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Senior Management

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Knut Elbers

Chief Executive Officer

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Knut Elbers

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Dr. rer. nat Knut Elbers is managing director of ViraTherapeutics a subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim in Innsbruck focusing on oncolytic virus research and development as part of the Boehringer Ingelheim immune oncology organisation. Before he was Director of the Boehringer Ingelheim Corporate Venture Fund. He substantially supported the establishment the immune oncology footprint of the BI Venture Fund in this area resulting in half of the investments being in the immune-oncology field and currently all strategic partnerships with industry and exits out of that therapeutic area focus being a strong validation of the key innovation being generated in this portfolio.
In his strategic role in research he enabled the transition from BI’s classical oncology research organization into an organization with a strong footprint in immune-oncology. Key technologies and focus areas having been matured in academic research and biotech networks by collaborations having been set up since 2008 enabled a very strong entry strategy for Boehringer Ingelheim.
Knut has an operational strong focus in the research organization in the field of cancer vaccines and oncolytic viruses. As a virologist he substantially selected the key technology platforms being now the hallmarks of BI’s research in this field. In the BI Venture Fund over the last three years, he has been involved in several investments of the fund. He served as board member of Okarios AG in Basel having had a successful exit in 2013. He is also board member of NBE Therapeutics in Basel since 2013. His scientific strength especially in the field of immunotherapy and NBE technologies is resulting in strategic input in the Venture Fund strategy in this specific focus space.
Knut joined Boehringer Ingelheim in 1995 in the international research and development department of the animal health business. From 1999 to 2008, he was heading the European vaccine research organization for animal health. Subsequently he collected experiences in human antibody related research and development being involved in R&D project management and Collaborative Research for NBEs. During his work at Boehringer Ingelheim Knut was involved in 12 patent applications and key development projects like : Ingelvac PRRSV, Enterisol Ileitis, Ingelvac CircoFLEX, MycoFLEX and especially Bovela contributing significantly to the vaccine business success of the animal health business of Boehringer Ingelheim. Bovela being an outstanding innovation to eradicate a key disease in the cattle life stock being the first animal health product with targeted deletions in immune escape genes of the vaccine virus being registered in Europe.
Knut has studied biology at the Eberhard-Karls-University in Tübingen with specific focus on virology and immunology. He performed his Ph.D. work at the federal institute for viral diseases in Tübingen focusing on protein processing during viral replication and pathogen/host interaction mechanism with specific focus on viral host immune escape.

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Dr. Lisa Egerer

Chief Operating Officer

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Dr. Lisa Egerer

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Dr. Lisa Egerer comes to ViraTherapeutics from the Medical University of Innsbruck where she was a principle scientist and lab manager at the Division of Virology and helped provide the basis for founding of ViraTherapeutics as a spin-out company. Prior to that she trained in applied virology and gene therapy at the Institute for Biomedical Research Georg-Speyer-Haus in Frankfurt, Germany. Dr. Egerer obtained a PhD and a degree in Biochemistry from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, and holds a degree in intellectual property law from Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany. In her role as Chief Operating Officer at ViraTherapeutics, Dr. Egerer oversees operations and is in charge of finance and controlling, public funding, human resources, intellectual property and quality management.

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PD Dr. Dethardt Müller

Head of CMC

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PD Dr. Dethardt Müller

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Dr. Müller joined ViraTherapeutics GmbH as Head of CMC in July 2016 from Rentschler Biotechnologie GmbH, where he served over seven years as Head of Process Science and Technology. In this function he was responsible for the development and implementation of innovative process technologies and platforms used in biopharmaceutical manufacturing of therapeutic proteins in mammalian cells. He has overseen main projects in the field of recombinant cell line development using targeted integration, single-use process technologies with regard to leachable/extractable impact on process performance and safety, and in the conception of Quality by Design compliant bioprocessing using multivariate methods for process design, analysis and control. Dr. Müller gained in-depth expertise in biopharmaceutical process engineering as Assistant Professor at BOKU University in Vienna where he received his PhD in Biotechnology and his Habilitation in Bioprocess Engineering.

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Dr. Patrik Erlmann

Head of R&D

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Dr. Patrik Erlmann

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Before joining ViraTherapeutics first as R&D Scientist and Senior Scientist in the Assay Development Dr. Erlmann worked as postdoctoral fellow and DFG stipendiate in the Laboratory of Prof. Malhotra (CRG, Barcelona) investigating the secretory pathway of proteins. Dr. Erlmann studied biochemistry with a focus on virology at the University of Tübingen and the Friedrich-Löffler-Institut in Tübingen he then received his PhD in Molecular Oncology from Stuttgart University (summa cum laude).

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Dr. Cédric Cheminay

Project Manager Preclinical Development
Deputy Head of R&D

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Dr. Cédric Cheminay

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Dr. Cédric Cheminay obtained a PhD in Immunology at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. During his academic career at the Pasteur Institute of Lille, FAU and Ludwig-Maximilian-University, he focused his research on the interactions of pathogens, bacteria and different vaccine platforms with the immune system, especially dendritic cells. In 2007, he joined Bavarian Nordic and participated in research activities and preclinical development of MVA-BN and several poxvirus-based vaccines (e.g. RSV, HIV, Filoviruses). Since 2016, he is responsible of the VSV-GP pre-clinical development program at ViraTherapeutics.

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