RNA medicines to treat, delay, and prevent diseases of the brain

Robyn has extensive experience in drug discovery and preclinical research, with a focus on CNS and neurodegenerative diseases. At AstraZeneca, she spent seven years supporting multiple programs by screening drug candidates in translationally relevant cellular models and generating decision-enabling preclinical data. Her expertise in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration began during her postdoctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where she investigated the effects of disease-causing huntingtin protein on neuronal synaptic function. Robyn is passionate about innovation and continuous learning, particularly through collaboration between industry and academia.

Ollie completed his PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge, UK, where his AstraZeneca-sponsored research focused on characterising brain shuttles to improve delivery of therapeutic biologics to the CNS. He previously worked in antibody discovery at RxBiologics and GSK, gaining hands-on experience in advancing biologic platforms toward therapeutic application.

Marta is an experienced Executive Assistant and operations professional in early-stage biotech startups and large pharma. Over the last 15+ years she has supported CEOs, boards, and senior leaders at companies including Gilead Sciences, Kite Pharma, and ONK Therapeutics, helping scale teams, manage high-priority projects, and coordinate financing roadshows. Known for wearing many hats, Marta thrives at the intersection of strategy and execution, ensuring executives can focus on priorities while operations run smoothly. She holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Kingston University, UK.

Amélie is a molecular biologist with a strong focus on laboratory management and safety. She has extensive experience running and maintaining research facilities across academia, large pharma, startups, and charities. Amélie is passionate about creating practical, streamlined lab environments, implementing processes that protect the team and ensure the integrity of the science.

Sam is a biotech and pharmaceutical leader with expertise in target discovery, preclinical genomics, and drug repurposing. Most recently at Eli Lilly, he advanced discovery efforts integrating genomics with therapeutic strategy. He has held academic appointments in Pharmacology, Molecular Virology/Immunology, OB/GYN, and Internal Medicine, and co-founded the Center for Drug Repurposing at the University of Michigan. Sam’s work is driven by the recognition that incretin drugs are reducing the burden of metabolic disease while extending life expectancy, which in turn increases the prevalence of neurodegenerative, cognitive, and vascular conditions. By synthesizing multi-omics, data science, epidemiology, and pathophysiology, he is dedicated to tackling these emerging challenges.

Mallik has over twenty years of biotech experience in the field of oligonucleotide chemistry and therapeutics development. Before joining Aerska, he built and led cross-functional teams, driving the drug discovery and development of oligonucleotide therapeutics, most recently as Head of Guide RNA and mRNA Chemistry at Prime Medicine, a next-generation gene editing company. Before that, he was Head of Oligonucleotide Chemistry at Korro Bio and developed its RNA editing platform as the company's first employee. He started his industry career as a Research Scientist in Oligonucleotide Chemistry at Hybridon (later renamed Idera Pharmaceuticals). He holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Shizuoka University, Japan, as well as at the University of California where he was introduced to oligonucleotide chemistry.

Mark has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He previously served as Vice President of Business Development & Licensing, Head of Early Licensing, and Vice President of the Bayer Life Science Center at Bayer, leading a team focused on early-stage licensing and transactions across biotech startups, academia, and the life sciences venture capital community. Mark negotiated and closed hundreds of deals at Bayer and, earlier, as Executive Director and Head of the Office of Technology at Schering AG, including the development of Bayer’s joint ventures Casebia Therapeutics (with CRISPR Therapeutics), BlueRock Therapeutics (with Versant Ventures), and Joyn Bio (with Gingko Bioworks). He has also served on the Advisory Board of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI in Leipzig, Germany. Mark earned his PhD in Molecular Biology from Freie Universität Berlin in Germany and completed post-doctoral training in structural biology in the laboratory of Professor Alexander Rich at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.

Peter is a healthcare business leader with over 25 years of experience in commercial and strategy roles, predominantly at Johnson & Johnson. He brings broad-based expertise across pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, digital health, and precision medicine. At J&J, Peter held roles including Global Marketing Leader for Neurology Pharmaceuticals, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Precision Medicine Commercial Strategy Leader, and Commercial Strategy for J&J Science for Minds, a unit focused on digital solutions for serious mental illness. Most recently, Peter served as CEO of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, a biotech nonprofit developing new diagnostics and treatments for brain trauma. He currently provides commercial and strategic consulting to life science companies developing novel diagnostic, pharmaceutical, and precision medicine solutions.

