From Discovery to Clinic, Overcoming Challenges in Biologics Development

Lars H. Pedersen has an M.Sc. in Biology from the University of Copenhagen, a Ph.D. in plant membrane proteins from the Technical University of Denmark, and a business education from the Engineering College of Copenhagen. He has hands-on experience with molecular diagnostics, cell technology, protein production and medico technology.
He was CSO at Bioneer for twelve years where his research focused on a combination of life and physical science. Before being appointed CEO of Bioneer in April 2018, he was heading Sales and Business Development for four years, where the main task was to tailor Bioneer’s activities to meet the demands of clients.

Christian Clausen was educated in biochemistry and medical science at the University of Southern Denmark and Odense University Hospital, with research visits at Aarhus University Hospital. He has also completed R&D management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston.
His research experience is primarily in the human cell biology field, especially in developing in vitro model systems and recombinant protein production. He was previously R&D Manager at Interface Biotech, leading several pipeline programs from preclinical to clinical phase. He has extensive experience in executive management of large national and international public-private partnerships. As CSO he is responsible for the overall R&D strategy and for external strategic collaborations across the Bioneer organization.

Johan Faber got his PhD from the University of Würzburg, and after doing a PostDoc in metabonomics research at the Imperial College of London and Novo Nordisk. He joined Novo Nordisk in 2011, first as a research scientist, and from 2014 as a Head of Department within global research in protein characterization. In 2019 he co-founded Hemab ApS where he functioned as CEO until 2021, and as CTO until 2023. He then co-founded Cymab, where he is currently the CEO. Cymab focuses on the design of novel cancer therapies based on the use of bispecific antibodies to target endogenous cytokines to tumors.

Professor Andreas Hougaard Laustsen-Kiel (1987) heads the Center for Antibody Technologies at the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and is a co-founder of the biotech companies, Biosyntia, VenomAb, Antag Therapeutics, Chromologics, VenomAid Diagnostics, Agrobiomics, and Bactolife, which employ approx. 120 FTEs combined.
He holds a PhD from the University of Copenhagen and an M.Sc.Eng. from DTU. He is recognized as Denmark’s Coolest Engineer (Engineer The Future), was listed on Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017, and was a Top 35 Innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review 2017. He has published 100+ peer reviewed scientific articles (24 first/single author, 45 last author, 66 corr. author), is cited 4000+ times (Google Scholar), is a co-inventor of 14 patent families, has (co-)raised DKK 1 billion for research and entrepreneurship, and has supervised 7 graduated PhD students.
He is recognized as an excellent scientist by being a fellow of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE), the Young Academy of Denmark (DUA), the Young Academy of Technology, Science, and Innovation (YATSI), the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences (ATV), and by being a recipient of an ERC Starting Grant, multiple ERC PoC grants, and a Villum Young Investigator grant. In 2023, he was awarded with the Silver Medal for Excellent Basic Research by the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, which is the highest distinction a scientist can receive in Denmark within 10 years of graduating his/her PhD.

Alexandra Baer joined Bioneer in 2021 to strengthen Bioneer’s recombinant protein expression services in mammalian cells. Since then, Alexandra has established the BION-CHO™ cell line development platform as well as Upstream production processes in bioreactors using CHO cells. From a previous position at AGC Biologics she gained solid experience with CDMO work. Alexandra has been working with mammalian expression for 25+ years and holds a PhD from the German Research Center for Biotechnology (GBF; now: Helmholtz Center for Infection Research) and the Technical University Braunschweig.

Bjørn Voldborg is the Head of the National Biologics Facility at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and he has more than 20 years of experience, from both academic and industrial settings, working with recombinant protein production. Bjørn was team leader in the biotech company Pharmexa A/S for more than 8 years, responsible for molecular cloning and expression of protein-based drug candidates.
In 2009, he went to the NNF Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen as Head of the Protein Production Unit, and, since 2012, Bjørn has been heading the CHO Cell Line Engineering research at DTU dedicated to the engineering of improved protein production cell factories.
Since 2021 he has been heading the Cell Line and Protein Production Facility and the National Biologics Facility at DTU. From January 2024, Bjørn is also function as Senior Advisor in Mammalian Cell Technologies at Bioneer A/S, a non-for-profit CRO.

Jens Chr. Norrild has a M.Sc. in organic chemistry from University of Copenhagen, a Ph.D. in carbohydrate chemistry from The Technical University of Denmark, and an Executive Certificate in ”Managing Medical Product Innovation” from Copenhagen Business School. Jens has more than 25 years of experience form Danish biotech and pharma and among others held the position as CMC Project Director at Novo Nordisk bringing numerous medical products from research into the clinic. Later, as VP of CMC and Quality in Cytoki Pharma, Jens contributed to building a new clinical stage biotech company by securing cGMP production of a novel biologics and building a Quality Management System. Jens has during his pharma career spearheaded collaboration with many CMO’s and CDMO’s and knows how to create a mutual fruitful and flexible collaboration environment that fosters high quality results and provide impact for both parties. As Chief CDMO Officer Jens has the overall responsibility for Bioneer’s, CDMO organization.