Elisa Kieback, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Elisa Kieback is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founded T-knife together with Prof. Thomas Blankenstein. She studied Biology at the Universities of Dresden, Heidelberg, and Glasgow and obtained a Ph.D. in Immunology. She was named one of the 100 most visionary women in 2006 (by the initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas”). In 2010, she received the Marthe-Vogt Award honoring outstanding young female scientists. For the past 15 years she has studied TCRs and their therapeutic application as a researcher. Her work resulted in numerous patents in the field of adoptive T cell therapy.

Camille Landis

Chief Business Officer / Chief Financial Officer

Camille Landis brings 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry, with senior roles in strategy, business development, finance and commercial planning. She joined T-knife from Unity Biotechnology, a company dedicated to the development of therapeutics for age-related diseases, where she was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development. Prior to Unity, she served as Chief Business Officer at Eidos Therapeutics, where she oversaw the company’s corporate development and financing activities. Prior to Eidos, Camille was Vice President of Corporate Development at Relypsa, where she was responsible for business development, alliance management and strategic planning.

She led the sale process of Relypsa to Galencia for $1.5 billion and supported the company’s IPO and financing activities. Camille also led corporate development efforts at Affymax and held multiple positions in finance, business development and commercial operations during her tenure. Earlier in her career, Camille served as a life sciences strategy consultant with Navigant Consulting and as an investment banker with Piper Jaffray’s healthcare investment banking practice. Camille holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of St. Thomas and a M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Loveridge

Vice President, Regulatory Affairs

Michael Loveridge brings over 15 years of experience in regulatory affairs and drug development. Prior to joining T-knife, Michael worked at Celgene/BMS where he was the regulatory lead responsible for taking a first-in-class CAR T therapy in multiple myeloma from first-in-human trials to commercialization. He has a proven track record of development across different drug classes (TCR-T, CAR-T, biologics and small molecules) within a variety of therapeutic areas (haematology and solid tumors) throughout pre-clinical, early/late stage and commercial development. He has also spent time working in contract research organizations, consulting and academia. Michael holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biomedical Science and Business Studies from De Montfort University.

Simone Silva Steiner, Ph.D.

Chief Technical Operations Officer

Dr. Steiner is the Chief Technical Operations Officer at T-knife. She was previously the Head of Technical Development and Manufacturing at Tigen Pharma where she led all activities related to technical development and manufacturing strategy for a TIL product. From 2010 to 2020, Dr. Steiner was in manufacturing and quality roles at Novartis, most recently as the Head of Process Unit CGT Stein where she designed and constructed a cell therapy manufacturing facility and supported the successful manufacturing of Kymriah. During her tenure, she built the company’s cell therapy production capabilities, hiring and training more than one hundred manufacturing associates. At QSV Biologics, a contract manufacturing organization, Dr. Steiner was responsible for process development for multiple projects and worked on the full renovation of QSV’s cGMP manufacturing facility. She obtained her Ph.D. at ETH Zurich and completed her post doc work at the University of Alberta.  

Thomas Soloway

Chief Executive Officer

Thomas Soloway brings over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, with senior roles in strategy, operations, corporate finance and venture capital. He joined T-knife from Audentes Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on developing and commercializing innovative products for patients living with serious, life-threatening rare neuromuscular diseases, where he most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. Previously, Thomas served as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Ascendis Pharma A/S, a biopharmaceutical company that utilizes its proprietary TransCon technology platform to address unmet needs in the fields of endocrinology and oncology.

Prior to Ascendis, Thomas co-founded Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he held positions of increasing responsibility, serving initially as Senior Vice President, Operations and Chief Financial Officer and subsequently as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Transcept, Thomas was a Principal at Montreux Equity Partners, a venture capital firm focused on providing growth capital for early-stage healthcare and life sciences companies. He holds a B.S. in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

Peggy Sotiropoulou, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Peggy Sotiropoulou brings 20 years of experience in oncology and immune-oncology in the biotech industry and Academia. Peggy joined T-knife from Celyad Oncology, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of CAR-T cell therapies for cancer, where she most recently served as Head of Research & Development, leading the development of multiple autologous and allogeneic CAR-T cell candidates and non-gene edited allogeneic T cell platforms.

Prior to Celyad Oncology, Peggy was a Tenured Research Associate Professor in the Université Libre de Bruxelles leading cutting-edge research on the response and sensitization of recalcitrant tumors to therapy. During her academic career, Peggy concentrated her research on immuno-oncology and fundamental oncology, characterizing cancer onset and progression. She is known for uncovering the way skin stem cells respond to DNA damage and how this leads to cancer onset or ageing, as well as for identifying the gene regulatory networks and signaling pathways that determine cancer cell invasiveness and metastatic potential. Peggy holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Athens and a Ph.D. in Cancer Immunotherapy from the medical faculty of the University of Crete.

Alexander Mayweg, Ph.D.

Managing Partner, Versant Ventures

Alexander Mayweg, Ph.D., is a Managing Director and also serves as head of Ridgeline Therapeutics, Versant’s Basel-based Discovery Engine. Alex is an accomplished leader in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry across Europe, the U.S. and Asia. He brings to Versant deep operating capabilities, having led successful therapeutics portfolios, programs and teams within Roche Pharma Research and Early Development.

