top of page
.png)
SPEAKERS
Jean-Christophe Leroux
Jean-Christophe Leroux is full professor of Drug Formulation and Delivery and head of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He was trained as pharmacist at the University of Montreal (Canada), obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and worked as postdoctoral fellow at UCSF (USA). Dr. Leroux was professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Montreal from 1997 to 2008. He has made important fundamental and applied contributions to the fields of biomaterials and drug delivery, and has also been involved in the development of innovative bio-detoxification systems. He is a fellow of the AAPS, EURASC and CRS, and the co-founder of Versantis AG and Inositec AG, two ETH spin-off pharmaceutical companies.
Hanns-Christian Mahler
Dr. Mahler is currently CEO and Board Member at ten23 health AG, the human-centric and sustainable pharmaceutical development partner. From 2015 to 2021, Dr. Mahler has been building and leading the Drug Product Services (DPS) Business Unit at Lonza AG. Prior to this, he led Pharmaceutical Development & Supplies at Hoffmann-La Roche (Basel), and built up Formulation R&D for biologics at Roche (2005-2015). From 2000-2005, Dr. Mahler was working at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany as Principal Formulation Scientist, Lab Manager for Protein Formulation Development and Clinical Trial Manufacturing and CMC Team leader for Erbitux. Dr. Mahler obtained his pharmacy degree and Ph.D. in Toxicology at the University of Meinz as well as Pharmacist specialization degrees in Toxicology & Ecology and Pharmaceutical Technology. He was further trained in Economy and Marketing. Dr. Mahler obtained his habilitation from the University of Frankfurt in 2010 and is adjunct faculty and lecturer at the universities of Frankfurt, and Basel.
Sven Rottenberg
From 1999-2004 Sven Rottenberg received a dual education in veterinary pathology (Dipl. ECVP) and molecular biology (PhD) at the University of Bern. In 2004 he joined the group of Piet Borst at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam where he became a tenured staff member in 2012. At the NKI he established a new research focus: the study of anti-cancer drug resistance using genetically engineered mouse models of human cancer. In 2014 he returned to the University of Bern as head of the Institute of Animal Pathology. The focus of the Rottenberg group is to understand the underlying mechanisms of resistance to anti-cancer therapies, including both radio- and chemotherapy. His group has identified various mechanisms of PARP inhibitor resistance and thereby generated novel insights into basic mechanisms of the DNA damage response. Moreover, the Rottenberg group has generated unique preclinical models to study residual disease and they have pioneered the use of 3D cancer organoids to study therapy escape.
Dr Josephine Reber
Dr Josefine Reber is currently project leader and Lab Head – Molecular Imaging and Radio Ligand Therapy at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Switzerland. Before joining Novartis she worked as group leader and study director for toxicology/pharmacology at BSL Bioservice Scientific Laboratories GmbH (Eurofins) in Munich. Josefine holds a Master degree in Biochemistry and Chemical Biology from the University of Berne. 2013 she obtained her PhD in Radiopharmaceutical Sciences from the ETH in Zurich. Before moving to industry, she was a postdoc and later group leader at the HelmholtzZentrum Munich working in multi-disciplinary research associated with the Chair of Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich.
Marieta Duvnjak
Marieta Duvnjak is Scientific Advisor and Global lead of Innovation Committee in Analytical Research and Development at Novartis, Switzerland. Bringing 10 years of industry experience, she is passionate about science, innovation, supporting and connecting people. Marieta is a subject matter expert for in vitro release method development and in vitro-in vivo (cor)relations for long-acting injectables. Before joining Novartis Technical R&D in 2018, she worked on preclinical and clinical development of value-added oral and long-acting generic products at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Marieta holds a Master’s degree in Drug research and development and PhD in Pharmaceutical sciences.
EXPERT PANNEL
Jean-Louis Reymond
Jean-Louis Reymond is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He studied Chemistry and Biochemistry at the ETH Zürich and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Lausanne on natural products synthesis (1989). After a Post-Doc and Assistant Professorship at the Scripps Research Institute, he joined the University of Bern (1997). His current research focuses on chemical space exploration methods combining data science, artificial intelligence, organic synthesis and biological assays to discover new bioactive small molecules and peptides, with applications in membrane transporters modulators, kinase inhibitors, antimicrobials and transfection reagents (https://gdb.unibe.ch). He is the author of > 300 scientific publications and reviews.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2724-2942
Nadine C. Martin
Nadine C. Martin is Head of Innovation Management at sitem-insel AG since 2015. Her particular interest goes to Open Innovation in the Life Science sector and she focusses on activities that inspire an innovation culture for all stakeholders to think and act out of the box in order to translate better and faster. She holds an MD and a specialist degrees in Anaesthesiology and in pharmaceutical medicine and a certificate in Innovation Management. She has a long standing experience in pharmaceutical industry and served on boards of professional associations, and as VP on the Board of LIH and now heads the Scientific Council of the FNR, besides being an expert judge and mentor at MassChallenge Switzerland”.
