A new way to treat cancer.

Anton is a Professor for Functional Cancer Genomics at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine and the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany. He received an M.D. in neuroscience from the RWTH Aachen prior to starting his clinical residency in pediatrics. His research interests focus on genome remodeling in cancer and his ERC grant-funded research group currently investigates the role of ecDNA in cancer. In addition, he serves as head of preclinical cancer research for the Pediatric Oncology Department at the Charité and runs a research group at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) of the Max Delbrück Center (MDC). He is part of an international research team (eDyNAmiC) that recently received the CRUK/NIH Cancer Grand Challenge grant to study ecDNA and he was recently honored with the Berliner Wissenschaftspreis (Kategorie Nachwuchs) for his contributions to the field of ecDNA in cancer.

Richard is the director of Computational Epigenetics and serves as Associate Director of the Center for Epigenetics Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He received his bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. in computational genomics from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. His research explores how cellular plasticity is encoded within the genomes and epigenomes of tumor cells and how this plasticity is exploited during oncogenesis. With complementary expertise, Richard has worked closely with Anton Henssen over the past eight years to define how genomic aberrations drive pediatric cancers. In utilizing tumor profiling and functional genomics to define ecDNA-specific features, Richard is focused on discovering patterns that divulge new avenues for targeted therapies.

Rodger is the Executive Chairman of Econic Biosciences. Rodger is a serial entrepreneur, long-time pharmaceutical and biotechnology senior executive with more than 20 years of experience. In 2013 he co-founded CRISPR Therapeutics, led the team that IPO’d the company in 2016 and served CRISPR as CEO until December 2017. Rodger is still the President and Chair of the Board of CRISPR.

Before CRISPR Therapeutics, Rodger was Global Head Infectious Diseases at Sanofi, based in Paris, France. His responsibilities included discovery, research and development, and late-stage clinical development of anti-infectives, including diseases of the developing world. In early 2006, Rodger co-founded Nabriva Therapeutics, an antibacterial development company in Vienna, Austria, where he acted as COO. Nabriva was a spin-out from Sandoz/Novartis, where Rodger worked as Vice-Head of the Antibiotic Research Institute.

In addition to CRISPR Therapeutics, Rodger serves as Executive Chair on the boards of Xap Therapeutics and Matterhorn Biosciences. He is a co-founder and board member of ERS Genomics. Rodger received his M.D. from the Philipps University, Marburg, Germany and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller University, the Skirball Institute, and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In 2001, he was appointed as tenured Professor for Microbiology at the Vienna Biocenter, Austria.

Rodger was responsible for financing and business development deals worth several billion dollars, among them the landmark deals for CRISPR Therapeutics with Bayer and Vertex. He has authored numerous scientific papers and patents. For his work Rodger has received several scientific awards and honors for his contributions to the biotech industry, including being named as one of the “Top 100 Innovators in the World” by the MIT Technology Review in 2017.

Shaun is an Executive Director of Econic Biosciences. He has spent the past 25 years working with emerging healthcare companies as an entrepreneur, investor and advisor. Shaun co-founded and is an Executive Director of Xap Therapeutics, a company developing an iPSC-derived delivery platform for a broad spectrum of therapeutic payloads, including genetic medicines. He also co-founded CRISPR Therapeutics and ERS Genomics, two of the leading companies commercializing the breakthrough CRISPR/Cas9 technology. At CRISPR Therapeutics he served as Chief Business Officer and Chief Financial Officer leading it through its company creation phase and early financings. He was the CEO of ERS Genomics, leading the company through its startup phase and negotiating the company’s initial licensing deals. Shaun previously served as a Partner and one of the founding team members of Nomura Phase4 Ventures, a London-based venture capital group investing in emerging healthcare companies in North America and Europe. He received an M.Sc. in Cell Biology & Immunology from the University of British Columbia and is a CFA® charterholder.