About

Transforming cancer care by expanding the molecular target space

Board of Directors

Dieter Weinand

Dieter, the former CEO of Bayer Pharma, is an experienced business leader with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. During his career, he has held various responsibilities in general management, commercial, operational and strategic leadership roles, leading business operations in the Asia-Pacific region, EMEA, Latin America and the US, for companies including Bayer, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Sanofi.

He has also led the launch and marketing of products in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular diseases, oncology, dermatology, immunology, and respiratory and inflammatory diseases. He is currently a member of the Board of Coya Therapeutics (NASDAQ: COYA), Chairman of the Board of Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL), Chairman of the Board of Umoja, Chairman of the Board of Inspirna, and Executive Chairman of the Board of Mnemo Therapeutics.

He earned an M.S. in pharmacology and toxicology from Long Island University, New York, and a B.A. in biology from Concordia College, New York.

Maina Bhaman

Maina is a Partner at Sofinnova Partners and has a long track record as a successful healthcare investor. Prior to joining Sofinnova, she was director of healthcare investment at Touchstone Innovations (formerly Imperial Innovations) in London, where she led and co-led investments in the U.K.

Before turning to investing, Maina worked in the R&D teams of several UK and US biotech companies, including Celltech, Oxford GlycoSciences, Chimeric Therapies and GeneMedicine. Her current investments at Sofinnova Partners include Sitryx Therapeutics Ltd, Mironid Ltd, Myricx Bio, Mediar Therapeutics, Enyo Pharma, Nuage Therapeutics, and Catamaran Bio.

Maina holds a B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the Imperial Business School.

Carsten Reinhardt, MD, PhD

Carsten is a physician scientist who currently serves as Chief Development Officer at Immatics (NASDAQ: IMTX), a pioneer in the field of tumor antigen identification, and is focused on bringing T-cell therapies (TCR-based ACT and bispecific TCR) against these targets into the clinics and towards regulatory approval. Previously, he was EVP and Chief Medical Officer at Micromet Inc, International Medical Leader at Hoffmann-La Roche and has been serving as a director on supervisory boards to a variety of biopharma companies.

Carsten is a Visiting Professor for Pharmaceutical Medicine at the University of Basel and has co-authored more than 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Carsten holds an M.D. from the University of Munich and a Ph.D. in cellular immunology from the Institute of Immunology in Munich.

Noga Yerushalmi, PhD

Noga Yerushalmi is the Investment Director of the Biotechnology team at M Ventures and has more than 20 years of experience in the Biotech industry. She is a graduate of Tel-Aviv University, and did her postdoctoral fellowship at NIH, USA.

Prior to M Ventures, Noga was heading the high throughput discovery at Zetiq, heading the therapeutic team at Rosetta Genomics, VP R&D at miCure therapeutics and more. Following which, she joined the FutuRx incubator as Scouting and Business Development Lead and was instrumental in identifying opportunities as well as the company creation.

Christian Schubert, PhD

Christian has over a decade of experience in the life sciences industry spanning corporate development, strategy and external innovation, company building, and venture capital. He is currently Vice President and Head of AbbVie Ventures, where he directs AbbVie’s strategic venture capital investments in core therapeutic areas of interest. Prior to joining AbbVie, he was an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Atlas Venture, Global Head of R&D External Innovation at Servier, Managing Director of Servier BioInnovation, and earlier in his career held roles in Corporate Development and Strategy at Biogen and Worldwide R&D at Pfizer.

Christian holds BSc and MSc degrees from the Technical University of Munich, received his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Rob Woodman, PhD

Rob has led the biotech at Panakes since 2021. He has global experience in biotech gained in both institutional and corporate venture firms, encompassing de novo start-up through to growth investments, with a track record of value creation in all of these settings as demonstrated by multiple acquisitions and NASDAQ listings of the companies he has invested in.

Rob was Senior Partner at Takeda Ventures, and was also the Head of Genesis Labs, Takeda’s internal concept incubator. Prior to joining Takeda, Rob was Director of Healthcare Investments at Touchstone Innovations (formerly Imperial Innovations) in London. Prior to this, Rob was a Principal in the life science team at Sofinnova Partners.

Rob holds a PhD Oncology from the University of Cambridge and a MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford.

Florian Stinauer, PhD

Florian Stinauer is a seasoned investment professional with over 15 years of experience in venture capital, focusing on the life sciences and healthcare sector. As Investment Director at NRW.Venture, he is responsible for identifying and supporting high-potential startups, particularly in biotech, medtech, and digital health.

Throughout his career, Florian has successfully led numerous investments and guided portfolio companies through strategic growth, scale-up, and successful exits. He holds a Master´s degree in Business Administration from the University of Cologne and combines deep financial expertise with a strong understanding of science-driven innovation.

Lenny Van Steenhuyse

Lenny is an investment manager on the life sciences team of Ackermans & van Haaren. He previously was a principal at Droia Ventures, focussing on growth investments within oncology and genetic diseases. Before joining Droia, Lenny spent 5 years in biotech public markets, covering positions in equity research and corporate finance at KBC Securities.

He holds an MSc. in Biochemistry & Biotechnology from Ghent University and a postgraduate degree in Corporate Finance from KULeuven.