Theresa Visarius
Theresa Visarius is the Vice President of Business Development at Immunophotonics and Managing Director of the Swiss subsidiary IPS Biopharma AG. She joined the company in 2015 after 8 years as an entrepreneur where she worked with global leaders in health care as well as start-ups to facilitate market access of innovative medical technologies. At the company, Theresa combines a strong scientific foundation with passion for game-changing innovation that can lead to impactful patient benefit. Theresa received her PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Bern, Switzerland and holds degrees in biology and chemistry from the USA. She has conducted research in clinical pharmacology, mitochondrial bioenergetics, and molecular toxicology, with a focus on cancer research and clinical pharmacology.
Stefanie Dobitz
Stefanie Dobitz is Innovation & Startup Advisor for Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences at the University of Bern and Inselspital, Bern University Hospital. Her focus is on supporting and connecting people for their innovative and successful entrepreneurial journey. Stefanie earned her doctoral thesis from ETH Zurich studying the synthesis and biological evaluation of oligoproline-based peptide ligands for tumor targeting, and holds a CAS in innovation management. Prior joining the University of Bern, Stefanie worked as sales manager for a Swiss CDMO, wherein she supported the pharma and biotech industry in the lead finding of future drug candidates, medical devices, as well as cosmetics.
Toni Widmer
Understanding the needs from a project and merge them together with science is my passion which I discovered during my extramural PhD with the University of Würzburg at Novartis Basel. The Bachelor in Pharmaceutical sciences in combination with a Master in Medicinal Pharmaceutical Sciences at the ETH Zürich was the spark for me to opt for a career in pharmaceutical Industry.
I adore working with scientific matter experts from chemistry, biology, PK sciences and preclinical safety. And I love to balance the project needs with the line function capabilities, challenge the state of the art approach, always striving to get the best for our early development pipeline. This interest continues to my private passion, being it beer brewing, horticulture, DIY projects in and around the house or maintaining our classic 1981 ford capri car.
Carlita Girardin-van der Klaauw
Carlita Girardin-van der Klaauw is trained as Medical Doctor at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands and brings 25 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in leading companies as Pfizer and GSK. She is in GSK responsible for medical affairs in therapeutic areas of Oncology, Vaccines, Specialty (Immunology, allergology) and Respiratory, medical governance, medical information and pharmacovigilance. She is member of Country Management Team in Switzerland. She is passionate about the added value that medical affairs brings to the Healthcare community by sharing science and collaborative projects to close (scientific) gaps to deliver improvements in patient and population health outcomes.
Karmen Letonja
Karmen Letonja is medical doctor, holding specialist degrees in internal medicine, pulmonology and allergology, with more than 15 years experiences in senior positions in medical affairs in pharmaceuticals. Her roles in recent company GSK has evolved over the time of last 6 years in above the country and local leadership roles, related to different therapeutical areas, last 14 months leading Specialty-Respiratory Medical Team in Switzerland. Karmen’s primary focus is bringing innovation to the clinical practice through the strengthen scientific differentiation with new data and max out new labels in cross functional collaboration.
Pierre Mateo
Pierre Mateo is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He studied at the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering School in Lyon (France) and obtained his Ph. D. in organic chemistry at the University of Bern in 2013. After a first Post-Doc in the same field, he joined the Institute of Plant Sciences and integrated the consortium of the Interfaculty Research Cooperation “One Health” as a Research Associate (https://www.onehealth.unibe.ch).
Within this consortium, Dr. Mateo and his colleagues discovered a novel and selective antibiotic against a human pathogen. Dr. Mateo leads the drug development process (MedChem studies). Upon successful pre-clinical assays, the co-inventors will found the pharmaceutical company Enzoxa.
Jean-Chrisophe Leroux
Hans-Christian Mahler
Jean-Louis Reymond
Nadine C. Martin
Theresa Visarius
Josephie Reber
Stefanie Dobitz
Sven Rottenberg
Marieta Duvnjak
Toni Widmer
Carlita Girardin-van der Klaauw
Karmen Letonja
Pierre Mateo
Organizing Team
SPEAKERS
Details to be announced soon!
Organizing Team
SPEAKERS
Details to be announced soon!
Organizing Team
SPEAKERS
Details to be announced soon!
COLLABORATORS
SPONSORS
bottom of page