
Scientific Advisory Board

Harry Raftopoulos, MD
Dr. Harry Raftopoulos is Vice President and Head of Late-Stage Oncology Clinical Development at Bayer Pharmaceuticals. He joined Bayer in 2017 initially leading the Early development of Bayer’s Immuno-Oncology portfolio and was subsequently promoted to his current role in 2019. Prior to Bayer, Dr. Raftopoulos led the study teams responsible for the execution and approval…
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Michael Gilman, PhD
Michael is CEO of Arrakis Therapeutics. In addition, Mike currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Novartis Venture Fund, Obsidian Therapeutics, and Scholar Rock (NASDAQ: SRRK) and on the Scientific Advisory Board of FutuRx. Previously, Mike was Chief Executive Officer of Obsidian Therapeutics, a venture-funded company focused on applying synthetic biology to gene and…
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Steve Hitchcock, PhD
Dr. Steve Hitchcock is Head of Research for Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd. He joined Takeda in 2012 via Takeda’s acquisition of Envoy Therapeutics where he was Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery and also held the position of Adjunct Professor at The Scripps Research Institute. Prior to Takeda, Dr. Hitchcock had served in senior leadership…
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John Isaac, PhD
John is Senior Director, Neuroscience External Innovation at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, London. In this role John uses his drug discovery and scientific experience to identify and advance external opportunities in the areas of Alzheimer’s Disease and Mood Disorders. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, since November 2014, John was Head of Neuroscience and Mental…
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Tetsuyuki Maruyama, PhD
Tetsuyuki Maruyama is Executive Director at Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing data relevant to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Prior to that he served as Chief Scientific Officer at The Dementia Discovery Fund, a specialist venture capital fund. Tetsu’s background is in neuroscience, having received his PhD from Stanford University…
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Dror Haratz, MD
Prof. Harats is CEO and Director at VBL Therapeutics. Prof. Harats has more than 20 years of experience in research in the field of medicine and biotechnology, as well as a strong background in management of early- to mid-stage biotechnology companies. He is also a professional and experienced consultant specializing in Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical healthcare companies. A professor…
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Marie A. Lindner, MD
Marie Lindner, MD worked in executive roles in pharmaceutical, biotech, venture capital, start-up and medtech companies with experience across therapeutic areas and modalities and between business and clinical development over 30 years. She was most recently recruited to start a team at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, focused on finding new trends in science and medicine. Dr. Lindner…
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Bernhard Kirschbaum, PhD
Bernhard Kirschbaum, PhD, studied and spent his early career as a researcher in biochemistry and physiological chemistry at the University of Konstanz, Germany, receiving his PhD in 1989. He moved on to work at the Rockefeller University in New York and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Subsequently, he joined the pharmaceutical industry where he covered…
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