Team
Team
Annbjørg Falck
Chief Executive Officer
and Co-founder
Annbjørg Falck is a PharmD from the University of Oslo/University of Southern California, and she holds an MBA from the Open University in UK. She has broad experience from pharmaceutical and biotech industry, spanning from large international companies (GE Healthcare and Pfizer Norway) to pharmacy management (Boots Limited) and smaller Norwegian companies (Pronova Biopharma, Targovax, Zelluna Immunotherapy). Since 2010 she has worked in leadership roles within the field of drug development, with a main focus and enthusiasm for regulatory strategy and execution throughout the journey of bringing drugs through preclinical and clinical development to patients. Prior to co-founding NaDeNo Falck worked as an Entrepreneur in Residence for SINTEF TTO & Venture on the commercialization of SINTEF’s nanomedicine technology, resulting in the establishment of NaDeNo.
Yrr Mørch
Chief Technology Officer
and Co-founder
Yrr Mørch is a nanomedicine specialist and one of the inventors of NaDeNo’s technology. She holds a MSc in Chemical Engineering (sivilingeniør) from The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, specializing in biotechnology. In 2008 she defended her PhD in biopolymer chemistry for which she was awarded as the top PhD thesis from Tekna in 2008. Since 2012 she has been the project leader of numerous national and international research and industry projects, has led the Nanomedicine strategic area at SINTEF and was the lead scientist of NaDeNo’s nanoformulation platform technology. Mørch is author of >40 scientific peer-reviewed publications, inventor of eight patents and has contributed as invited speaker at scientific and popular science conferences, in several newspaper articles, a podcast, and in national TV and radio interviews.
Torgeir Vaage
Chief Financial Officer
Torgeir Vaage holds a MSc from Norges Handelshøyskole (Norway) and a PhD from UC Berkeley in Business Administration. He has more than 20 years of combined experience from the financing sector and biotech with multiple CFO and CEO roles in early-stage life science companies. Vaage is the former senior equity analyst of ABG Sundal Collier/Handelsbanken and management consultant at AT Kearney.
Sofie Snipstad
Senior Scientist
Sofie Snipstad holds an MSc degree in (Bio)nanotechnology (sivilingeniør, 2013) and a PhD in Biophysics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, 2017). Since 2013 she has been working with nanoparticle based drug delivery at NTNU and SINTEF, where she led various research projects and was awarded several personal research grants. Her PhD was awarded best thesis of the year in 2018 (NV faculty, NTNU). She is an author of >28 scientific peer-reviewed articles and >64 abstracts to scientific conferences. She has also contributed >70 popular scientific interviews, talks and articles in various channels such as newspapers, blogs, podcasts, TV and radio. She was the national winner of Research Grand Prix in 2016, and was awarded communicator of the year (NV faculty, NTNU) in 2021. She is an Alumni member of The Young Academy of Norway and of SIKT after invitation from the Norwegian Crown Prince. She also serves in the editorial board for Journal of Controlled Release.
Board of Directors
Board of Directors
Ole J. Dahlberg
Chair of the Board
Ole J. Dahlberg brings 25 years of experience from the life science industry. In addition to co-founded three start-up companies, Dahlberg worked both on the commercial side, and in R&D leadership roles, for German Biotech company Qiagen. Over the past 15 years Dahlberg has been in executive leadership roles in Life Technologies, as Managing Director for Norway based Dynal Biotech, and later for Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Until 2021 Dahlberg was based in California, USA, working as Vice President & General Manager with responsibility for Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Cell Biology Division. Dahlberg holds a few biotech company board positions, and currently works as CEO for Curida. Mr. Dahlberg holds a Master of Science in Genetics and Marine Biology from University of Oslo.
Eli Grong Aursand
Board Member
Eli G. Aursand holds a master’s degree in product development and materials from the The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She has extensive experience in developing and scaling deep-tech companies from NTNU and SINTEF. Currently, she works as an investment director in SINTEF TTO & Venture with the main purpose of building tech start-ups based on SINTEF technology.
Jonas Hallén
Board Member
Jonas Hallén is the Chief Medical Officer of Arxx Therapeutics, a biotech company he co-founded in 2019 that develops a monoclonal antibody for rare fibrotic diseases.