Since joining Versant in 2016, he has been involved in launching and investing in a number of Versant’s portfolio companies including Black Diamond (IPO), Monte Rosa, Bright Peak, Enterprise, T-knife and Matterhorn. Prior to joining Versant, Alex served as global head of chemistry at Roche and over 14 years at the company has held a range of other scientific leadership positions. Prior to Roche, Alex earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Oxford University, followed by post-doctorate training at Stanford University. His undergraduate degree was in chemistry from the Imperial College in London.

Thomas Blankenstein, Ph.D.

Scientific Founder of T-knife

Thomas Blankenstein is Director of the Institute of Immunology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and research group leader at the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine (Berlin). His research focus is on Cancer Immunology. He studied Biology at the Universities of Goettingen and Cologne and became a Professor of Immunology at the Free University in Berlin in 1996. He is one of the pioneers in research on TCR gene therapy in Germany, leading a transregional collaborative research center on adoptive T cell therapy from 2006 to 2018.

Laura Brege

Independent Board Member

Laura Brege serves on the boards of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mirum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and HLS Therapeutics, Inc. She is also a Senior Advisor at BridgeBio Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing novel, genetically targeted therapies. From 2012 to 2015, Ms. Brege served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Nodality, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on oncology and immunology. Previously, Ms. Brege held several senior-level positions at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Amgen) from 2006 to 2011 including Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Before joining Onyx, Ms. Brege was a general partner at Red Rock Capital Management, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage financing for technology companies. Prior to Red Rock, she was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at COR Therapeutics. Earlier in her career, Ms. Brege served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Flextronics and Vice President and Treasurer of The Cooper Companies.

Ms. Brege earned her undergraduate degree from Ohio University and has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Geraldine O'Keeffe

Partner, EQT Life Sciences

Geraldine O'Keeffe is a Partner at EQT Life Sciences, previously known as LSP. She joined the investment team at LSP in 2008 to expand the investment strategy to include innovative healthcare companies on public equity markets.

Prior to joining EQT, Geraldine was a senior analyst at Fortis Bank in Amsterdam where she covered the biotechnology sector in Europe and the US. Previously, she worked at a medical diagnostic company, now part of Diasorin, in Dublin.

Geraldine has a combined honours degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry, a Masters in Biotechnology and a GDBS in Business Studies.

Olivier Litzka, Ph.D. 

Partner, Andera Partners

Olivier Litzka is a partner at Andera Partners and a Director of the Board of T-knife. Olivier has a Ph.D. in molecular microbiology from the LMU in Munich. He started his business career in 1998 with Mercer Management Consulting. In 2000, Olivier joined 3i Group plc with a focus on biopharma and medtech investments, first based in Munich, later in 3i’s Paris office. In 2006, Olivier joined as a partner Andera Partners’ BioDiscovery team and contributed to grow the company to one of the leading Life Sciences Venture Capital investors in Europe. Olivier was on the board of multiple companies which got acquired or went public. Currently he is involved in several biotech and medtech startups in Europe and the U.S.

Sophie Papa, FRCP, Ph.D.

Venture Partner, RA Capital Management

Dr. Papa is a Venture Partner at RA Capital and the Chief Medical Officer at Enara Bio. Sophie has built a career as a clinical academic at the forefront of cancer immunotherapy. She has over 17 years of experience in medical oncology and, prior to joining Enara, she was a Consultant Medical Oncologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTFT). Sophie specialised in malignant melanoma and Merkle cell carcinoma. She has extensive clinical trial experience as a principal investigator in the GSTFT early phase trials team and through delivery of academic and industry sponsored clinical trials from Phase 1-4.

Sophie is a Clinical Reader in Immune Oncology at King’s College London with research focused on translational cell therapy and checkpoint inhibitor toxicity. Sophie completed her pre-clinical medical training at the University of Oxford, her clinical medical training at Imperial College London and a Ph.D. in CAR T cell therapy for prostate cancer from King’s College London. She was awarded an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship to develop solid tumour cell therapy and is a Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians, London. 

Sophie has advised multiple biotechs on clinical translation and trial design, as well as working with pharmaceutical companies as a key opinion leader in cancer immunotherapy. She has published over 50 academic papers in the field.

Debasish Roychowdhury, M.D.

Independent Board Member

Debasish Roychowdhury is Co-founder, Director and CMO of Partner Therapeutics. At T-knife, he is an independent Director of the Board. He is a hematologist/oncologist by training with over 15 years of pharmaceutical industry and senior management experiences. This includes his position as CMO at Seragon through the company’s acquisition by Roche, SVP and Head of the Global Oncology Division at Sanofi, VP for Clinical Development at GlaxoSmithKline, and Director of the Oncology global regulatory group at Eli Lilly. Prior to his roles in industry, he served as faculty member at the University of Cincinnati.

Thomas Soloway

Chief Executive Officer

Thomas Soloway brings over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, with senior roles in strategy, operations, corporate finance and venture capital. He joins T-knife from Audentes Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on developing and commercializing innovative products for patients living with serious, life-threatening rare neuromuscular diseases, where he most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. Previously, Thomas served as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Ascendis Pharma A/S, a biopharmaceutical company that utilizes its proprietary TransCon technology platform to address unmet needs in the fields of endocrinology and oncology.

Prior to Ascendis, Thomas co-founded Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he held positions of increasing responsibility, serving initially as Senior Vice President, Operations and Chief Financial Officer and subsequently as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Transcept, Thomas was a Principal at Montreux Equity Partners, a venture capital firm focused on providing growth capital for early-stage healthcare and life sciences companies. He holds a B.S. in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University.