Leadership
We are led by a seasoned team of established drug hunters and biotech entrepreneurs with a proven track record in targeting synthetic lethality, a strong medicinal chemistry background and a successful history of precision oncology drug discovery and development.
Andree Blaukat
CEO
Andree Blaukat
CEO
Andree is an executive with over 20 years of experience in oncology drug discovery and development, and the implementation of synthetic lethal concepts. Andree is passionate about good science, people, and precision medicine to turn cancer patients into survivors. He is responsible for building Tesselate Bio into a leading precision oncology company.
Previously, he was SVP and Head of Oncology Research at Merck KGaA, leading the global oncology and immune-oncology research teams to successfully discover and develop several drug candidates. Andree was a member of the team that took TEPMETKO® (tepotinib) from concept to commercialization and is a co-inventor of this medicine. During his tenure at Merck he also secured key strategic collaborations and licensing deals and established core focus areas in precision oncology, DNA damage response and antibody-drug conjugates.
Andree received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Universities of Mainz & Darmstadt, Germany.
Jürgen Moll
CSO
Jürgen Moll
CSO
Working for over 25 years in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, Jürgen is a drug hunter with a proven track record in cancer drug discovery as well as developing synthetic lethality concepts. In his current role as CSO, he is responsible for strategically building and strengthening Tesselate Bio’s pipeline of innovative cancer therapies, ensuring that the company’s research efforts are focused on the most promising areas of cancer drug development.
Previously, Jürgen was Head of Molecular Oncology Unit at Sanofi. He has also held other leadership positions at major pharmaceutical companies including Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer and Nerviano Medical Sciences. Jürgen has been actively involved in the discovery of several oncology products including Danusertib, Onvansertib, Entrectinib, and PARP1 inhibitors.
Jürgen received a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Basel, Switzerland.
Katie Chapman
Head of Discovery Biology
Katie Chapman
Head of Discovery Biology
Katie is a skilled in vitro pharmacologist with a wealth of experience that spans over 15 years and a track record of delivery on diverse drug targets. Katie has a passion for enabling technologies which help in unlocking difficult to drug proteins.
She previously worked in senior scientist and drug discovery roles at large pharmaceutical companies including MSD and GSK, the CRO Domainex and in academia at Imperial College London.
Katie received a PhD at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom on the structure and function of GPCRs.
Laurent Rigoreau
Head of Medicinal Chemistry
Laurent Rigoreau
Head of Medicinal Chemistry
Laurent has over 25 years of oncology experience, and has worked on many of the established DNA damage response (DDR) targets, translating basic science into cancer therapies.
Prior to joining Tessellate, he was a group leader at CRUK/Cancer Research Technology, leading first-in-class discovery programs across a range of oncology themes including DDR, mRNA translation, cancer metabolism, and kinase signaling. He was previously at KuDOS pharmaceuticals, delivering multiple programs including Olaparib.
Laurent received his PhD in Organic Synthesis from the University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom.
Joris Schuurmans
Head of Companion Diagnostics
Joris Schuurmans
Head of Companion Diagnostics
Joris has extensive experience gained from over 20 years of working in the biopharmaceutical and molecular diagnostics industry.
Most recently, Joris served as CEO at Cergentis, a genomics company based in the Netherlands, ahead of its acquisition by Solinas AG. He has also held other senior management roles at numerous companies including MDxHealth and Biocartis. Besides his position at Tessellate Bio, he is also Chief Development Officer at SkylineDx.
Joris received an MSc in Chemical Engineering from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
Asiya Giniatullina
Head of Operations
Asiya Giniatullina
Head of Operations
Asiya joined Tesselate Bio at its inception and brings over 15 years of international experience including strategy development, operations, and market analysis, gained from working in the biotechnology and venture capital industries.
Asiya previously worked at Forbion, investing in biotechnology companies. She also spent five years at bluebird bio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, analyzing gene therapy in-licensing opportunities across a variety of indications and technologies and establishing and managing new programs and academic collaborations.
Asiya received a PhD in neuroscience from the VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Ana Maria Caballero Alias
Head of Finance
Ana Maria Caballero Alias
Head of Finance
Ana is a CIMA chartered management accountant. Highly motivated and driven by continuous improvement, she has held Finance and Controlling roles in several biotech companies, including Vernalis and Ascend, as well as at IQVIA.
Ana received her PhD in Biomaterials from Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom and was a researcher at UCL and Cambridge University before moving into finance.
Lee Larcombe
Head of Bioinformatics
Lee Larcombe
Head of Bioinformatics
Lee is a computational biologist with extensive experience supporting data-driven R&D in both academia and industry.
Lee has a research track record in oncology and brings his specialist expertise in new target discovery, characterization, and (bio)therapeutic development, to lead the discovery bioinformatics activities for Tessellate Bio. He is also the founder and CEO of Apexomic, a discovery CRO providing expert data analytics for life science R&D.
