Dr Bauer is a graduate of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt (Biology) and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology. 

After spending four years as a research scientist at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Dr Bauer joined the R&D Center of Lesaffre International, the world leader in the baker’s yeast market, where he was Head of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Team. In 2000 he joined Axaron Bioscience AG in Heidelberg, a joint venture of BASF and Lynx Therapeutics from where he moved on to Gentana GmbH, a biotech company providing gene expression analysis services based on its proprietary technology platform. After acting as CEO of Gentana for two years, Dr Bauer joined EMBL Enterprise Management Technology Transfer GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory as Business Development Manager.

As of May 2011 he is appointed as Deputy Managing Director of EMBLEM and responsible for Business Development. Dr Bauer is alumnus of the Chemical Industry Fund within the German Chemical Industry Association and the St. Gallen Business School.

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.

Ralf Huss, MD, PhD is currently managing director of the BioM Biotech Cluster Development GmbH in Planegg near Munich. Until the end of 2022, he was the founding director of the Institute of Digital Medicine (IDM) and professor of pathology and molecular diagnostics at the University Hospital in Augsburg, Germany.

Before joining the medical faculty in Augsburg in 2020, Dr. Huss spent many years in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industry at Roche and AstraZeneca as global head of histopathology and tissue biomarker, also developing image-based algorithms to predict therapy response based on the application of machine intelligence.

He also founded some biotech enterprises, held appointments as adjunct professor at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest, Winston Salem (NC), and is still lecturer on “Biomaterials and Bioresponsive Polymers” at the faculty of chemistry, Technical University Munich, Germany. Dr. Huss is also honorary professor at Systems Biology Ireland, University College Dublin. In his almost 30 years in academic and industrial research, Dr. Huss authored more than 180 papers on cancer and stem cell research as well as the use on artificial intelligence in digital medicine.

Sarah is Head of Licensing at Bayerische Patentallianz, the Technology Transfer Office of 28 Bavarian Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences.

In her role as Head of Licensing she is responsible for scientific and business evaluation of new technologies and ideas and lead negotiations of early stage programs. Furthermore she manages partnerships with Start-ups, SMEs and Pharma industry. Sarah holds a Diploma in Chemistry and received her PhD in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Hamburg. In this period she was responsible for supervising a research team in the field of oncology. In her previous role as a Licensing Manager within Bayerische Patentallianz she focused on IP Management, Marketing and Business Development.

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.

Richard Reschen is Director, Business Development & Licensing within MSD’s European BD&L team since May 2020. Within the team, Richard leads Neuroscience & Ophthalmology Search & Evaluation activities in the Europe and Middle East regions for MSD, and has a passion for identifying compelling science that can bring breakthroughs for patients. Prior to joining MSD, Richard spent 8 years at Oxford University Innovation, where he led numerous licensing and spinout projects, covering both therapeutics and medical technologies, and represented Oxford on the £13m LAB282 drug discovery initiative. Richard has an extensive network in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and VC communities, as well as a business focused Master’s degree and PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Stefan Scherer is leading the Innovation Management and Technology Transfer unit at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany since 2020. He brings expertise in the innovation sector and in international research collaborations and business development at the interfaces between university and extra-university research institutions as well as industrial partners with a focus on the life and natural sciences in North America and Europe. Stefan holds a PhD in experimental physics for space applications with relevant professional experience in industry and academia including implementation of multi-institutional research collaborations and partnerships.

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).

Dr Laura Spinardi graduated in Biology at the University of Turin and holds a PhD in Neurobiology under the joint supervision of the New York University Medical Center; she then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg and Monterotondo (Rome). After a decade of successful scientific and professional achievements in the USA, France and Germany as a research scientist, she joined in 2007 the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, a public research hospital, where she founded the Technology Transfer Office. 

She is currently head of Policlinico TTO and is coordinating the “TTO4IRCCS” project, a joint TT office among the four public research hospitals in Lombardy.

Matthias Stein-Gerlach joined LDC as Head of Business Development in October 2020. 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. He was also chairman of the Foundation Board at the DVCI, the LDC’s main shareholder, for over 10 years. 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, under the supervision of Prof. Axel Ullrich. In 1997, together with Axel Ullrich and other colleagues, he founded Virgene, later Axxima Pharmaceuticals AG, where he worked as VP Business Development until moving to Max Planck Innovation.

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.