location
vienna and europe
With its numerous prestigious scientific institutes, Vienna is the intellectual home of Proxygen. Collaborations, know-how, and talent are never more than a few steps away, and the proximity to a wide range of biotech startups facilitates efficient synergies. At the same time, via its wide-reaching network, Proxygen is connected to major science hubs across Europe.
board of directors
Constanze Ulmer-Eilfort
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Constanze Ulmer-Eilfort
Constanze Ulmer-Eilfort is a highly accomplished attorney who has dedicated her career to helping clients navigate the complex world of intellectual property and licensing. With over 30 years of experience, she has become a leading expert in the life sciences industry and is known for her innovative approach on negotiating transactions and solving challenging IP issues. Constanze is a partner at PSP Peters, Schönberger & Partner in Munich. Before that, she was a partner at the international law firm Baker McKenzie, where she served as Managing Partner of the German and Austrian offices and as member of the Global Executive Committee. During her term on the Global Executive Committee, she served as Chair of the Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, as Chair of the Global Financial Committee and as Chair of the EMEA Region. Constanze’s interests lie in the area of leadership development, in developing purpose-led and value based high performing organizations and in establishing sustainability objectives in the organizational strategy. Constanze has been listed among the 100 most influential women in business in Germany in 2020. Constanze holds a doctorate degree in Law from the Free University Berlin, an LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania, executive management degrees from Harvard University and INSEAD and is admitted to the German and New York Bar.
Nina Kjellson
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Nina Kjellson
Nina Kjellson is a highly experienced biotech investor and entrepreneur. She is a General Partner at Canaan, a venture capital firm, where she focuses on investing in biopharma and digital health companies that serve unmet therapeutic needs. Nina is a member of the Board of Directors for several biotech companies both private and publicly listed. Her expertise and experience allow her to quickly identify and support promising biotech companies with high growth and returns potential. Nina is a vocal advocate for women entrepreneurs and investors. She is on the boards of non-profits, Essential Access Health, Girl Effect, Life Science Cares and on the Leadership Council for the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Center. She is also a 2018 Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow. Nina holds a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University.
Reinhard Kandera
Reinhard Kandera
Reinhard Kandera is a seasoned finance professional with over 25 years of experience in banking and the healthcare industry. He currently serves as CFO of Hookipa (Nasdaq: HOOK), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies against infectious diseases and cancer. Previously, he has served as CFO of Valneva SE (Euronext: VLA) and Intercell AG (VSE: ICLL) after starting his professional career at Deutsche Bank. Reinhard has a strong track record of driving growth, building organizations and transforming businesses through strategic thinking and creative solutions. Throughout his career as a biotech executive, he has managed many private and public equity raises, including IPOs, as well as debt financings, M&A transactions and strategic partnerships. He holds doctorate degrees in Business Administration and Law from the Vienna University.
Giulio Superti-Furga
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Giulio Superti-Furga
Giulio Superti-Furga is a highly respected scientist and leader in the field of systems biology and personalized medicine. He serves as the Scientific Director and CEO of CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Giulio holds a professorship for systems biology at the Medical University of Vienna. Throughout his career, he has made significant contributions to the fields of gene regulation and pharmacology and has published numerous papers in prestigious scientific journals. In addition to his scientific work, he also has profound experience in building and leading scientific organizations, managing large projects and diverse teams in parallel, and connecting research institutions around the globe. He has co-founded various successful biotech companies and is also a co-founder of Proxygen. Giulio holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Zurich and has received countless awards and honors for his research.
scientific advisory board
Brenda Schulman
Brenda Schulman
Brenda is a leading biochemist and structural biologist who is highly regarded for her significant contributions to understanding the regulation of E3 ubiquitin ligases. Her lab at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, and at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, is recognized for illuminating mechanisms of ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like protein ligation, and for using a distinctive biochemical reconstitution approach to identify novel in vivo regulatory pathways. Brenda is an elected member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and EMBO. She has been awarded several prizes including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine, and the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine. Prior to joining the Max Planck Institute in 2017, Brenda’s career also included conducting pioneering research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Giulio Draetta
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Giulio Draetta
Giulio is a physician scientist who has spent nearly three decades in oncology research and drug discovery in both academia and industry. He is widely recognized for spearheading fundamental research in the biology of the eukaryotic cell division cycle and of DNA damage induced checkpoints. Currently, his research focuses on pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma, using functional genomics to identify novel tumor dependencies and evaluate their potential for therapeutic translation. Over the years, Giulio has leveraged his translational expertise as a co-founder of several biotechnology companies and a leader of global research in large pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining MD Anderson, he had been chief research business development officer and deputy director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, as well as head of oncology drug discovery at Pharmacia and Merck.
Georg Winter
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Georg Winter
Georg is a pioneer in the emerging field of protein degradation, having been credited with publishing the first paper reporting on in vivo target protein degradation. Today, his research as a principal investigator at CeMM is focused on using the unique pharmacology of targeted protein degradation to understand and disrupt aberrant gene control circuits in cancer. In particular, his group develops and implements functional genomics technologies to mechanistically characterize how E3 ligases can be hijacked with small molecules. Georg is a scientific co-founder of Proxygen. His contribution to the field of targeted protein degradation has been honored through multiple international prices and awards, including the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award (2023), the Wilson S. Stone Memorial Award from MD Anderson (2021) and the Eppendorf Award (2019).
Stefan Kubicek
Stefan Kubicek
Stefan is a highly regarded researcher focused on chromatin, epigenetics, and small molecules that change cell fates in oncology and diabetes. He is a principal investigator at CeMM, where he previously headed the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Chemical Epigenetics and Anti-infectives and now serves as head of the Molecular Discovery Program. An organic chemist by training, his research focuses on the discovery and characterization of bioactive small molecules. This resulted in developing the first selective histone methyl transferase inhibitors as part of his Ph.D. and multiple chemical probes during his postdoctoral research with Stuart Schreiber at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and in his own laboratory. Research in Stefan’s lab is funded by several organizations including the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the European Union, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), among others.