Before joining Arxx, Jonas spent a decade in the pharmaceutical industry in various positions such as Nordic Therapeutic Area Director at Boehringer Ingelheim, Clinical Program Leader at Pronova Biopharma and Region Europe Medical Director (Cardio-Metabolic) at Novartis. His experience spans preclinical, early and late-stage clinical development as well as medical affairs.
Jonas is an MD from the University of Copenhagen and holds a PhD in cardiovascular disease from the University of Oslo.
Jonas is excited about the development of technology and drugs that can address unmet medical needs and improve the lives of patients.
Reidar Stokke
Board Member
Reidar Stokke holds a Master of Science in Business and Economics, is a certified Public Accountant and Authorised Financial Analyst. He is the former CEO of SpareBank 1 SMN Invest AS and Director of Corporate Markets at SpareBank 1 SMN. Other assignments: Board member of the companies Factoring Finans AS, Proventure Seed I and II AS, Leiv Eriksson Nyskaping AS, Rem Offshore AS and Grilstad Marina AS. Chairman of Turtle Invest AS and Aqua Venture AS.
Jostein Bjøndal
Observer
Jostein S. Bjøndal holds a Master’s degree in International Business from The Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). He has extensive experience in developing and scaling deep-tech companies from SINTEF and within investments, corporate finance and banking. Currently, he works as an investment director in SINTEF TTO & Venture with the main purpose of building tech start-ups based on SINTEF technology.
Scientific partners and advisors
Scientific partners and advisors
Kjersti Flatmark
Clinical research and advisor
Prof. Dr. Kjersti Flatmark (MD, PhD) is a clinician-scientist at Oslo University Hospital/Norwegian Radium Hospital, combining clinical work with building translational research projects focusing on treatment of peritoneal surface malignancies, locally advanced, recurrent and metastatic colorectal cancer. These cancers are the main clinical responsibilities of Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Norwegian Radium Hospital. She is the first clinician to hold a group leader position at Institute for Cancer Research. She has developed broadly collaborative translational and clinical projects spanning a range of medical subjects from evaluation of novel drugs in preclinical models to observational and interventional clinical trials. She has also developed robust national and international collaborations through regional (ACREDIT) and European (Cure4PMP) research networks. The group of Dr. Flatmark has been highly involved in the development of NaDeNo’s lead candidate.
Wim P. Ceelen
Clinical Advisor
Prof. Dr. Wim P. Ceelen (MD, PhD) is a surgical oncologist and associate Professor at Ghent University Hospital in Belgium. His interest is within advanced or recurrent GI cancer, soft tissue retroperitoneal cancers, ovarian cancer, and peritoneal metastasis. He leads the experimental surgery lab at Ghent University Hospital in Belgium, and performs clinical, translational, and basic research in the fields of intraperitoneal drug delivery, novel treatments of peritoneal metastasis, biophysical properties of cancer tissue, and lymphatic metastasis in colon cancer.
John Paul Y.C. Shen
Clinical Advisor
Prof. Dr. John Paul Y.C. Shen (MD) is a physician-scientist with a scientific background in chemical biology, network biology and functional genomics and clinical training in Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with a clinical practice focused on colon and appendix cancers. His long-term research goal is to better understand the cancer genome, and to leverage that understanding to better the delivery of chemotherapy. Active research projects include generating novel preclinical models of appendiceal cancer, investigation of intratumor heterogeneity with single cell transcriptomics, and the automated extraction of clinical outcomes data from the Electronic Health Record to facilitate the development of molecular biomarkers.
Andreas Åslund
Nanoformulation development and synthesis
Dr. Andreas Åslund is a Research scientist at SINTEF and has a background in organic chemistry with a PhD from Linköping University, Sweden. For the last decade he has worked exclusively on the development of targeted delivery and (nano)formulation of drugs. These activities include the establishment of ultrasound mediated blood-brain barrier opening in Norway and mechanistic studies on ultrasound mediated delivery of drugs and nanoformulations to the brain and other target tissue. Within formulation he has been part of the team that developed the lead formulation for NaDeNo and in addition he has extensive experience from other polymer nanoformulation technologies. He is at the bord of the European Technology Platform for Nanomedicine and Chair for the working group Nanotherapeutics and Targeted Delivery. At SINTEF he is the project leader for all activities related to NaDeNo.
