About us

Thomas has extensive experience in financing and corporate development of start-up companies. Since 2018 he is founder and CEO of Myllia Biotechnology (former Aelian Biotechnology) and since 2020 Managing Director of bit.bio discovery. In previous positions, he was founding CEO of Haplogen Genomics, a very successful Austrian life science company sold to Horizon Discovery/UK in 2015, and after the acquisition Vice President Products at Horizon, responsible for gene-engineered cell line products, and Global Head of Corporate Strategy and Compliance. Before he served as Managing Partner at Pontis Capital for 13 years and had several positions in the area of business development, financing and licensing.

Tilmann is a CRISPR enthusiast since the early days of CRISPR. Originally trained as a biochemist, he joined Haplogen as Principal Scientist and later became their CSO. Following the acquisition by Horizon Discovery, Tilmann served as Director R&D and, later, Head of Innovation where he oversaw Horizon’s technology platform and innovation agenda. In 2018, he co-founded Myllia Biotechnology which focuses on single-cell CRISPR screens. He is also the CEO of bit.bio discovery, a joined venture between Vienna-based Myllia Biotechnology and Cambridge-based bit.bio. Tilmann is passionate about science and enjoys working with multi-disciplinary and multi-national teams.

Christoph is a principal investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on developing high-throughput technologies for biomedical applications. He is also a guest professor at the Medical University of Vienna, scientific coordinator of the Biomedical Sequencing Facility at CeMM, and adjunct group leader for bioinformatics at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics. He has received several research awards, including the Max Planck Society’s Otto Hahn Medal (2009), an ERC Starting Grant (2016-2021), and the Overton Prize of the International Society of Computational Biology (2017).

Luke completed a distinguished postdoctoral stay at the laboratory of Jonathan Weissman, where he performed ground-breaking work on CRISPR interference and activation. He now holds a dual affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the esteemed Arc Institute, further solidifying his position as a prominent figure in the field. At UCSF and Arc Institute, Luke’s laboratory is at the forefront of scientific innovation, focusing on the development of new genetic tools to systematically unravel the functions of the genes encoded by the human genome. Their primary mission is to address critical challenges in deadly human cancers, particularly metastasis and drug resistance.

Sandy Zweifach has more than 35 years of experience in the life sciences industry, with deep relationships across pharma R&D, business development and the investment community. He has served as CEO or President of five companies, raised more than $750 million in capital and led numerous M&A and licensing transactions. Most recently, he led Imidomics, Inc. as their CEO and successfully sold the core business to UCB. Sandy is a Senior Advisor to Bioqube Ventures and holds several board positions, including Executive Chair of Paradox Immunotherapeutics and non-executive director of Compugen. He holds an MS in Human Physiology from the University of California, Davis, and a BA in Biology from the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Simone Günther brings more than 20 years of commercial leadership in life science tools and molecular diagnostics companies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Most recently, she led the Single-Cell MultiOmics business in EMEA at BD Biosciences (now part of Waters), with full P&L responsibility for the BD Rhapsody™ portfolio. At BD, she built the European single-cell multiomics commercial team from the ground up and later led the EMEA Scientific & Application Support organization of more than 90 people. Earlier roles include Business & Medical Lead for Molecular Diagnostics at QIAGEN and Director Market Development & Business Strategy at Thermo Fisher Scientific (Life Technologies). Simone holds a PhD in Biology from the University of Karlsruhe and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University.

Dr. Werner Lanthaler served as CEO of Evotec SE from 2009 to 2024. Before Evotec, he was CFO of Intercell AG, where he led Austria’s first VC-backed biotech IPO, and earlier worked with McKinsey & Company. Werner is CEO of FairJourney Biologics and founder of WLan Holding, a Vienna-based investment company focused on life sciences and sustainability. He serves on several boards, including  InSphero, HAL Allergy, Proxygen, Elucidata. He holds a PhD in Business Administration from WU Vienna and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.