For over two decades Roland Martin and Mireia Sospedra have been pursuing research about the disease mechanisms and target antigens in MS. Andreas Lutterotti joined the research team in 2006 and has been instrumental in the development of a semi-automatic GMP process to couple autologous red blood cells with peptides and early attempts at antigen-specific tolerance induction.
The founders: Andreas Lutterotti, Mireia Sospedra, Roland Martin
Cellerys was founded in 2015 as a spinoff from the University of Zurich, where it conducted a successful phase I clinical trial with the support of Wyss Zurich, a joint accelerator of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich). The phase I trial showed excellent tolerability and safety and indicated the induction of several tolerance mechanisms.
In 2021 Cellerys entered into partnership with Novartis to develop an immune tolerization therapy (CLS12311) in multiple sclerosis. A phase I/II trial (RED4MS) will start in 2024 to demonstrate proof of concept for this innovative tolerance induction therapy.
Leadership
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Andreas Lutterotti is co-founder and CMO of Cellerys. He is a neurologist by training with core expertise in early treatment development in multiple sclerosis. He previously held positions at the University of Zurich and the University of Innsbruck. Currently he is having a position as Lead Physician and Head of the Neuroimmunological Outpatient Clinic at Bellevue Medical Group and Department of Neurology, Hirslanden Hospital Zurich.
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Roland Martin is co-founder of Cellerys and CSO with an internationally recognised track record in the fields of MS pathogenesis, autoreactive T cells, antigen specificity, the role of genetic and environmental risk factors and the development of innovative MS treatments. He continues to pursue research at the University of Zürich and Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and previously held positions at University Hospitals Würzburg and Tübingen, the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, the University Hospital Vall D'Hebron, Barcelona, the University of Hamburg and its University Hospital, and from 2011-2022 the University Hospital Zurich.
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Nik Barbet joined Cellerys as COO in December 2023. He is a seasoned industry professional with 29 years of experience in drug development, program leadership, alliance management, and corporate business operations in both large pharma (F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Novartis AG) and biotech (Corlieve SAS, Vector BioPharma AG). He holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Sussex and business certification from London Business School (Senior Executive Program).
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Yvonne Sturm joined Cellerys as managing director in August 2023. She is an experienced industry professional with more than 30 years of experience in drug development and program leadership in Neuroscience, incl. clinical development, program and portfolio management and operations at Novartis AG. She holds a PhD in psychology from the J. W. Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and Associate Certified Coach (ACC) from the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
Clinical/Regulatory Team
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Magdalena joined Cellerys as Head of Regulatory Affairs in 2021 and recently assumed the additional role of Head of Quality: She brings over 14 years of experience in regulatory affairs and quality management to the Company and has extensive expertise in developing regulatory strategies, ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements, GCP compliance, and trial management. Magdalena obtained her PhD in clinical immunology at the University of Freiburg in Germany. She then went on to work for CSL Behring, the University Hospital Zürich, and Wyss Zürich, gaining a broad experience in diverse aspects of biopharmaceutical industries and clinical trial management.
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Nathalie Fournichot joined Cellerys in 2021 and is Operations Manager and QMS Administrator at Cellerys. She brings over 14 years of operations management and finance experience, having previously worked in finance and controlling at ETH Zürich, in HR, finance and third-party funding at the University Hospital Zürich, and as managing director at the Institute of Physiology, University of Zürich. She graduated in business administration.
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Alena Hornacek became part of the Cellerys team in the summer of 2022, stepping into the role of Clinical Project Manager. She brings a wealth of experience in overseeing early-phase development projects, having previously held managerial positions at biotechnology companies, including GlycoVaxyn (later acquired by GSK) and LimmaTech Biologics. Alena earned an MSc in Research Management from the University of Liverpool, UK, and an MBA from the Business School Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Nicola Rennie is the Clinical Trial Head joining Cellerys in January 2024. Nicola has been involved in clinical development and research for over 22 years. Her experience ranges from Cardiovascular, Metabolic and Ophthalmic disease areas, leading and managing Phase III and Phase IV studies which have successfully yielded results contributing to market authorization and expanded indications of several products. Since 2007 her focus disease area is Multiple Sclerosis and has joined Cellerys in their development of the innovative CLS12311 immune tolerization therapy.
Lab Team
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Zoe Marti is a PhD student at Cellerys since 2023, extending her research activities from her bachelor’s degree in biology and masters in neuroimmunology and multiple sclerosis at the University Hospital, Zürich, where she also represented the ETH Zürich student committee as head of PR and sponsorship. She also brings practical experience in administration and customer service in hospital-focussed cloud computing from her time at ametiq AG.
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Beatrice Musca joined Cellerys in August 2024 as a Technician/Scientist. After obtaining a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnologies at the University of Padova (Italy) and prior to joining the Cellerys team, she worked as a research fellow in the laboratory of Human Tumor Immunology at Veneto Institute of Oncology in Padova. There, she was involved in the analysis of the immune microenvironment of brain cancers, with a focus on myeloid cells and the role of their iron metabolism in orchestrating the immunosuppressive program within the tumor setting.