Lisa has played key roles in multiple biotech startups through critical growth phases, raising private venture financing, negotiating high-value pharma partnerships, scaling clinical trials, and supporting two billion-dollar product launches. Most recently, she was instrumental in building the legal department and leading operations at Shape Therapeutics. Prior to that, she served as Vice President, Head of Healthcare Law and Compliance at Juno Therapeutics, where she led a team of lawyers advising on manufacturing and clinical development of CAR-T cell therapy. Lisa has also held senior legal and compliance roles at Exelixis, Pharmacyclics, and Sidley Austin LLP. She currently sits on the board of Fauna Bio. Lisa earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan and a JD from Harvard Law School in the United States.

Dominic has worked on the molecular pathology of neurodegeneration since 1991, authoring over 150 research articles, several widely cited reviews, and delivering more than 100 invited lectures and webinars. He has served as an editor or editorial advisor for multiple journals and as an ad hoc reviewer for leading biomedical publications. Dominic has also acted as a consultant and SAB member for numerous academic institutions, public bodies, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He was named one of The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds by Thomson Reuters and ranked among the top 1% of researchers in Neuroscience and Behavior from 2014 to 2016.Dominic joined Biogen in 2018 as Head of the Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia Research Unit, leading early research through Phase 2 clinical trials. In 2020, he became Head of the Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Unit, overseeing programs from IND to development in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease until his retirement in 2024. On two occasions, he served as Interim Head of the Neuromuscular & Muscle Diseases Research Unit, leading research on ALS and muscle disorders. He is currently an SAB member for several pharmaceutical and biotech companies and holds academic positions as Honorary Professor at the Institute of Neurology, University College London, Adjunct Professor at the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, and retains a role at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States.

Lynne has over 35 years of experience in clinical research across the US and Europe. She spent 23 years at IQVIA, retiring in 2020 as Vice President and Global Head of Medical Strategy, Neurology, where she led global development programs from operational and design perspectives. Lynne has provided consultancy in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, pain, migraine, epilepsy, neuro-orphan indications, and acute care including TBI and stroke. She has also been involved in numerous investment opportunities and has supported the design and conduct of more than 125 AD trials, 85 PD trials, 76 MS trials, and 55 epilepsy trials over the last decade at IQVIA. Lynne currently serves as Chief of Staff to GAP, is a member of the G7 and G20 World Dementia Councils, and a Venture Partner with the Dementia Discovery Fund, SV Health Investors. She works with research organizations including ADI, Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Gates Foundation, and NIH. Lynne is PMP certified and has maintained this certification since 2000 through 2030.

Prior to founding Aerska, Jack co-founded and served as CEO of Ochre Bio, where he raised $45M from top-tier VCs and secured over $70M in pharma partnering revenue, with more than $1B in potential milestones, while advancing a pipeline of RNAi medicines for advanced liver diseases. He began his career in management consulting, where he supported the global launch of Zolgensma at AveXis (now Novartis Gene Therapies). Jack holds technical degrees from the University of Galway, Ireland, and the University of Notre Dame, USA. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and he was previously named a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in healthcare.

Stuart has nearly two decades of experience in oligonucleotide therapeutics, working at the intersection of platform innovation and therapeutic application. He was previously Director of RNAi Lead Development at Alnylam, where he initiated the first efforts in CNS delivery of siRNA and developed the siRNA template chemistry that remains the industry standard today. He went on to serve as VP of Platform Biology at Korro Bio, advancing ADAR-mediated RNA editing, and as Chief Platform Officer at Sail Biomedicines (formerly Senda Biosciences), where he led the creation of a new class of nanoparticles for RNA delivery. Stuart is now a biotech entrepreneur and fractional executive, supporting companies as they develop the next generation of RNA medicines.

