About us
Meet the Team
A world leading team of experts with extensive scientific and clinical experience in antibiotics, mixed with entrepreneurial thinking and a strong business sense. Our passion is to fight superbugs to positively impact peoples lives, and we do this in a dynamic and fun workplace. BioVersys featured in a recent video highlighting the fight against AMR in Basel.
Dr. Marc Gitzinger
Chief Executive Officer & Founder
Professional Background
Marc is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of BioVersys. He has over 10 years of experience in the biotech industry, having launched a university spin-off in the field of antimicrobial resistance and growing it into a multi-asset early clinical stage company. These assets address significant unmet medical needs in infectious disease such as tuberculosis and hospital acquired Acinetobacter infections. He has raised over $30 million in equity financing and established several important partnerships with a big pharma and other R&D organizations. Marc is a multi-award-winning Biotech CEO, having received amongst others the Swiss Technology Award 2011, Venture Kick 2009 and Venture Leaders 2008 and 2017 awards for his work in founding and advancing BioVersys. He is also vice-president of the board of the BEAM Alliance, a European association representing over 60 European and international SMEs active in antimicrobial research and development and board member of the AMR Industry Alliance. Marc is a thought leader in the field of antimicrobial research and development, passionate about next generation antimicrobial therapies. He leads a highly motivated team striving to bring life-saving antimicrobial therapies to patients. Marc is co-author on several high ranked scientific publications and patents in the field.
Dr. Sergio Lociuro
Chief Scientific Officer
Professional Background
Sergio is Chief Scientific Officer of BioVersys. His background spans from early drug discovery to early clinical development. He has conducted Phase I clinical studies, participated in later clinical studies and discussions with both the US FDA and EMA. He received his Laurea degree in Chemistry at the University of Rome, Italy in 1981 and, after a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Italian Research National Council, he moved to UNB, Canada, where he received his Ph.D in 1987. In the same year he started his career in the pharmaceutical industry as a medicinal chemist. In his almost 30 years’ experience in major pharmaceutical companies and SMEs, Sergio has held positions such as Director of Medicinal Chemistry and International Project Leader in GSK, Head of Peptide Epitope Mimetics in Polyphor Ltd and Head of Research and Scientific Communication in Arpida AG and has been part of the Board of Directors of Arpida A/S. As the founder of THOT consulting Sagl, a Swiss consulting firm, Sergio provided services in the Research and Development of anti-infectives and pharmaceutical drugs in general. He has held the position of CSO in C10 Pharma and Adenium Biotech, two Scandinavian biotech companies. Sergio has published extensively throughout his career and is co-author on high ranked scientific publications and patents in the field.
Dr. Glenn Dale
Chief Development Officer
Professional Background
Glenn is Chief Development Officer of BioVersys. He is a distinguished expert in infectious diseases, the author of numerous publications, and inventor on many patents. Since February 2019 Glenn has led the clinical development activities at BioVersys, applying his 25 years of R&D experience and significant knowledge in the modern development of antibiotics. Glenn obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1993 from the University of Basel. Following post-doctoral studies in Basel he has held the following positions; Group Leader at Roche, Head of Biology, Site Head at Morphochem AG and Scientific Coordinator responsible for pre-clinical research at Arpida. In 2009 he joined Polyphor where he led the Antibiotic Research and Early Development, successfully transitioning Murepavadin (POL7080) from pre-clinical activities to Phase 3 studies. Glenn is an expert in developing and implementing modern antibiotic clinical development plans (e.g. devising pathogen specific development) and is experienced in presenting to and discussing with European and US regulatory authorities, e.g. scientific advice meetings (MHRA, EMA), Type C meetings (FDA) and End of Phase 2 meeting (FDA).
