OUR EXPERTISE
Transforming cancer treatment through RNA epigenetics
EPICS Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering therapies that target RNA epigenetic regulation.
OUR EXPERTISE
While DNA and protein pathways have been central to cancer drug discovery for decades, RNA remains an under-explored frontier, one that translates gene expression into cell behavior in real time.
At EPICS, we focus on the epitrascriptome, a process where special enzymes write, read and erase marks on RNA that help control how and when cells use genetic instructions.
By modulating these marks, we aim to rebalance dysregulated signaling networks in cancer cells, addressing regulatory mechanisms that conventional therapies do not target.
Drawing on our expertise in RNA biology, epigenetics, and METTL3 inhibition, we design therapies with the precise chemistry needed to transform promising targets into transformative therapies.
While our discovery platform is rooted in targeting the RNA epitranscriptome, our therapeutic strategy extends to G-protein–coupled receptor (GPCR) modulation, recognizing that cancer is a disease of dysregulated signaling networks.
As such, our work on GPCRs is not a separate endeavor but a strategic extension of our epigenetic vision, enabling us to explore multiple, complementary points of intervention.
“By combining insights from RNA biology and GPCR pathways, we can design smarter, more comprehensive therapies that address cancer’s complexity rather than a single node of dysfunction.
This integrated approach has already yielded its first clinical application: EP102″
Developed by EPICS’s scientists, EP102 is a potent and selective small-molecule inhibitor that blocks METTL3, the enzyme responsible for installing the m⁶A mark on RNA. This discovery led to our first-in-patient program now in clinical evaluation.
Leadership
Meet our team of drug development experts
Graeme Fraser PhD
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer
Graeme Fraser PhD
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer
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.
Steven Ramael MD
Head of Clinical Studies
Steven Ramael MD
Head of Clinical Studies
Steven Ramael has more than 25 years of experience in the industry and has served as Medical Director at EPICS Therapeutics since the conception of its first clinical trial. At EPICS Therapeutics, he is responsible for the clinical development programs and for the conduct and oversight activities for the respective clinical trials performed. Previously, Steven worked as Principal Investigator at a mid-size CRO. For more than 10 years he was closely involved in the design and conduct of over 80 clinical studies, acting as Principal Investigator.
From 2013 to 2018, Steven served as Medical Director of Ogeda (acquired by Astellas) and led the clinical development of the NK3 antagonist fezolinetant. Since then, he held Director positions in several clinical-stage biotech companies
Steven graduated as a Medical Doctor in 1998 and is Board Certified Specialist in Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Medicine. He is an active member of several Data Safety Monitoring Boards and provides ad hoc advice on clinical trial design, development plans, and safety/tolerability issues.
Guillaume Dutheuil PhD
Head of Medicinal Chemistry & CMC
Guillaume Dutheuil PhD
Head of Medicinal Chemistry & CMC
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.
Andrea Casazza PhD
Head of Cancer Biology
Andrea Casazza PhD
Head of Cancer Biology
Andrea Casazza is a cancer biologist with over 20 years of experience in oncology research and drug development. He currently serves as Head of Cancer Biology at EPICS Therapeutics, contributing to the development of a differentiated pipeline of RNA-based therapeutics and GPCR-targeted agents.
Andrea has a proven track record of translating scientific innovation into therapeutic programs. Prior to EPICS, he held senior roles within the Belgian biotech ecosystem, where he led cross-functional teams and advanced multiple drug discovery projects across oncology, neurodegeneration, and immunology. His contributions include the development of enzyme-activated prodrugs and immune-oncology agents, with expertise spanning target discovery, preclinical validation, and clinical trial design.
He holds a Ph.D. in Cell Science and Technology from the University of Torino and completed postdoctoral research at VIB Leuven. Andrea is an inventor on multiple patents and has authored over 20 publications in top-tier journals.
Laurent Meus PhD
HTS and Services Director
Laurent Meus PhD
HTS and Services Director
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.
