Ralf Angermund, M.D., is an Internist, Hematologist and Medical Oncologist and the Director External Innovation Partnering for Johnson & Johnson Germany. Since joining Johnson & Johnson in 1999 he has held several positions with increasing responsibilities within Medical Affairs like Director Clinical Affairs Oncology, Nephrology and Diabetes, European Medical Affairs Director Hematology and Therapeutic Area Director Hematology. In these roles he successfully launched multiple pipeline products and worked on multiple partnerships with external companies. Before joining J&J he attended Medical School in Düsseldorf, Germany, worked in the University Hospital West-German Cancer Center in Essen, Germany and received board certifications in Internal Medicine and Hematology and Medical Oncology. He is member of Medical Societies in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Clinical Oncology and serves as board member of the Paul-Martini-Foundation and in various groups of the German Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical companies (vfa). His publications include a book chapter, several full papers and many congress presentations.

Katrin joined BayPAT in 2018 as an IP Manager and IP Licensing Manager in the field of life sciences. She is involved in the evaluation of inventions, prosecution of national and international patent cases and strategic management of patent portfolios as well as in the entire business development and licensing process to commercialize inventions.

In 2006, she received her PhD degree from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich for her work in the group of Prof. Michael Speicher and Prof. Thomas Cremer for her work on chromosomal instability in colorectal cancers. Afterwards, Katrin worked as a postdoc in the group of Dr. Robert Goldman at Northwestern University in Chicago, where she focused on epigenetic mechanisms involved in the development of rare laminopathies, and in the group of Prof. Thomas Cremer, where she investigated epigenetic regulation of stem cell differentiation. Prior to joining BayPAT, Katrin worked as a Research Analyst for a life science business consulting firm and as a Field Application Specialist for a large life science company. She gained more insight into European patent rights at Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.

Christina co-heads Startup Support and the new Munich Accelerator Life Sciences & Medicine (MAxL) at Bio^M. She is responsible for the translation of biomedical discoveries into early-stage ventures and supports researcher-founders across Bavaria’s life-science ecosystem. Christina also played a key role in ideating and implementing Bio^M for Startups, the m4 Award, and MAxL — programs for which she continues to hold strategic and operational responsibility.

She has extensive experience in venture support, technology transfer and business development, working closely with scientists, spin-offs and industry partners to advance high-potential innovations in therapeutics, diagnostics and enabling technologies. Being active in the life sciences sector since 2002, her background includes coaching scientific founders, fostering business model development, attracting investment and strengthening collaborations within the life sciences ecosystem.

Christina holds degrees in biology as well as in business administration.

Prof. Dr Frank Entschladen has studied Biology in Aachen (Germany). He has made his PhD at the McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and at the University of Witten/Herdecke (Germany). He has been researcher in Witten for 20 years. During his research, his group established a new cell migration technology as a pre-clinical in vitro test system for immune and tumor cell behavior. As one of his most important research discoveries, Prof. Entschladen identified and validated beta-blockers as the first anti-metastatic drugs in a translational research from cell assays, through animal experiments, to patient studies. His research has been published in over 70 scientific papers.
Prof. Entschladen joined the pharmaceutical industry as co-founder of the start-up company MetaVì Labs (Austin, TX) in 2011, and he is Chief Scientific Officer of this company. MetaVì Labs is one of the leading providers of automated analysis of life cell microscopy. Since 2015, Prof. Entschladen is Manager Patents & Licenses in the Life Science team at PROvendis.

Dr. Birgit Kerber brings over 20 years of experience in technology transfer, IP management, and business development at EMBL Enterprise Management Technology Transfer GmbH (EMBLEM), the exclusive commercialization partner of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). She leads business development for the public–private partnership Open Targets and oversees innovation and translation activities at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), a global hub for bioinformatics and open life-science data. 

Dr. Kerber co-chairs BIO Deutschland’s Technology Transfer Working Group and is an alumna of St. Gallen Business School, CEIPI, Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds, DFG, and EMBO. She holds a diploma in biology from Philipps-University Marburg, a PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, and completed postdoctoral research at EMBL Heidelberg.

Stefanie Possekel spent more than 10 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and has broad experience in in- and outlicensing of clinical and preclinical projects. In particular, she successfully worked on a number of major research and development collaborations with academic institutions. 

She joined Ascenion in October 2012 from Novartis, where she served as Director Strategic Alliances with global responsibilities for the Musculoskeletal Disease Area and Oncology. Prior to that she worked as Director Business Development at Santhera Pharmaceuticals, a Swiss-based specialty pharmaceutical company for orphan neuromuscular diseases. 

