various top tier journals including Annals of Oncology, ESMO Open, Cancer Discovery, Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment Reviews, and Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. He has (co)authored approximately 600 peer-reviewed papers with an H-Index of 122.

He was the President (2018–2019) of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). He is also a member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). He has also been a member of the Educational and Scientific Committees of ESMO, ASCO, AACR, AACR/NCI/EORTC, ASCO Gastrointestinal, TAT and ESMO-GI/WCGIC meetings.