Geir Klinkenberg
In vitro characterization
Dr. Geir Klinkenberg is a Research manager at SINTEF with more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery, high throughput screening, in vitro cell-based assays and bioprocess development. Klinkenberg has also more than 15 years’ experience in management of large research projects for national and international biotech and pharma industry and is currently managing a project portfolio of more than 50 MNOK in SINTEF. Furthermore, Klinkenberg coordinated the work of in vitro cell viability and cytotoxicity in EU Nanomedicine Characterization Laboratory (EUNCL) as Assay Group Leader.
Jérémie Parot
Physical/chemical characterization
Dr. Jérémie Parot, Research scientist at SINTEF, has a PhD in analytical chemistry and has extensive experience in the physico-chemical characterization of nanoparticles with wide expertise in drug delivery systems. Specialist in field flow fractionation (AF4) instrument and currently working on RNA-LNP design, production and quality control, Jérémie has also expertise in the standardization of methods from the lab to the standardization bodies.
Mark Tracy
CMC
Mark Tracy is Founder and President, Tracy BioConsulting, LLC. Dr. Tracy is known internationally for developing innovative first-in class complex injectables and nucleic acid therapeutics and vaccines. Dr. Tracy played a key role in developing Onpattro®, the first RNAi therapeutic approved by the FDA, EMA and other regulatory agencies worldwide. He has also played an important role in the development of lipid nanoparticle technology used in mRNA COVID-19 vaccines granted regulatory approval worldwide. Previously, he developed several complex injectable sustained release products that have been commercialized including Vivitrol®, Bydureon®, and Nutropin® Depot, which was the first long-acting protein product approved by the FDA. Dr. Tracy has extensive experience in the development of nano and microparticle-based products and other sterile injectable formulations from research through IND filing and commercialization. He has been recognized by peers internationally for accomplishments and leadership in the pharmaceutical product development, bioengineering, and delivery fields. Dr. Tracy is a Past-President and Fellow of the Controlled Release Society (CRS) and a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
Ruth Schmid
Strategic and scientific advice
Ruth Schmid has more than 40 years’ experience in the field of preparation and characterization of micro- and nanoparticles by various technologies and from a wide variety of materials, as well as the surface modification of polymers and polymer particles to introduce tailor-made properties. A special focus has been on the encapsulation and immobilisation of liquids and solids from emulsions, for protection and controlled release.
The last 10+ years, she has shown a special interest is the emerging field of nanomedicine, targeted drug delivery and release, nanotechnology-based diagnostics, regenerative medicine, as well as preclinical characterization. Ruth introduced nanomedicine as a new business area at SINTEF and is the main inventor or co-inventor of several patents that are the basis for NaDeNo’s technology.
Ruth has a special focus on applied research and product-oriented solutions. She has long-term experience in translation from laboratory to pilot scale, e.g. through the development of the Dynabeads and SINTEFs various drug delivery platforms.
Ruth is a Swiss citizen living in Norway since 1979. She gained her Diploma (1975) and PhD (1979) in Natural Sciences (physical organic chemistry) at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. She is a member of ACS, CRS (member of the board of directors (2009-2018), President (2016-2017), the European Technology Platform in Nanomedicine (Chair 2019-2021) and the EARTO working group “Emerging Technologies for Healthcare”. She is author/co-author of 59 scientific publications and 18 patents and patent applications. Total number of peer reviewed publications: 77; citations 2543; h-index. 23 (Google Scholar, December 2022).
Aleksandar Danilovski
Business development
Aleksandar Danilovski holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cambridge University and University of Zagreb. He has broad experience within drug development through his previous positions as CSO of Xellia Pharmaceuticals (Denmark), Head of European R&D at Barr Laboratories Inc. (US/Croatia) and Management Board Member at PLIVA Pharmaceuticals (Croatia).
Currently he is the Managing Partner and Founder of DALISCO (Croatia), Board of Director Member at Active Biotech (Sweden) and Pharmaero (Denmark), Scientific Advisory Board Member for Bugworks (US) and holds a position in the Scientific Selection Board of Novo Holdings – REPAIR Impact Fund (Denmark).
