Reversing the course of cancer with RNA-based therapeutics

Guillaume Dutheuil has more than 15 years of experience in the industry and has served as the Director of Medicinal Chemistry at EPICS Therapeutics since the inception of the company in 2019. At EPICS Therapeutics, he is responsible for chemical development of projects from compound hit finding through to the delivery of clinical candidates including oversight of medicinal chemistry, analytical and CMC (scaled manufacturing). Previously, Guillaume was a senior medicinal chemist at Ogeda SA and an important contributor to the invention of fezolinetant (approved for market in 2023). Guillaume has a PhD in peptidomimetic synthesis (methodologies) from Rouen University and completed post-doctoral research at Bristol university in developing brand new chiral boron chemistry. Guillaume is currently an inventor on 17 industry patents and is an author of 15 publications.

Vincent Lannoy has expertise as a director in the life science sector with strong intellectual property experience combined with project management, legal and business development activities. Vincent was IP & Legal Director of Ogeda SA (Belgium) acquired by Astellas Inc. Vincent has led patent portfolio strategy, business development projects and legal matters at Ogeda in the fields of inflammatory and Women’s Health. Vincent received his PhD in Medical Biology from Catholic University of Louvain, (Belgium) and also received a Certificate in Management from ICHEC (Belgium).

Laurent Meeus is the Director of the EuroscreenFast Business Unit of Epics Therapeutics, offering GPCR screening services to worldwide pharma and biotech clients (https://euroscreenfast.com/ ). He has a PhD in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences (ULB) and he joined EuroscreenFast in 2009 as a Research Scientist, to develop new and challenging custom assays for its clients. In 2014 he was appointed as manager of the team and he’s the primary contact for customer requests and after sales services.

Franz Obermayr previously served as CEO of Eyegate (now Kiora NASDAQ: KPRX), before that he was founder and CEO of Panoptes which was sold to Eyegate in 2020. Before founding Panoptes he served as head of clinical development at Nabriva (NASDAQ: NBRV) leading to approval of Xenleta in 2019. Franz has been in different roles throughout his career in drug development covering areas in infectious, inflammatory and oncology indications and did his PhD in Biochemistry at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

Graeme Fraser is a pharmacologist with more than 20 years of operational experience to lead projects from basic research through to completion of clinical proof-of-concept. Graeme was Chief Scientific Officer of OGEDA SA (Belgium) where he is an inventor of fezolinetant, since acquired by ASTELLAS and approved for market in 2023 as a product in Women’s Health. Graeme has led Drug Discovery activities at biotech and pharmaceutical companies in Canada and Europe in the fields of cancer, gastrointestinal disease, endocrinology and pain with 5 products advanced into clinical development. Graeme received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology & Therapeutics from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and is an author of over 50 publications and research abstracts, in addition to 22 patents.

Michel Allé is director of Elia. Group and D’Ieteren Hroup both listed on Euronext and was also Chairman of the board of Ogeda SA until its sale to Astellas Pharma Inc. in 2017. He is honorary professor of Université Libre de Bruxelles (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Ecole Polytechnique). Michel Allé received a civil engineer degree and a degree in Economics. He has been director in the 1980’s of the Belgian R&D program in new and renewable energies. Later, after 13 years’ experience in Private Equity, he became CFO of Brussels Airport and after that CFO of Belgian Railways.

Jean Combalbert is PharmD and PhD receive from Faculté de Pharmacy, Marseille France. Jean has an impressive track record with over 25 years’ experience building research and development-stage biotech companies and achieving high-value exits.
Jean is founder and non-executive director at Epics Therapeutics SA, having previously served as its founding CEO from 2017. He is also currently the non-executive Chairman of Kynos Therapeutics Ltd, Scotland.
Jean was Chairman of the Board at Syndesi Therapeutics SA, Belgium from 2018 until its sale (1B$) to AbbVie in 2022. Previously, he was CEO of Ogeda SA from 2006 until its sale (800M€) to Astellas Pharma Inc. in 2017.
Earlier in his career, Dr Combalbert held senior positions with SANOFI Research and Galderma in France and the United States.

François Fuks is a professor at the free University of Brussels and director of the ULB Cancer Research Center. His work is devoted to epigenetics and its role in cancer.
After a training in molecular biology at the ULB (Faculty of Sciences), François Fuks focused his doctoral research on small viruses (parvoviruses) as tools to fine-tune anti-cancer responses.       He performed his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center – DKFZ (Heidelberg, Germany), headed by Prof. Harald. zur Hausen (2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine). He regularly publishes in major journals (Nature, Science,…).

Caroline THIELEN is Investment Manager at SRIW. Prior to that, she was the COO of Bridge2Health.
Caroline holds a PhD in Sciences (Biology) from the ULiège completed by a postdoctoral training at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, USA).
She has extensive experience in coordinating research projects at national and international levels.
Caroline sits on the boards of several life sciences and medtech companies.

Philippe obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology from VIB/Ghent University and an MBA from Solvay Business Scholl, after which he joined an early-stage life sciences VC.
He became a member of the European Parliament in 2011, focussing on fund regulation and long-term investment, SME policy and healthcare policy. In 2016, he became state secretary and later minister in the Belgian Federal Government. In March 2020, he was asked by prime minister Sophie Wilmes to lead the Federal Taskforce fighting the COVID pandemic in Belgium, procuring medical material and setting up testing capacity. After this successful crisis-management, he announced his return to life sciences and investing.

Elisabeth Svanberg MD, PhD is a Board-Certified General Surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery. She joined the biopharmaeceutical industry in 2000, and has held executive leadership roles within R&D both in Europe and in the US. Dr. Svanberg serves on the Board of EPICS Therapeutics since 2022, and also serves as an independent non-executive director on the boards of Egetis AB (formerly PledPharma AB) (since 2017), Galapagos (since 2020), Amolyt Pharma SAS (since 2021) and LEO Pharma (since 2022).