Robert F Burns, PhD
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
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Dr Burns is CEO at 4-Antibody and is an experienced biotech business leader previously at Affitech A/S and Celldex Therapeutics Inc., both antibody discovery and development companies.
Dr Burns joined 4-Antibody following the successful repositioning and refinancing of Copenhagen listed and Oslo-located Affitech A/S (AFFY, NASDAQ OMX). Prior to his time at Affitech, he was CEO at Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (CLDX, NASDAQ) during the critical period of Celldex’s emergence from Medarex through to its eventual reverse merger into NASDAQ-listed Avant Immunotherapeutics. Before his role at Celldex, Dr Burns was at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in New York, where he played leadership roles in the spin-out of several successful companies including Piramed in the UK. Prior to that he was Commercial Director at both Oxford Glycosciences, UK and British Biotech, UK; and previously AbT, Cambridge Mass.; and CIBA-Corning Diagnostics. Dr Burns is also non-executive Chairman of Haemostatix, an early stage UK company specialising in haemostasis blood clotting products and also serves on the board of Oncos Therapeutics Oy, a Finnish developer of novel cancer therapies based on next generation oncolytic viruses.
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Ulf Grawunder, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, (CSO)
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Dr Grawunder is Chief Scientific Officer at 4-Antibody. He co-founded 4-Antibody in 2004.
Dr Grawunder led the Company as CEO from its inception in 2004 through the initial start-up period until June 2006, after which he assumed the role of CSO. Dr Grawunder obtained his PhD from the University of Basel for research on early B lymphopoiesis at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland. During post-doctoral work at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles, he worked on the genetic mechanisms responsible for the creation of antibody diversity, which led to several ground-breaking discoveries published in highest ranked journals including Nature. Before taking an executive role at 4-Antibody Dr Grawunder held positions as principal investigator and group leader at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland, the University of Ulm, Germany, and the University of Basel. He is an expert on molecular and cellular aspects of early B cell development.
Dr Grawunder is co-inventor of 4-Antibody’s discovery platforms Retrocyte Display® and Hu-PAC®. In 2003, he was awarded the New Entrepreneurs in Technology and Science Prize of the Gebert-Ruf-Foundation, Switzerland, and obtained a diploma in technology entrepreneurship from the Henri B Meier Entrepreneur School of the Executive School of Management, Technology and Law, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
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Marc van Dijk, PhD
Chief Technology Officer, (CTO)
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Dr van Dijk joined 4-Antibody in November 2008 as Chief Technology Officer, where he is responsible for the overall coordination and management of the technology development and drug discovery programs in the company.
Dr van Dijk has extensive experience in the antibody therapeutics field. He joined Medarex in 1997 as principle scientist and from there moved to Genmab at its creation in 1999. He held various management positions, including Vice President Antibody Technology, and was responsible for setting-up the team and facilities of Genmab’s Discovery facility in Utrecht. He was involved in management of partnerships with Immunex (now Amgen) and Roche, and served as project leader on discovery projects including HuMax IL-15 and HuMax-EGFr, two of Genmab’s drug candidates which have progressed to clinical trials. He is an inventor on several patents and author on numerous publications in leading scientific journals. In 2005 he joined Innogenetics in Ghent, Belgium as Director Applied Research & Development, where he was responsible for overall product development for the diagnostic arm of Innogenetics in the fields of tissue typing, neurodegeneration and infectious disease.
Prior to his entry in the Biotechnology industry, he worked as a post-doctoral scientist at the University of California at San Diego and held a tenure track position in the Department of Immunology at the University medical center in Utrecht. He holds a PhD in Molecular Biology.
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Luis Martin-Parras, PhD
Head of Research & Development and Administration, 4-Antibody Germany
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Dr Martin-Parras heads our R&D operation in Jena having originally joined the company in 2004. He also directs 4-Antibody’s highly successful anti-hCMV antibody development program.
Before joining 4-Antibody, Dr Martin-Parras was a senior scientist at Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, UK and subsequently headed the molecular biology group at 4-Antibody. He obtained his PhD from Complutense University of Madrid for research in the characterization of chromosomal and extrachromosomal replication origins at the Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas (CIB), Madrid. During post-doctoral work at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC) in Strasbourg, he specialized in the fields of Developmental Biology and Molecular and Cellular Biology. With international experience both in academia and biotechnology, his research has resulted in scientific publications and patent filings.
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Melanie Schmid
Head of Human Resources
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Ms Schmid is responsible for all HR related matters at the company's Basel and Jena operations.
Ms Schmid also serves as Secretary to the Board of Directors. She is a Swiss certified HR specialist and originally joined 4-Antibody in January 2003 as the first employee of the company. She holds a MSc in Biology from the University of Basel.
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Eva-Maria Stegemann, PhD
M&A Program Director
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Dr Stegemann was formerly Head of Administration, 4-Antibody Germany and joined 4-Antibody in August 2004 with a dual background in science and business, holding a diploma in Biochemistry from Private University Witten/Herdecke, Germany, and a PhD in Business from Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany.
Dr Stegemann first gained professional experience in the Life Sciences Team of Schitag Ernst & Young and afterwards by establishing the GET UP initiative at the University of Jena, that offered business consulting for high technology start-up companies within the framework of the EXIST initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research. Whilst working and lecturing at the Department of Business Administration at the University of Jena, Dr Stegemann has gained additional entrepreneurial experience by co-founding and serving as a start-up CEO for microfluidic ChipShop GmbH, Jena. Dr Stegemann served as Head of Administration from August 2004 - December 2010 and after her current maternity leave will continue to support the company in assessing M&A opportunities.
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Andreas Richter
Financial Consultant
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Mr Richter joined 4-Antibody as a financial consultant in 2011 and manages the finance, reporting and accounting function of the group.
Mr Richter has more than 20 years' experience in finance for a variety of banks, consulting, and lifescience companies and has a track record of several successful financing rounds for growth companies. From 2001 to 2009 as CFO of Direvo Biotech in Cologne, Germany he managed the successful build-up of the company, its sale to Bayer AG, and certain subsequent post-transaction activities. He studied Business Administration in Cologne, Germany and Pennstate, PA.
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