Confo Therapeutics is led by a strong and dynamic team and has attracted highly skilled business and scientific personnel to support our key capabilities including, but not limited to, GPCR biochemistry and structural biology, ConfoBody® discovery, screening, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, in silico drug discovery.
We pride ourselves in our track record of attracting and maintaining top talent in the industry, which will enable our smooth transition into a pipeline-focused organization.
Cedric is the CEO of Confo Therapeutics and is a member of our Board of Directors.
He previously served as Vice President of Business Development at Ablynx and played a key role in landmark deals. Prior to moving to business development, Cedric worked through various R&D functions at Ablynx, first as a scientist in the pharmacology group and later as project manager, leading cross-functional project teams from discovery up to Phase II clinical studies.
Cedric has a PhD in bioscience engineering from KU Leuven (Belgium).
Christel joined Confo Therapeutics as CSO in 2016.
She was one of the first chemists to join Galapagos and later became Director of Medicinal Chemistry. Under her leadership, Galapagos discovered filgotinib, which has since completed Phase III clinical testing and is primarily being tested for rheumatoid arthritis, among other indications. Prior to Galapagos, Christel worked at Faust Pharmaceuticals (now Domain Therapeutics), a biotechnology company specializing in GPCR drug discovery. She is an inventor on over 20 patent applications and brings over 18 years of R&D experience to Confo.
Christel completed a PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Manchester (UK) in the lab of Prof Jonathan Clayden.
Paolo Vicini joined Confo Therapeutics as CDO in 2020.
Over the last 20 years, Dr. Vicini has worked as an expert in pharmacology and drug development in the international biopharmaceutical industry and academia. He held positions including Vice President Development Sciences at Kymab Ltd. in Cambridge U.K and Senior Director of Translational Sciences, Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacometrics and Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics at MedImmune’s Cambridge U.K. site. Dr. Vicini was a Research Fellow, Biotherapeutics and Translational Research, with Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics and Metabolism at Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development in California for seven years. Prior to that, he was a faculty member with the Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (US).
Dr. Vicini has received multiple honors, is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and a member of several professional organizations. He has over 140 publications in diverse areas including oncology-targeted agents, diabetes, immunotherapy and immunogenicity of biotherapeutics, dose optimization as well as pharmacometrics and systems pharmacology.
Dr. Vicini obtained his PhD in Bioengineering from the Polytechnic of Milan and the University of Padova (Italy) and finished his MBA in 2014 from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (US).
Stephen joined Confo in September 2023.
Stephen has over 24 years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical experience in both business development, and research and development. He has extensive experience in identifying, leading, negotiating, and executing various licensing deals.
Prior to joining Confo, Stephen served as Head of Business Development, Europe, at Rallybio, a clinical-stage Nasdaq-listed rare disease company based in New Haven, Connecticut. Prior to this, Stephen served as Senior Director of Business Development at Kymab, a clinical-stage antibody biotech in Cambridge, UK which was sold to Sanofi in 2021 for $1.1 billion and up to $350 in milestones. He was also Head of Business Development at SNIPR Biome based in Copenhagen, Denmark developing CRISPR-based therapeutics to reprogram the microbiome.
Previously, he held research leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline and SmithKline Beecham.
Stephen was awarded a PhD, from his work at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) and an MBA from Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.
Frank joined Confo Therapeutics as Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property (IP) and Legal in 2019.
Frank is an experienced patent attorney and transactional lawyer. Prior to joining Confo Therapeutics, Frank was a member of the management team at Ablynx, where he was responsible for IP strategy, secured a strong patent estate and was involved in negotiating various partnerships with leading pharma companies. Frank was Director of IP and Legal at Devgen, a Belgian biotech that was acquired by Syngenta. He also counseled major pharmaceutical, biotechnology and research institutes while working in private practice.
Frank holds degrees in Chemistry and Civil Law, both from Leiden University (the Netherlands), and Business Law from the University of Antwerp (Belgium), and was named as one of Managing IP’s ‘Corporate IP Stars’ four years in a row (2015–2018).
Dr Tim Corn became Medical Advisor to Confo Therapeutics in 2017.
Dr. Corn is an independent pharmaceuticals consultant, who serves on several company Boards and advises biopharmaceutical companies on clinical development and regulatory affairs. He was formerly Chief Medical Officer International at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, and CMO at EUSA Pharma and Zeneus Pharma, having held senior positions in both big and small pharma and in the UK regulatory agency.
Dr. Corn qualified in medicine at London University and became honorary Consultant and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, London before joining the pharma sector.
Toon co-founded Confo Therapeutics and became Head of Technology in 2015.
Toon has over 18 years of experience in single-domain antibody discovery against a wide array of target classes, including multi-transmembrane-spanning proteins such as GPCRs and ion channels. He is an inventor on multiple patent families covering both technology and therapeutically relevant compounds.
As one of Ablynx’ first employees, Toon was involved in internal and collaborative antibody discovery programs, several which are currently in clinical trials. In 2010, he moved to the Steyaert lab to develop the Confo® technology platform, leading to the spin-out of Confo Therapeutics.
Toon has a PhD in Bioscience Engineering from KU Leuven (Belgium) and conducted postdoctoral research on camelid antibodies under Prof Serge Muyldermans (VUB-Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium).
Marc is our Head of Finance and HR.
Prior to joining Confo, Marc was Associate Director of Finance at Argenx from 2010-2016, where he helped professionalize the Company’s Finance and HR department. He was also part of the core-team launching Argenx’ IPO on Euronext Brussels in 2014.
Prior to his Biotech experience, Marc served in several finance positions with increasing responsibility in the Travel Industry (Thomas Cook) and Sportswear (Champion).
Marc holds an Accounting degree and completed the Executive Masterclass Corporate Finance at the Vlerick Management School.
Stephanie joined Confo Therapeutics as Project Manager for Early Drug Discovery in July 2020 to coordinate new target identification, assessment and prosecution strategies as well as manage the early drug discovery activities.
Stephanie worked for over 10 years at Ablynx (Sanofi) where she headed the discovery phase of multiple therapeutic projects and amassed key expertise in VHH lead optimization. She also led multiple projects focused on platform improvement and extension. Before joining Confo Therapeutics Stéphanie worked for almost 2 years at Biotalys, where she played a key role in establishment of Biotalys’ VHH-based crop protection platform and led multiple discovery projects.
Stephanie has a PhD in biochemistry from KU Leuven (Belgium).
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