Martin Bott
Chief Financial Officer
Professional Background
Martin is the Chief Financial Officer of BioVersys, he has more than 30 years of financial management experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He has held various financial leadership roles at Eli Lilly and Company as Vice President Finance, including CFO of the Diabetes Business, CFO of the Global Manufacturing Organization, Leader of strategic review and subsequent IPO of Lilly’s Animal Health business, Elanco Animal Health. Most recently, Martin served as Interim CEO of the industry-led AMR Action Fund, created to combat the growing public health threat of antimicrobial resistance
Dr. Jonathan James Butcher
Head of Business Development & Alliance Management
Professional Background
Jonathan joined BioVersys in May 2018 and leads the business development activities with passion and dedication. Within a short time, Jonathan impacted the business of BioVersys with in-licensing and acquisition deals, while leading the non-dilutive fund-raising activities that resulted in European Union IMI and CARB-X awards. Jonathan also supports the company’s capital fund-rising activities. Prior to BioVersys he was Head of Business Development for Polyphor’s Drug Discovery Unit, where he secured drug discovery collaboration & licensing deals with leading global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. At Polyphor he also led the valuation of Polyphor’s pipeline assets, Murepavidin (POL7080) - Phase III Pseudomonas aeruginosa selective antibiotic, licensed to Roche in 2013, US$547 million and POL6014 - Phase Ib selective elastase inhibitor for respiratory diseases, licensed to Santhera in 2018, US$130 million. Prior to Polyphor, Jonathan led Hit-2-Lead and medicinal chemistry projects at Evotec, UK. Jonathan obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Reading, England and is the co-author on a number of scientific publications and patents.
Dr. Isabelle Andrieux-Meyer
Medical Director
Professional Background
Isabelle is the Medical Director at BioVersys. She joins the company with 25 years’ experience in research and development of new diagnostics, new chemical entities and fixed dose combinations for neglected infectious diseases. Most recently, Isabelle worked with Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) as Head of Clinical Development for the Viral initiative, and supported clinical development, regulatory submissions, launch of ravidasvir for the treatment of hepatitis C infection, and a paediatric HIV fixed dose combination of lopinavir/ritonavir/ abacavir/ lamivudine. Prior to DNDi, Isabelle worked with Médecins Sans Frontières as HIV Viral Hepatitis Advisor, Medical Director, and Operations Project Manager, with a strong focus on research and access to new treatments against multi-resistant malaria, shigella, tuberculosis, and HIV in resource limited settings. She also worked in Geneva University Hospital as physician in the infectious disease’s consultation. Isabelle holds a Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Caen, France, and a master in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
Dr. Beat Kiser
Head of Finance (External)
Professional Background
Beat is a finance executive with over 30 years experience in multinational as well as smaller companies in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. He has worked over 10 years in Asia. Beat has a Ph.D. in economics/business administration from University of Zurich.
Dr. Marilyne Bourotte
Head of Medicinal Chemistry
Professional Background
Marilyne obtained her Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Pharmacy, Strasbourg, France and has 10-year experience in medicinal chemistry, leading diverse programs from hit-to-lead to preclinical candidate selection. She is based at BioVersys SAS at the Institut Pasteur de Lille and leads BioVersys’ Medicinal Chemistry activities.
Dr. Olivier Defert
Professional Background
Olivier received his PhD in chemistry from the faculty of Pharmacy of Lille in 2005 while already working at DevGen in Belgium since 2000 where he was medicinal chemist and then section leader for more than 8 years, with responsibilities in combinatorial and medicinal chemistry as well as in regulatory preclinical development. Subsequently to the company’s restructuration, he co-founded with Dr. Dirk Leysen, Amakem NV, a medtech company in Belgium focused on soft kinase inhibitors for multiple therapeutic applications where he managed the medicinal chemistry group and the non-clinical development of AMA0076 (now PHP-201, Sovesudil, entering Phase 3 in Asia), a novel soft ROCK inhibitor for the treatment of glaucoma (acquired in 2016 by pH Pharma Inc.). Between 2016 and 2021, he served as a consultant to different medtech / biotech companies in the field of CMC, (medicinal) chemistry and preclinical development, including Tarsius Pharma in Israel as VP R&D. He is co-inventor of > 20 patents and co-author of 9 peer reviewed publications. Olivier joined BioVersys SAS in Lille in March 2021 as Head of Research and external partnerships.
Dr. Stephan Amrein
Head of Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls
Professional Background
Stephan joins BioVersys with 17 years of experience in developing pharmaceutical products. Most recently, Stephan worked at Novartis in various roles of increasing responsibility in Supply Chain, Technical Research & Development, and Global Program Management. During his tenure at Novartis, Stephan supported technical development, NDA submission, and launch of products like Entresto, Jadenu, Tabrecta. Prior to Novartis, Stephan worked in technical development roles at Acino, a company specialiced in modified-release oral drug technology, and Siegfried, a contract manufacturer for active pharmaceutical ingredients. Stephan holds a PhD (Chemistry) from ETH Zurich, and a CAS (Business Administration) from University of Zurich.