Stefanie studied Biology at the Philipps University Marburg with a specific focus on Microbiology, Immunology, Genetics and Biochemistry and received her PhD in 1995. During her thesis she spent time at the Biocenter in Basel and worked closely with researchers at the Institute de Myologie in Paris, France. After her PhD, Stefanie spent 3 years in the Bay Area (California), working as a freelance science writer and scientific consultant to Affymetrix.

After graduating in Biochemistry from the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Greifswald, Germany Julie joined the group of Martin Groschup at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute in Germany to earn a PhD on the topic of Mad Cow Disease.

After her PhD she moved to Calgary, Canada as a postdoc first in Jan Braun’s lab and followed by a stay in Peter K Stys’s lab. In both labs she focused on neurodegenerative diseases using molecular and biochemical methods and state of the art imaging techniques in the Stys lab. After returning to Europe in 2014 she started another postdoc at the IOCB in Prague focusing on cancer research and ultimately joined the TTO team full time in January 2016.

In the IOCB-TTO team Julie focuses mainly on projects related to cancer research and is involved in PR and communication.

Kirstin Schilling is managing director of Innovectis GmbH which is the technology transfer company of Goethe University Frankfurt (Main). She studied chemistry at the Universities of Marburg and Darmstadt and went on to obtain a PhD in molecular biology at University Hospital of Goethe University. Then, she worked for some years in basic research and joined Innovectis in 2006. After further education in intellectual property law, she is responsible for evaluation of inventions and novel technologies, and she was involved in various R&D projects to further develop early-stage technologies. Having a strong background in life sciences, her emphasis is on the development and licensing of novel therapeutics, biotechnical products and medical devices. Kirstin has successfully negotiated numerous IP and licensing deals.

She published a book advising scientists and staff at universities how to protect and commercialize research results (K. Schilling, Forschen–Patentieren-Lizenzieren, Springer Spektrum Verlag, 2. Auflage 2022).

Matthias Stein-Gerlach is CEO of KyDo Therapeutics since August 2024, a recent spin-out of  LDC and TU Dortmund University. Since October 2020 he is Head of Business Development at LDC. For over 16 years previously he was Senior Patent & Licensing Manager at Max Planck Innovation GmbH, Munich, where he played a significant role in the LDC’s conception and development. 

Matthias Stein-Gerlach studied Biology at the University of Mainz, and completed additional commercial training. He subsequently obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried. In 1997, he co-founded Axxima Pharmaceuticals AG, where he worked as VP Business Development until moving to Max Planck Innovation.

Silke Uhrig-Schmidt joined the German Cancer Research Center DKFZ as a translational scientist in 2015 and took over her current role as Entrepreneurship Program Manager in 2023. Within the Helmholtz Entrepreneurship Program H3 Health Hub, her responsibilities include strategic program development, content design, stakeholder and partner management, marketing and communication, and the organization and facilitation of learning formats and events. Seamlessly integrating different units and networks at the DKFZ, Helmholtz, and beyond, Silke ensures continuous information flow and impactful positioning of innovation and entrepreneurship activities.

Silke holds a diploma in Biology, a PhD in Molecular Medicine, and certificates in clinical trial management, science communication and entrepreneurship. She brings experience from working in academic settings (Universities of Cologne and Heidelberg), industry (Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG), and startup environments – a background ideally suited to provide researchers and entrepreneurs support and guidance on their path from lab to market.

Joachim Vogt is Director Search & Evaluation Western Europe at AbbVie. He is responsible for the identification of European business opportunities across all indications and technologies of interest for AbbVie and serves as key contact for European partners, including academic institutions, biotech companies, venture capital, governments and non-profit organizations.

Joachim spent more than 15 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in BD and research roles. He gained broad experience in- and outlicensing of preclinical and clinical projects as well as research technologies. Before joining AbbVie, Joachim was Director of Early Stage Partnering at Roche, served as Senior Manager at Wilex AG and was Head of IP Licensing at the tech transfer office Bayerische Patentallianz.  Joachim holds a diploma in chemistry and received his PhD in protein crystallography at the University of Freiburg.

Martin is responsible for the Translational Research Funding line of the Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation (EKFS) in Bad Homburg, Germany, and is currently CEO of the foundation´s non-profit subsidiary ForTra gGmbH für Forschungstransfer. The EKFS Translational Research Funding is aimed to support innovative early-phase biomedical projects with high translational potential, until they reach a sufficient Technology Readiness Level to attract professional investors´ interest for further financing.

Martin studied chemistry and obtained his PhD in biochemistry. During his postdoc time in London at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund he specialized in molecular oncology. He spent almost 20 years in academia research as a group leader at the Georg-Speyer-Haus in Frankfurt/Main, before he joined the EKFS in 2016.