Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
As a seasoned life‑science executive with a 20‑year tenure at Boehringer Ingelheim, I have been serving as Global Head of the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) since January 2025. Holding a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology, I began my industry career in 2001 at metaGen and Schering. After joining Boehringer Ingelheim in 2005, I progressed through roles of increasing responsibility. As a co‑inventor and project leader, I contributed to the approval of Spevigo for the treatment of Generalized Pustular Psoriasis. From 2014 onward, as Investment Director of the BI Venture Fund, I invested in pioneering therapeutic platforms and served on the boards of ViraTherapeutics and NBE Therapeutics until their respective acquisitions by Boehringer Ingelheim in 2018 and 2020. In 2020, I assumed leadership of the Discovery Research unit Research Beyond Borders. By 2022, I advanced to Head of Business Development & Licensing, before taking on my current role leading the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund in 2025.
Established in 2010, the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) is a €350M evergreen fund with a global presence in the EU, US, and China. BIVF is committed to advancing scientific innovation by investing in first-in-class, disease-modifying therapeutics across various modalities.
Synthetica is a biotech company that harnesses synthetic biology techniques to engineer novel living bacterial therapeutics, specializing in genetic circuit engineering and precise control of genes and payloads to treat various diseases. Synthetica is currently focused on developing oncolytic bacterial therapies for solid tumors. With a deep understanding of biological mechanisms and advanced synthetic biology techniques, Synthetica is aiming to create innovative bacterial treatments that are safe, effective, versatile, and minimally invasive to fight cancer.
Founded in 2019, Tacalyx GmbH is a spin-off out of the Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany. The Department of Biomolecular Systems led by Prof. Dr. Peter H. Seeberger pioneered the chemical synthesis of ultrapure cancer-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACA) for the generation of high-affinity and selective antibody scaffolds. Tacalyx will profile the antibody panels for functional modulation of tumor cells and/or immune cells in the tumor micro-environment. Antibodies with functional modulating, as well as drug like properties will be developed for towards clinical testing in various solid tumor indications.
Cofounded by Drs. Ling-Ling Chen, Dan Peer and Weiyi Zhang in 2021. The company has operations in Princeton, NJ, USA, Rehovot, Israel and Shanghai, China. Circular RNA therapy is a novel modality, which is considered as the next generation RNA therapy. Compared to mRNA, circular RNA has a covalently closed single-stranded RNA structure that confers superior stability, lowers immunogenicity, and tunable protein expression, subsequently overcoming the current limitations of mRNA therapeutics and realizing the full potential of RNA medicines. For further company information, please visit: https://www.riboxtx.com
AUROBAC is a biopharmaceutical company founded by Boehringer Ingelheim, Evotec and bioMérieux to tackle high unmet medical needs associated with infections and their consequences in acute hospital settings, particularly in the context of the escalating antimicrobial resistance crisis. AUROBAC’s R&D strategy addresses this urgent need with patient- and pathogen-targeted programs, targeting causes and consequences of life-threatening resistant bacterial infections, including hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (HABP and VABP) and sepsis.