A clinical-stage company

Co-Founder & CEO
David, an aptamer technology entrepreneur, co-founded aptaTargets in 2014 and has led the company to bring ApTOLL to the clinic. Previously, he was the co-founder and CEO of Aptus Biotech, an aptamer platform focused on therapeutic and diagnostic applications. aptaTargets is a spinout from Aptus Biotech. David co-founded and was General Manager of Igen, where he led the research, development, and marketing of genetic and epigenetic kits for clinical use. David has been an innovation strategy advisor for various medical institutions, an associate consultant at the international management consulting firm Arthur D. Little, and a project manager at Acciona (global energy & infrastructure firm). David holds an MBA from the IESE Business School and the University of California Berkeley, a specialty program in Business Biotechnology and an MSc. in Engineering from Barcelona Tech (UPC).

Co-Founder & CFO
Maria Eugenia has been Co-founder and operations manager at Aptus Biotech (therapeutic and diagnostic applications based on aptamers), CLO at Igen Biotech (Genetic and Epigenetic kits) and partner and advisor of the investing platform Growth Factor Biocapital. Has also been advisor of the Hospital Puerta de Hierro Biomedical Research Foundation, in Madrid. She has deep expertise in financing biotechnology firms, especially with non-dilutive funds, raising an approximate amount of € 4,5 m for the 3 different companies. Maria Eugenia is also expert in licensing and intellectual property rights. Maria owns a Law degree and a Master in Business Biotechnology.

CSO
Macarena is a professor in the Neurovascular Research Unit at the Complutense University in Madrid, with more than 15 years of scientific experience in neuroscience and pharmacology for cerebrovascular diseases. She is involved in several basic and applied research activities in the stroke field and completed a six-year post-doctoral period in Stroke National Investigation Consortium (INVICTUS). She has collaborated with the Ramón y Cajal and the 12 Octubre hospitals in the evaluation of preclinical studies in neuroscience and the implementation of translational research units. She has a PhD in Biomedicine and Masters in Neuropsychology and Pharmacovigilance.

CMO
Marc is an interventional neurologist at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona and principal investigator of the Stroke Research group of the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), focusing on cerebrovascular diseases with a special interest in the acute phase of ischemic stroke and promoting systemic or endovascular reperfusion treatments. His research activity includes the design of clinical trials and research projects. He has over 200 peer-reviewed publications. He holds a Neurology Degree from the Vall d’Hebron, a PhD in Medicine from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and a Stroke Fellowship from the University of Texas in Houston.

Regulatory Affairs
Marian worked at the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK as a pharmaceutical assessor of registration dossiers. She has worked at the pharmaceutical industry including Pharma Mar, Chemo, and TiGenix (currently Takeda). In 2019 she established herself as a consultant founding of Revio Pharmaceutical Consultants. Since then, she has collaborated with biopharmaceutical companies and public institutions. She holds Organic Chemistry and Pharm Degrees, a Master in Regulatory Affairs, and an MBA.

Clinical Operations Manager
Marco was the co-founder and CEO of Neurotec Pharma, where they developed treatments for CNS diseases mainly related to inflammation and neurodegeneration. He was a Business Development Manager at the Research Institute of Vall d’Hebron (VHIR, Spain) and Director of the Spanish node of EIT Health. Marco holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Barcelona and a bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Perugia in Italy.

PM & CMC
David has worked for international institutions including the Apoptotic Center Research Unit of CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa, Canada, and the MRC Toxicology Unit in Leicester, United Kingdom, where he successfully led international and collaborative projects related to apoptosis, aptamers, and characterization of the oligonucleotide-protein interactions to identify potential therapeutic targets. He has spent more than 15 years working on molecular biology and cell signaling projects, focusing on gene expression, protein synthesis regulation, and its functionality. David holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Business Development Director
David has worked as a life science consultant at Longfellow Associates and for Gel4Med and Bioimag both of which were Harvard Innovation Lab companies. He has worked with CEOs to develop corporate strategy, business operational systems, and strategic relationships. David started as a formulations process development engineer at Shire Pharmaceuticals. He holds a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Researcher
Miguel leads the Drug Discovery and the preclinical development in aptaTargets. He has a PhD in Biology from the Universidad de Alcalá. He has extensive experience in R&D&I in aptamer-based biosensors for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, both academically and in the biopharmaceutical sector. His research-proficient work was the first article on the selection of aptamers in Spain in 2003. He has worked in groups led by Prof Carlos Martinez at Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB-CSIC), by Prof David Russell at the University of East Anglia (UK) and by Dr Carlos Briones at the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA. He has been Chief Scientific Officer of Aptus Biotech since 2019. He has authored 30 publications and spoken at over 60 national and international conferences.