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Company founders
Kira Astakhova
Founder, Scientific Advisor
PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry, co-founder and CSO of Aptol Pharma. She has a unique expertise in aptamer technology and over 10Y experience in establishing and leading research groups in academia and R&D. After 8 years of literature mining, synthesis and screening, Dr.Astakhova and her research group have found the lead candidate APT001 which allowed project to transfer into the company (est. 2018), and continue thinking further about the development, commercialization and forming the right team.
Mark Daniel Zalomajev
Business developer and Co-founder
Experienced in B2B business development and international marketing strategies. Msc in Technology Entrepreneurship at DTU Skylab. He is actively involved in a startup science and has founded and developed a marketing agency. He has been attracted to the team to help with the business strategy, and commercialization of the business.
Mads Clausen
Co-founder, Scientific Advisor
Professor of Chemical Biology at DTU Chemistry, has commercial and technical experience from biotech startups (GlycoSpot, ROS Therapeutics) and more than 20 years’ experience in bioorganic and medicinal chemistry. Mads is also a Director of DK-OPENSCREEN and Head of the DTU Screening Core and has published >100 scientific papers.
Tue Wenzel Kragstrup
Co-founder, Clinical development, Rheumatology
Associate Professor in Immunopharmacology at Aarhus University.
Tue did clinical training in rheumatology and leads
R&D development plan for APT001.
Board of Directors
Anders Dyhr Dombernowsky-Toft
Chairman, Board of Directors
MD PhD eMBA. As Chief Medical Officer in SynAct Pharma Anders was involved with phase 2a development of a first-in-class medicine for rheumatoid arthritis as well as in charge of the company’s communication strategy. Before this, Anders worked for 18 years in Novo Nordisk, most recently as Corporate Vice President of Commercial Innovation, Device Marketing & Strategy and Digital Health.
Nicolai Wagtmann
Member, Board of Directors
PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. CSO experienced in biopharmaceutical R&D, building and developing pipelines of therapeutic antibodies for treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Earlier Vice President, Head of Inflammation Biology, Novo Nordisk R&D, and Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Innate Pharma. Currently CSO at Dragonfly Therapeutics Inc.
From the Founders' team, Mads Clausen and Kira Astakhova are members of the Board of Directors.
Polypeptide group, Sweden (peptide synthesis CMC/GMP)
Ardena, Belgium (nanoparticle synthesis CMC/GMP)
Wuxi (preclinical development)
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