Alina Lundin
Executive Assistant to CEO
Professional Background
Alina is the Executive Assistant to the CEO. She has significant experience at being the right hand of executive leaders. She is a new generation business partner.
Dr. Michel Pieren
Clinical Project Manager
Professional Background
Michel holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from ETH Zurich, was a Postdoc at University of Lausanne and has 10 years of industry experience in R&D at BioVersys. As a Lab Head he guided the further development of the TRIC-technology platform and was later Project Leader of a discovery program that was awarded a CARB-X grant. Currently, he oversees the TB program and transitioned BVL-GSK098 from preclinical to clinical development by managing a multidisciplinary team of experts.
Dr. Christian Kemmer
Clinical Project Manager
Professional Background
Christian is Clinical Project Manager and Project Leader at BioVersys AG. His background spans from early drug discovery to clinical development. Christian studied biology and biotechnology in Germany and Finland and received his PhD from ETH Zurich in 2010. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) division at F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel he joined BioVersys in 2014 as a laboratory manager, being responsible for the in-house research activities around Gram-negative bacteria and tuberculosis and the coordination of external collaborations. In the last years, Christian developed into different positions along the R&D activities of BioVersys and transitioned into the preclinical project leader role in 2018. In 2020, Christian was promoted into his current role as clinical project manager being responsible for the BV100 clinical development program. He is also leading scientist and project coordinator of the international Eurostars Impact2 consortium. Christian has published extensively in the recent years and is also co-author on multiple high-impact scientific publications and patents.
Dr. Peter Seiler
Professional Background
Peter is an infection immunologist by training with a PhD from ETH Zürich. He has over 25 years of experience in research and development of vaccines and small molecules against bacterial and mycobacterial pathogens, gained at large pharma as well as at small to mid-sized biotech in Switzerland and internationally. Peter has led and co -led diverse programs from hit-to-lead stage to preclinical and clinical development up to and including NDA preparations. Since 2019, in order to focus on anti-bacterials, Peter is contracting and for companies active in research and development of small molecules and vaccines in this field. He is acting as a project leader at BioVersys since 2020.
Dr. Vincent Trebosc
Laboratory Head
Professional Background
Vincent holds a Marie Sklodowska-Curie PhD in Microbiolgy from a joint program of BioVersys and the University of Basel. He worked as Research Scientist for two years and he currently is laboratory Head at BioVersys.
Dr. Alessia Michelotti
Research Scientist
Professional Background
Alessia is an Organic Chemistry master's graduate from the University of Turin, Italy and obtained her Ph.D from Paris-Saclay University in collaboration with CortecNet SAS through the Marie-Sklodowska Curie scholarship. She is based at BioVersys SAS at the Institut Pasteur de Lille, and is a research scientist developing new anti-infective agents.
Dr. Zainab Edoo
Research Engineer
Professional Background
Zainab has a PhD in Biochemistry from Sorbonne Université, Paris. She is based in Dr Alain Baulard's team at the Institut Pasteur de Lille. Her role is to obtain in vitro microbiological data to assist the clinical development of a booster compound of the anti-tuberculosis drug, ethionamide.
Dr. Aurore Dreneau
Research Scientist
Professional Background
Aurore is a chemical engineer graduated from ESCOM, France. She hold a PhD in chemistry from the university of Strasbourg and pursued with a postdoctoral position at the Institut Pasteur de Lille in the development of booster of anti-tuberculosis drug. She joined Bioversys SAS as a research scientist.
Dr. Marija Miljkovic
Post Doc Reseacher
Professional Background
Marija is a microbiologist with a PhD from University of Belgrade. She has academic and industrial research experience in the discovery and development of novel anti-infective agents and therapeutic approaches against multi-resistant pathogens. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the Diseases of the Developing World division at GlaxoSmithKline in Madrid she joined BioVersys in 2021 as a scientist working on development of a new broad-spectrum (ESKAPE) antibiotic.
Julian Schill
Senior Research Associate
Professional Background
Birgit Schellhorn
Senior Research Associate
Professional Background