Alex is Founder and General Partner of Backed VC, a London-based Frontier Tech Venture Capital firm. Alex has led 17 investments within Therapeutics, TechBio and Medical Devices, currently deploying from Backed’s 4th Fund. He established the LONDON BIO community for biotech in 2023. Previously, Alex was at McKinsey and Oxford University.

Alex is a General Partner at age1, the first venture fund dedicated to aging biology, founded in 2011 by Laura Deming, and with five IPOs to date. He previously served as founding Chief of Staff at the Amaranth Foundation, James Fickel’s family office, where he led investments in 20+ biotech companies and advanced philanthropic initiatives such as the TIME Initiative. Alex earned his PhD in genetics from Stanford University in Prof. Tom Rando’s lab, focused on the biology of aging. Earlier, he worked in biopharma strategy at Putnam Associates and in business development for Maze Therapeutics. He serves on the Board of Directors of the American Federation for Aging Research.

Andrea is a healthtech operator turned investor with two decades at the intersection of science, technology, and healthcare. She leads the Health & Bio investment team at Speedinvest, a pan-European seed-stage fund. Previously, Andrea was Chief Revenue Officer at Elvie, a pioneer in women’s health, and a consultant at McKinsey & Co. She has also served on the Slovak Innovation Council for Science, Tech and Innovation, and holds an MPhys from Oxford and an MBA from Harvard.

Jason is Co-Founder and General Partner at BlueYard Capital, an early stage VC firm that invests globally across technology categories. He was General Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital from 2010-2015. Until June 2010, Jason served as General Manager and Vice President at Wind River Systems, where he founded and managed the company’s high growth mobile business. Following Wind River’s acquisition by Intel, Jason advised Intel on its mobile software strategy. Previously Jason was shareholder and Managing Director of open source real-time Linux provider FSMLabs Inc. and played a key role in its acquisition by Wind River in 2007. At FSMLabs Jason ran the company’s global business, growing it to serve over 50 Fortune 500 companies. Prior to that Mr. Whitmire co-founded the software business at Infineon Technologies, where he led global licensing for Infineon’s wireless software subsidiary, Comneon GmbH. During his four years at Infineon Jason helped build Comneon into one of the fastest growing mobile device software companies in history. Earlier, Jason served in a variety of director level and management roles at Group 3G UMTS (Telefonica / Sonera MVNO) and Telecom Italia. Before that, Jason served in the US government as an Officer to the US Department of State under the Clinton Administration. In 1994 and 1995 he received two of the Department’s exceptional performance awards for work recognized by then-US Vice President Al Gore. He received his bachelor and master’s degrees in politics and economics at the University of Texas and the American University.

Uli is Corporate Vice President, R&D External Innovation Partners, External & Exploratory Innovation (E2I) at Novo Nordisk. In this global leadership role anchored in Boston, he leads a cross-functional R&D team developing creative partnership models with biotech, venture capital, academia, and research hospitals to co-create next-generation therapeutics to provide life changing treatments for patients around the world. Based on the foundational success of the former Bio Innovation Hub, Uli and the E2I team drive an externally-anchored portfolio of novel partnerships within key therapy areas including cardiometabolic and rare diseases, stimulating global innovation ecosystems to advance Novo Nordisk’s global pipeline. Uli Stilz graduated with a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry from ETH Zürich. He then moved to the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, where he received his Ph.D. in 1990. 

After postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology he joined Hoechst AG where he held various positions before he was appointed Associate Vice President of the newly established Innovation unit within the Diabetes Division at Sanofi in 2010. Over a period of 20 years, he contributed to more than 60 preclinical and clinical drug candidates across cardiometabolic, immunology, and oncology therapy areas. Between 2012 and 2014 he was President of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry.In 2014, Uli joined Novo Nordisk A/S in Copenhagen and in 2019 relocated to Boston to create and lead the Novo Nordisk Bio Innovation Hub.Uli Stilz was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Frankfurt in 2012 and serves on Editorial Boards for international peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of several Scientific Advisory Boards in North America and Europe, and has represented Novo Nordisk A/S at trade organizations (EFPIA). He is currently a member of the Board of Directors at the Kendall Square Association and Gensaic, and is a Venture Advisor for aMoon Fund.