Team

Dr. Sven Klussmann, Founder & CEO, has gained more than 20 years of experience in the Biotech sector. In his role as entrepreneur and Executive Board member, Dr. Klussmann was significantly involved in financing activities, and in attracting more than € 125 million from private investors.

Prior to founding Aptarion, he was member of the Executive Board of Noxxon Pharma which he co-founded 1997. Noxxon Pharma, now TME Pharma, is a publicly traded (Euronext Growth Paris: ALTME) clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. In his dual role as CEO and CSO between 2006 and 2008, he initiated Noxxon’s transformation from a technology-focused drug discovery company into an innovation-driven drug development organization. Subsequently, three drug candidates reached clinical development.

During his scientific career he has authored more than 100 scientific articles and he was named inventor on numerous patents. Dr. Klussmann studied Biochemistry at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and he holds a PhD in Biochemistry.

Dr. Axel Vater is overseeing the discovery, preclinical and clinical activities of Aptarion Biotech as well as being executive member of the management board. Prior to Aptarion, he held several positions at Noxxon Pharma AG, from Master’s student through to Senior Director Corporate Development and most recently VP of Drug Discovery and Preclinical Research. His stay at Noxxon was interrupted by a tenure as a research scientist at the Berlin-based pharmaceutical company Schering, later Bayer Schering Pharma.

He received his PhD from Technische Universität Berlin where he had also graduated with a Master of Engineering degree in Biotechnology, after having spent a research semester at the Harvard Medical School.

Axel is fascinated by understanding the interplay of biomolecules and using the available toolbox to come up with medicines that allow living better, healthier lives. He is convinced that fostering collaborations and filing patents to make the inventions investable are not contradictions but essential ingredients for success.

Dr. Antonio Perez was graduated in Medicine (Barcelona), is an Intensive Care specialist and holds a Diploma of Medicine in the Pharmaceutical Industry, with > 33 years experience in Pharma & Biotech. He is a consultant for drug development and acting as Head of Clinical Drug Development, Chief Medical Officer or Chairman of the Advisory Board.

He has gained significant expertise in the development, registration, and launching of drugs in infectious diseases, oncology, neurology, and others. In his industry career, he held positions at Almirall (Area Head of Clinical Research in Oncology), Novartis Pharma (Local Head of Clinical Research of Infectious Diseases), Basilea Pharmaceutica (Head of Clinical Development of Anti-Infectives), Esteve (Medical Director and member of the board) and The Medicines Company (Medical Director, Europe).

Dr. Stefan Vonhoff is a manufacturing and control strategy expert in the field of synthetic oligonucleotide therapeutics. In parallel to his position at Aptarion, he is VP CMC at TME Pharma AG. Stefan coordinates external manufacturing and release activities ranging from starting materials to L-aptamer drug substance, the parenteral drug product and clinical trial supply.

Prior to joining Noxxon Pharma (now TME Pharma) in 1999, Stefan was postdoctoral fellow at ETH Zurich, where he worked on carbohydrate chemistry. He obtained his PhD in chemistry at University College London on the synthesis of melatonin analogues.

Dr. Kai Höhlig has more than ten years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development. He is the project leader for the AON-D21 program supporting preclinical and early clinical development, CMC activities and pharmacodynamic studies in several disease areas. Kai studied biochemistry and worked in academic research for several years at the Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum, Berlin, with a focus on immunology and autoimmune diseases.

After receiving his PhD from the Humboldt University Berlin, he joined the drug discovery department of Noxxon Pharma AG, where he was part of the team that discovered AON-D21 and provided first experimental proof for its potential in severe infectious diseases.

Dr. Simone Sell started working at Aptarion in 2017. She is responsible for the biophysical analytics of aptamer-protein-interactions and supports the CMC management. Prior to joining Aptarion, Simone acquired comprehensive experience on the identification and optimization of aptamers in the Drug Discovery Department at Noxxon Pharma for seven years.

As postdoctoral fellow at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munich, she examined the transcriptional regulation of redox-controlled gene expression as part of the systemic acquired resistance in plants. Simone received her PhD from the Institute of Genetics at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, and holds a diploma in Biotechnology with main emphasis on molecular biology.

Dr. Purschke is a distinguished expert in aptamer drug discovery. He joined Aptarion in 2017 and is responsible for the discovery of novel aptamers for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. In 1999, he entered the biotech industry to join Noxxon Pharma AG. There he identified the lead drug candidates, NOX-A12 (anti-CXCL12 L-RNA aptamer) and NOX-E36 (anti-CCL2 L-RNA aptamer). While Noxxon has been renamed TME-Pharma, both drugs still form the basis of their oncology-focused clinical pipeline.

Between 1993 and 1999, Dr. Purschke worked at the Biochemical Institute of the University of Lübeck on the molecular biology of Archaea. In 1993 he received his PhD on the expression and regulation of the eukaryotic multi KH domain protein vigilin at the University of Lübeck. Before his PhD studies he had accomplished additional studies in cell biology at the University of Lübeck. Werner studied Biology at the University of Münster and graduated in Microbiology in 1987.