Catherine Sorlet
Head of Pharmacology
Catherine Sorlet
Head of Pharmacology
Catherine Sorlet has more than 15 years of experience in the industry and has served Head of Molecular Pharmacology at EPICS Therapeutics since the inception of the company in 2019. At EPICS Therapeutics, she supervises all molecular biology assay and specific assay development for all targets in the pipeline. She also supervises the ADME/PK activities. She plays an active role in the development of various in vivo models. Previously, Catherine was Head of Molecular Biology and Assay Development Group at Ogeda SA and she participated in the development of fezolinetant (approved for market in 2023). Catherine has a Master in Biochemistry with Biomedical option and a FELASA C certification from Liege University
Vincent Lannoy PhD
Intellectual Property and Legal Director
Vincent Lannoy PhD
Intellectual Property and Legal Director
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).
Fernand Timsonet
Administrative and Accounting Director
Fernand Timsonet
Administrative and Accounting Director
Fernand Timsonet is an experienced financial and administrative professional with over 17 years of expertise in accounting, Finance and corporate administration. He holds a degree in Accounting and Taxation, as well as a Master’s degree in Management, Economics & Management from Solvay Brussels School. Fernand began his career as Financial Manager, a position he held for seven years before joining OGEDA SA (Belgium), where he spent a decade managing financial and administrative operations during the company’s growth and acquisition phase. Since 2018, Fernand has operated as an independent consultant, currently serving as Administrative & Accounting Director at Epics Therapeutics. His broad expertise covers financial strategy, reporting, budgeting, and operational support across the biotech sector.
Board of Directors
Meet our board of directors
Elisabeth Svanberg MD, PhD
Board Chair
Elisabeth Svanberg MD, PhD
Board Chair
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).
Alain Parthoens
Member
Alain Parthoens
Member
Mr. Alain Parthoens is the Founder and serves as Managing Partner at Newton BioCapital. He serves as Managing Partner at Vesalius Biocapital Partners. He serves as Chairman at Ncardia. He serves as Board Member at Promethera Biosciences and Bienca Technological Enzymatic Catalyse.
Alain has more than twenty years of international experience in food and life sciences businesses such as Nestle, Monsanto/Searle, PWC. Furthermore, he has 20 years of experience in venture capital. (ING Bank, Vesalius Biocapital)
Alain Parthoens received an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree from Catholic University of Louvain, a graduate degree from Free University of Brussels and a degree in Management from Solvay Business School of Economics & Management.
Jean Combalbert PharmD, PhD
Member
Jean Combalbert PharmD, PhD
Member
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.
Caroline Thielen PhD
Member
Caroline Thielen PhD
Member
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.
Bart De Leeuw
Member
Bart De Leeuw
Member
Bart is a partner at Fund+. Prior to joining Fund+, Bart worked at Ackermans & van Haaren as Group Controller and Investment Manager and as CFO/Risk Officer at Fortino Capital Partners.
For most of his career, he worked at Ernst&Young where he progressed as Head of the Technical Desk. He was part of the EY global expert group in London.
Bart holds a master’s degree in Commercial Sciences and in Business Information Systems from the University of Brussels
Graeme Fraser PhD
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer
Graeme Fraser PhD
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer
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.
François Fontaine
Member
François Fontaine
Member
Resume coming soon
Clinical Advisory Board
François Fuks PhD
Clinical Scientific Advisor
François Fuks PhD
Clinical Scientific Advisor
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,…).