Lee received a PhD in Bioscience, Bioinformatics from Cranfield University, United Kingdom.
Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors have a track record of managing and building early-stage life science companies and fundraising.
Eliot Forster
Chair of the Board
Eliot Forster
Chair of the Board
Eliot has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors. Previously, Eliot was CEO of clinical-stage F-star Therapeutics (NASDAQ:FSTX) until its acquisition by inovX Pharma Ltd in March 2023, and formerly CEO of Immunocore (NASDAQ:IMCR), CEO of Creabilis, and President and CEO of Solace Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, he held senior management positions at Pfizer and GSK.
Elliot is CEO of Levicept Ltd. and is non-executive Chairperson of Avacta plc, Ochre Bi and Protalix Inc. He is an honorary visiting Professor of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool and honorary international visiting Professor at the University of Pavia. He is also a Board member of OSCHR (Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research), and the National Genomics Board.
Eliot received a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the University of Liverpool and an MBA from Henley Business School.
Professor Claus Azzalin
Co-founder
Professor Claus Azzalin
Co-founder
Claus is a co-founder of Tesselate Bio and a group leader at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM), Lisbon, Portugal and Professor at the University of Lisbon.
His research focuses on how telomeric long noncoding RNA (TERRA) supports telomere elongation in cancer cells, and the consequences of perturbing TERRA transcription and localization on telomere integrity and cellular physiology.
Previously he was an Assistant Professor at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. He served as a postdoctoral researcher at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, New York and at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research.
He received his PhD from the Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy.
Professor Hilda Pickett
Co-founder
Professor Hilda Pickett, PhD
Co-founder
Hilda is a co-founder of Tesselate Bio and is Head of the Telomere Length Regulation Unit at Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI), and Conjoint Professor at the University of Sydney.
In December 2012, she established the Telomere Length Regulation Group. Her lab’s research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie telomere length control, genomic stability and cellular immortality.
Previously she held a postdoctoral position with Cancer Research UK at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, UK, before moving to Australia as a postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer Research Unit at CMRI.
Hilda received her PhD from the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom.
Andree Blaukat
CEO
Andree Blaukat
CEO
Andree is an executive with over 20 years of experience in oncology drug discovery and development, and the implementation of synthetic lethal concepts. Andree is passionate about good science, people, and precision medicine to turn cancer patients into survivors. He is responsible for building Tesselate Bio into a leading precision oncology company.
Previously, he was SVP and Head of Oncology Research at Merck KGaA, leading the global oncology and immune-oncology research teams to successfully discover and develop several drug candidates. Andree was a member of the team that took TEPMETKO® (tepotinib) from concept to commercialization and is a co-inventor of this medicine. During his tenure at Merck he also secured key strategic collaborations and licensing deals and established core focus areas in precision oncology, DNA damage response and antibody-drug conjugates.
Andree received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Universities of Mainz & Darmstadt, Germany.
Daniela Couto
BioGeneration Ventures
Daniela Couto
BioGeneration Ventures
Daniela is a General Partner at BGV.
She served as the managing director of BGV’s portfolio company Staten Biotechnology, where she led and executed on company strategy, including the collaboration with argenX and its partnership and buy-out option with Novo Nordisk.
Previously, Daniela served as CEO at Cell2B, a cell therapy company that she co-founded with IP and technology from Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia’s lab at the Broad Institute (MIT) for graft-versus-host disease and other immunological diseases.
She holds a PhD in BioEngineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST-UTL) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT-Portugal Program).
Rogier Rooswinkel
Forbion
Rogier Rooswinkel
Forbion
Rogier is a General Partner at Forbion.
He is responsible for evaluating and structuring new investment opportunities across all disease areas with an emphasis on oncology. Rogier was closely involved in investments in Rigontec, Replimune, Enterprise, KaNDy and establishing the university spin-out Catalym.
He currently also serves as a board member for Amphista, Catalym, and as a board observer for Enterprise, Prilenia, and Escalier. Previously, he was a board director of Achilles (NASDAQ: ACHL) and an observer at Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL).
He holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam for research he performed at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI).
Keno Gutierrez
BioGeneration Ventures
Keno Gutierrez
BioGeneration Ventures
Keno is a General Partner at BGV.
Prior to joining BGV, he was a Vice President at M Ventures responsible for Biotech investments and served as a Board Member and Observer of several biotech companies including; Xilio, Immunitas, Soteria, DNA Script, Riffyn, Inthera, Galecto, iOnctura, ApoGen and iOmx.
Keno has over 20 years of Biotech experience spanning investing (private and public equities at M Ventures and Omega Funds), investment banking (Piper Sandler), management consulting (IQVIA), and medical research (MRC).
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, holds a PhD in Genetics from University College London and an MBA from INSEAD.
© Tessellate Bio
