Erich F. Greiner
Erich founded Cedrus Therapeutics Inc. in May 2008 to develop novel therapeutic concepts and medicines. Prior to that, he held various senior positions at Evotec, including Chief Innovation Officer and Member of the Management Team. Prior to joining Evotec, Erich was a Research Associate at the German Research Cancer Center in Heidelberg. He was trained in medicine and molecular biology at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and Duke University Medical Center in the US. He serves as a strategic advisor and reviewer for several governmental, public and private institutions in the US and in Europe, including the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry for Health.
Bram Vanparys, PhD
Bram joined Gimv in 2018. He has over 10 years of international venture capital experience, most recently at Merck Ventures in Amsterdam. Bram has a successful track record in life science investing and was instrumental in the formation, financing and/or exit of several start-ups across Europe and Israel, including arGEN-X (ARGX:EBR), Multiplicom (acquired by Agilent), Cartagenia (acquired by Agilent) and Q-Biologicals (acquired by Amatsigroup, now Eurofins). In addition to Topas Therapeutics, he is currently a board member of iSTAR Medical and Imcheck and an observer at Camel-IDs. Bram has a PhD in biotechnology from the University of Ghent (Belgium) and an executive MBA from Vlerick Business School (Belgium).
Sebastian Kreuz, PhD
Sebastian joined the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) in 2019. With over 15 years of experience in translational research and 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. From 2015 to 2019, he worked in the Research Beyond Borders department at Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) to implement a platform concept for viral vector-based gene therapy as a novel therapeutic modality for BI. During this time, he established a global collaboration network involving collaborations in Europe, China and the US. Before that, Sebastian held a variety of positions within the BI R&D organization. He studied technical biology at the University of Stuttgart and holds a PhD in molecular biology and immunology. In addition to Topas Therapeutics, he serves as a board member for Abalos Therapeutics GmbH, Rewind Therapeutics and Quantro Therapeutics GmbH.
Karl Ziegelbauer, PhD
Karl Ziegelbauer is currently Chief Scientific Officer of Almirall SA, which he joined in 2021. Prior to that he had been with Bayer AG since 1993, most recently serving as Senior Vice President and Head of Open Innovation & Digital Technologies of the Pharmaceutical Division. Karl’s previous positions at Bayer included: Senior Vice President for the Therapeutic Research Group, Senior Vice President for the Therapeutic Research Group Oncology and Gynecological Therapy, Vice President for Oncology Research, and Vice President for Protein Therapeutics for Bayer Schering Pharma. He also served as Group Leader at Bayer Yakuhin Ltd. in Japan. Prior to joining Bayer, Karl was a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Biology. Karl holds a PhD in biochemical sciences from the Max Planck Institute of Biology in Germany. He has co-authored more than 60 scientific publications covering topics in basic research as well as drug discovery.
Michael Wacker, PhD
Michael is an experienced life science entrepreneur who joined Biomed in 2019. He successfully built up various start-up companies. In addition, he coaches start-ups in Switzerland for Innosuisse, the governmental commission of technology and innovation. Currently he is co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of Limmatech Biologics, Inura Medical and Chairman of the Board of Inositec. Previously he was Board member and Chief Business Officer of Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals, a spin-off company of the University of Basel. Before joining Polyneuron, he was Founder, Board member and CSO of GlycoVaxyn, a vaccine development company that was acquired by GSK in 2015 and which valued the company at $212 million. Michael co-founded GlycoVaxyn in 2004 as a spin-off company from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ). Michael holds a MSc in biochemistry and completed his PhD and post-doctoral fellowship in microbiology at ETHZ.
Stefan Herr, PhD
Stefan started EMBL Ventures in 2001. He led several investments in Europe and the US for EMBL Ventures, Heidelberg Innovation and a business angel. Prior to EMBL Ventures, he served as Managing Director of Verivox, a 3i-backed start-up company. Previously Stefan was Vice President at Heidelberg Innovation and Director Cooperations and Licensing at Hagenuk. Stefan earned his PhD in physics from the University of Heidelberg and received additional training in law and business at the University of Hagen. He was a recipient of the Boehringer Ingelheim fellowship and is an alumnus of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory PhD Program.
Marc Lohrmann
Marc is Managing Partner, Vesalius Biocapital III. He has over 20 years of experience and joined Vesalius Biocapital in 2012 as a venture partner. Since then, Marc has advised on corporate development and exit of portfolio companies of Fund 1 and Fund 2. He was promoted to Managing Partner for Fund 3 in 2017. Marc started eight life sciences companies, i.a. co-founded Reverse Medical (acquired by Covidien in 2014), was an investment manager at Bayer Innovation and worked with several corporate finance boutiques focused on life sciences M&A transactions. Marc holds a diploma degree in business administration from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim (Germany).
Hugo Fry
Hugo joined Topas Therapeutics in May 2024. He has an extensive and diverse career spanning three decades within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, characterized by strategic and leadership roles, including Chief Commercial Officer at Imbria Pharmaceuticals and Chief Business Officer and Managing Director at 20Med Therapeutics as well as CEO of RQ Biotechnology. With a focus on guiding companies toward success, Hugo has previously led R&D, Industrial Affairs as well as Commercial teams and is experienced in licensing, fundraising and forging strategic partnerships. He has also held several executive positions spanning multiple countries, including Managing Director of Sanofi UK and Ireland, and Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the Sanofi Pasteur MSD joint venture, along with being the Vice-President of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Hugo holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Salford and has completed further studies in Finance at London Business School and Leadership at Duke University.
Christian Schröter, PhD
Christian joined Topas Therapeutics in June 2022 and is responsible for all CMC (chemistry, manufacturing & controls) activities, as well as project management. He spent 22 years at Merck in pharmaceutical R&D and operations, most recently as Head of Strategy, Global Healthcare Operations. His experience covers the healthcare value chain from late-stage research, pharmaceutical development and sterile production to franchise support and operations strategy. Christian is trained as a biochemist and received his PhD in immunology from Eberhard-Karls-University in Tübingen, Germany.
Cristina de Min, MD
Cristina joined Topas in September 2021 and is responsible for all clinical development programs. She spent 11 years at Roche in various executive positions, including Life Cycle Leader for the development of the IL-6 receptor antagonist tocilizumab (Actemra) for rheumatic diseases. She also served as Medical Director of Roche’s affiliate in Italy. Following Roche, she joined Novimmune, serving for nine years as Chief Medical Officer before the company was acquired by Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (SOBI). At Novimmune, she set up the clinical development department and was responsible for the global development strategy for drug candidates from translational activities through clinical development and registration. Cristina received her MD and board certification in endocrinology from the University of Milan.
Anne Burger
Anne serves as Financial Advisor at Topas. She brings more than 15 years of experience in financial operations at biotech and medtech companies throughout Europe. She previously served as the CFO and Co-Founder of Breath Therapeutics GmbH, where she was instrumental in securing the financing (EUR 43.5 million) as well as executing the sale of the company to Zambon S.p.A. in 2019, with a deal value up to EUR 500 million. Anne also served as CFO at Rigontec and had an active role in the execution of Rigontec’s trade sale to MSD (known as Merck & Co. in North America), a deal worth up to EUR 464 million. Throughout her career, Anne has been responsible for corporate fundraising, executing trade sales and licensing agreements, and preparing for IPOs in several senior executive and advisory roles in the life sciences industry. Anne holds a graduate degree in Business Administration from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and has completed graduate studies in public health.