David A Scheinberg MD, PhD
Clinical Scientific Advisor
David A Scheinberg MD, PhD
Clinical Scientific Advisor
David A. Scheinberg, M.D., Ph.D. is currently Vincent Astor Chair and Deputy Director, for Therapeutic Discovery, Sloan Kettering Institute. He also founded and Chairs the Center for Experimental Therapeutics; he was Chairman, Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program, SKI, from 2001 to 2022, and founded and was Chair of the Nanotechnology Center from 2010 to 2014. He is additionally Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology of the Pharmacology graduate program at the Weill-Cornell University Medical College and Professor in the Gerstner-Sloan Kettering Graduate School at MSKCC. He is a founder and a Chairman of the Board of the Therapeutics Discovery Institute, a non-profit drug discovery corporation formed with Weill Cornell Medical College, Rockefeller University and Sloan Kettering Institute. From 1992 until 2003, he was Chief of the Leukemia Service at Memorial Hospital. He has been elected into the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the American Association of Physicians (AAP), and the Interurban Club. His other awards include the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Science Professorship, an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA), the Lucille P. Markey Scholarship, The Emil J. Freireich Award, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Translational Investigator Awards, and CapCure Awards. In 2013 Nature Biotech recognized him as one of the top 20 Translational Scientists in the world. He is an advisor to charitable foundations and cancer centers and sits on the Boards of Directors of public and private biotech companies. Dr. Scheinberg is a physician-scientist, specializing in the care of patients with leukemia and also investigating new therapeutic approaches to cancer, both in the hospital and in the laboratory. The focus of his research is on the discovery and development of novel, specific immuno-therapeutic agents. This includes monoclonal antibodies and TCR mimics that target cell surface or intracellular proteins of cancers, targeted radiopharmaceuticals that deliver radioactive particles including alpha particles or alpha particle nanogenerators, therapeutic vaccines targeting the oncogene products that cause the cancers, as well as methods to understand cancer antigen presentation. Eight different therapeutic agents developed by Dr. Scheinberg in his laboratory have reached human clinical trials, which include the first humanized antibodies to treat acute leukemia, the first targeted alpha particle therapies and alpha generators, the first tumor specific fusion oncogene product vaccines, and vaccines to intracellular onco-proteins. Dr. Scheinberg has published > 350 papers, chapters, or books and has more than 40 issued US patents.
Omar Abdel-Wahab MD, PhD
Clinical Scientific Advisor
Omar Abdel-Wahab MD, PhD
Clinical Scientific Advisor
I am the Evnin Family Chair of Molecular Pharmacology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) where I also serve as Chair of the Molecular Pharmacology Program in the Sloan Kettering Institute and an Attending Physician on the Leukemia Service in the Department of Medicine. I am also a co-Director of the Hematology/Medical Oncology Fellowship program at MSK.
My research focuses on understanding the functional implications of somatic mutations found in patients with hematopoietic malignancies with the hopes of improving our understanding of disease biology and developing novel therapies. Over the last ten years, my laboratory has been focused on understanding alterations in the process of RNA splicing in cancer.
Motivated by the discovery of high frequency mutations in the splicing machinery in leukemias and certain solid tumors, my lab’s work has led to the development of several therapeutic approaches for these genetic subtypes of cancer which are currently in phase 1/2 clinical trials. In addition, my laboratory has performed a number of studies of molecular genetics and genomics of blood cancers more broadly and used this information to develop novel therapeutic approaches for myeloid and lymphoid hematologic cancers.
Our research is supported by the National Cancer Institute, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Department of Defense, the American Society of Hematology, and numerous additional philanthropic organizations. My work has been recognized by a Seldin-Smith Award for Pioneering Research from the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Dameshek Award from the American Society of Hematology, and the Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research.
Rab Prinjha PhD
Clinical Scientific Advisor
Rab Prinjha PhD
Clinical Scientific Advisor
Rab Prinjha is currently the Chief Research and Development Officer at Curve Therapeutics, former head of GSK’s Immunology Research Unit and elected fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He served on the OpenTargets, Altius and Milner Governance Boards and as a member of the Padlock and Sitryx Boards. He has an extensive record of successful leadership with multiple projects progressed from target discovery to beyond Ph2 including an unprecedented number of first in class epigenetic target inhibitors. He is passionate about collaborative science and has published extensively with papers in the areas of immunology, oncology, epigenetics and neuroscience. Rab joined GSK from academia, completing a post-doc in neuroscience at Guy’s Hospital and PhD in molecular cellular immunology at UCL.