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Pietro Oltrati joined Cellerys in June 2023 as bioinformatician. He has worked in multidisciplinary environments across digital health and medically applied machine learning. He brings expertise from several projects on the understanding of T cell cross-reactivity, the monitoring of multiple sclerosis with wearable sensors, and single-cell RNA sequencing. He holds a master’s in computer science from ETH Zurich.
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Jacobo Sarabia del Castillo joined Cellerys in 2022 as scientist/Technician and was recently appointed Biosafety Officer for the company. In his prior role at the University of Zürich (4 years) he developed broad expertise in many laboratory methods, including microscopy, tissue handling, and machinery automation. He also has worked in product development and quality assurance at Honeywell (Portsmouth, UK). Jacobo holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from University College London and master’s in virology at the University of Zürich.
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Mireia Sospedra Ramos is co-founder and senior principal scientist at Cellerys. In her career spanning over two decades she has worked as an independent investigator in the field of human immunology in both Germany and Switzerland, complemented with Postdoctoral research in France and the USA. She has expertise in the field of identification and classification of autoreactive CD4+T cells, focussing on disease heterogeneity, tolerization approaches and identification of novel antigens in multiple sclerosis. She holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from Autonomous University of Barcelona, as well as master’s degrees in scientific communication and in nutrition and food.
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Laure Tillé joined Cellerys in October 2023 as a principal scientist, bringing strong expertise in T-cell biology to the team. Prior to joining Cellerys, she worked as an expert immunologist at Galderma, specializing primarily in -OMICs technologies and developing bioinformatics expertise in collaboration with the ETH Zürich. She holds a PhD in cellular immunology from the University of Lausanne, where she also performed her postdoctoral training.
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Valentin Von Niederhäusern joined Cellerys in 2022 as scientist/technician from the University Children’s Hospital in Zürich, where he held the position as research technician for 4 years. He has extensive experience in immunological assays including flow cytometry and adaptive immune receptor repertoire sequencing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Lausanne and a master’s degree in neuroscience from the University of Zürich.
Magdalena Foege, Andreas Lutterotti, Nicola Rennie, Nathalie Fournichot, Laure Tillé, Roland Martin, Mireia Sospedra, Zoe Marti, Valentin von Niederhäusern, Nik Barbet, Jacobo Sarabia del Castillo, Yvonne Sturm
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Nicolas Martin is the Chief Financial Officer of European Biopharma Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceuticals company focused on rare cancers. Nick is a co-founder and director of Cellerys and served as its Managing Director from inception until 2023. Prior to Cellerys, he worked for over a decade as an investor in private and public equity at Consulta and KKR, as well as in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Nick holds degrees in economics and international relations from the University of St. Gallen and Harvard University.
Our Partners
Board of Directors
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At Novartis, our purpose is to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people's lives. We use innovative science and technology to address some of society's most challenging healthcare issues. We discover and develop breakthrough treatments and find new ways to deliver them to as many people as possible. We also aim to reward those who invest their money, time and ideas in our company. www.novartis.com/research-development
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Neogap Therapeutics is a privately held biopharmaceutical company with a focus on immune-oncology based at the Centre for Molecular Medicine at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Neogap and Cellerys have launched a collaboration with the aim of using Neogap’s EpiTCer technology to detect rare autoreactive CD4+ T cells in multiple sclerosis patients. The EpiTCer-based monitoring of autoreactive T cells will be a key aspect of Cellerys’ multi-center Phase II clinical trial.
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As a flexible partner with more than 20 years of experience in the development and production of ATMPs, TETEC supports biotech & pharma companies that are entering the clinical stage with their developmental cell therapies.
Our specialists provide extensive know-how and expertise in technical transfer processes, manufacturing, clinical trial setup & management as well as registration of ATMPs, blood products, autologous cell therapies and biohybrid product solutions. Please feel free to contact us under cdmo@tetec-ag.de to find out more!
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With its 28,000 enrolled students, the University of Zurich (UZH) is Switzerland's largest university. Founded in the year 1833, UZH was Europe’s first university to be established by a democratic political system. Today, UZH is one of the leading universities in the German-speaking world. Made up of seven faculties covering some 100 different subject area.
Numerous awards the University’s international reputation in the fields of medicine, including immunology, genetics, neuroscience and structural biology as well as in economics. To date, the Nobel Prize has been awarded on twelve UZH scientists.
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The Wyss Zurich Translational Center – Wyss Zurich – is a joint accelerator of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), which was made possible by a generous donation from the Swiss entrepreneur and philanthropist Dr. h.c. mult. Hansjörg Wyss. It was established to foster translational research focused on developing treatment protocols and clinical therapies, as well as novel technologies and intelligent systems, in the emerging fields of Regenerative Medicine, Robotics, and to related hybrid technologies. Wyss Zurich unites world-leading experts from both institutions in multidisciplinary teams, pooling their knowledge and expertise. For more information, please visit www.wysszurich.ch