Meet invIOs’s new Scientific Advisory Board

Today we’re unveiling our new Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), which brings together five leading European cancer experts to help fast-forward our growth. The SAB is a multi-disciplinary formation with cross-cutting knowledge across some of the most advanced areas in cancer research and clinical development.

Importantly, all of its members already know our team well, as we have collaborated together on many projects over several years both as invIOs and APEIRON Biologics AG.

Our CMSO Romana Gugenberger explains:

“The formation of our Scientific Advisory Board is a major step in invIOs’s development as a leading Austrian and European developer of novel cancer immunotherapies. Individually, each member of the SAB brings world-class expertise and deep knowledge in areas at the forefront of immuno-oncology, from novel checkpoint inhibitors to molecular biology to clinical trials. Together, they will help take invIOs to the next level as we seek to accelerate the development of new treatment options for cancer patients worldwide. I’m delighted to welcome them all as members of our Scientific Advisory Board, and look forward to working together even more closely over the coming years.”

In alphabetical order, the members of invIOs’s Scientific Advisory Board are:

Professor Gottfried Baier leads the Institute of Cell Genetics at the Medical University of Innsbruck’s Department for Genetics and Pharmacology, where he also serves as Director of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for pharmacological cancer immunotherapy. His research achievements include the leading-edge discoveries of the central-staged PKC/Cbl-b and PKC/NR2F6 signaling pathways and their key role in the control of cancer immune surveillance. Professor Baier holds a PhD in medical microbiology and is the author of dozens of publications, reviews, abstracts and patents.

Professor Thomas Bogenrieder is Chief Medical Officer of Abbalos Therapeutics and an expert in clinical development of cancer immunotherapies. During a career spanning the private sector and academic research he has served as Group Leader Oncology at Boehringer Ingelheim in Vienna as well as Clinical Director Oncology at GSK’s Oncology Center of Excellence. He holds a PhD from the University of Utrecht, an MD from Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg, and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tübingen.

Professor Thorsten Füreder is a medical oncologist at the Medical University of Vienna. He is the program director for respiratory tract cancers (head and neck and lung cancer) and cancer of unknown primary at the Department of Medicine I, and serves as the chair of the immune-oncology tumor board. He has served as the principal investigator of several clinical Phase 1-3 trials and has published multiple international research articles. Professor Füreder holds an MD from the Medical University of Vienna and serves as president of the Austrian Head and Neck Cancer Society.

Dr. Anna Obenauf is a leading expert in cancer biology and immunology. Her lab at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna conducts multi-disciplinary research into the molecular mechanisms underlying tumor progression and immune evasion with the goal of developing rational combination therapies for metastasic cancer. Dr Obenauf completed her PhD at the Medical University of Graz and conducted post-doctoral research at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Professor Anton Stuetz is co-founder and co-CEO of Akribes Biomedical, which develops precision medicines for chronic wounds. He has more than 40 years experience in drug R&D and management, having established dermatology research at Sandoz/Novartis, where he invented the blockbuster drug terbinafine (Lamisil®). Professor Stütz holds a PhD in chemistry at the University of Vienna, and is the author of numerous publications and patents in fields ranging from synthetic and medicinal chemistry to immunology, inflammation and oncology. He has received national and international rewards for innovation in drug research and dermatology.