Lead-like hits for challenging targets

Oliver Nayler, Board Member

Biochemist/molecular biologist, head of Drug Discovery at leadXpro.

Oliver earned a biochemistry degree from ETH Zürich and completed his PhD at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge in collaboration with ETH. He held postdoctoral positions at LMB and the Max Planck Institute in Munich before joining the pharmaceutical industry, where he was Senior Director, Head Caradiovascular & Friboris Biology first at Actelion and later at Idorsia. He contributed to the development of five approved compounds, authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers, and holds 35 US patents. Oliver also is an advisory board member and lecturer at the European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine (ECPM).

Andreas Insam, Board Member

Business economist, board member of XRnanotech, settlor INSAM Familienstiftung.

Previously CEO of the BENDURA BANK, LI.

Andreas completed his PhD in business administration at the University of Innsbruck and served as research assistant at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics. He was CEO and founder of the BENDURA BANK since 1998 until his retirement in September 2020. Andreas has been a lecturer and examiner at the University of Liechtenstein and University of Innsbruck for more than twenty years. With a strong professional background, he brings valuable experience in finances and banking.

John Millard, Board Member

Serial entrepreneur, head of Technology Transfer Management at PSI, Swiss representative CERN KT Forum and board member of swiTT.

John studied chemical engineering at Bradford University and completed a Master of Business Administration at the London Business School in 1999. After several positions in chemical and energy related companies (e.g., BP, ABB, Enron, EnerCore), he co-founded two US/CH high-tech startups, and joined PSI in 2016, becoming head of technology transfer in 2018.

Michael Milos, Board Member

Molecular biologist, University Vienna and Brain Research Institute at University Zürich, managing partner at AVANTECA Partners.

Michael studied molecular biology (majors in genetics, immunology and neuroscience) at the University Vienna and at Brain Research Institute at University Zürich. After several positions in research and development of pharmaceutical companies he joined AVANTECA Partners as Managing Partner in 2020. AVANTECA Partners manage equity positions in companies with innovations in the fields of new molecular entities (NME), digital health, diagnostics as well as medical devices.

Rafael Abela, Founder and Board Member

Physicist, scientific advisor at PSI.

Previously, scientific project leader for the SLS and SwissFEL projects as well as laboratory head.

Rafael completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Basel and continued his career at PSI as researcher in particle physics. He became scientific project leader of the Swiss Light Source (SLS) and later on of the Swiss Free Electron Laser (SwissFEL). He has contributed to a broad range of research projects and has more than 80 peer-reviewed publications.

Michael Hennig, CEO, Founder and Board Member

Structural biologist and senior drug discovery executive.

Previously, global head of Discovery Technologies at Roche.

After his PhD at the EMBL Hamburg and postdoc at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel Michael looks back to 20 years of drug discovery expertise in structural biology and research management at Roche Basel. He contributed to the delivery of Tamiflu, Fortovase, Xenical, Carmegliptin, Aleglitazar and is author of more than 70 articles and 8 patents. Additionally, he holds a guest professorship position for structural biology at the University of Basel.

Gebhard Schertler, Founder

Biochemist, group leader Structural Biology of Membrane Proteins at PSI.

Previously member of the PSI Directorial Board.

Gebhard completed his PhD at the University of Münich focusing on structural biology of membrane proteins and molecular pharmacology. After leading the MRC laboratory of molecular biology at the University of Cambridge he moved to Switzerland where he held the head positions of the Laboratory of Biomolecular Research and the Division of Biology and Chemistry at PSI, including a full professorship of Structural Biology at ETH Zürich.

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