Swiss HLG Basel Networking Event

The next frontiers in Brain Health

Few indications have experienced as much innovation over that past years as Brain Health.

Doors open at 5.30pm

• Registration and Welcome coffee
• Welcome from Swiss HLG
• The new Age of CNS – latest trends and deals in Brain Health - Nathanaëlle Cellier-Fontages and Anna Exenberger, IQVIA 
• Brian McCabe, EPFL Brain Mind Institute 
• Paving the way towards new treatment paradigms in Alzheimer's and beyond - Breakthroughs in Diagnosis and Brain Delivery- Elisabeth Aloy, Roche Diagnostics and Roberto Villaseñor Solorio, Roche Pharmaceuticals
• Panel on Neuroscience Partnering  - Celine Bouquet from Roche Partnering and Richard Porter from uniQure, Beppe Cangelosi from Takeda and Yves Wyckmans from Biogen
• Networking and Apero

Speaker Bios

Anna Exenberger, PhD is an Associate Principal in the Integrated Digital Health CoE embedded in IQVIA’s Commercial Strategy Consulting team, with a strong scientific background and proven track record of driving innovation in healthcare and life sciences. Anna focuses on opportunity identification and evaluation of innovative tools and technologies, with a particular interest in CNS. Prior to joining IQVIA, Anna completed a PhD in speech neuroscience, examining speech processing in the brain and changes associated with hearing impairment.

Nathanaëlle Cellier-Fontanges has 18 years of life sciences consulting and industry experience, spearheads next-generation patient engagement offerings while contributing to neuroscience-driven initiatives. Brings expertise in translating advances in neurobiology and cognitive science into strategic solutions for pharmaceutical and biotech organizations.Neuroscience Experience: Advises on strategies for neurological and neuropsychiatric portfolios, leveraging insights from brain health research, biomarkers, and emerging digital neurotechnologies to inform clinical development and market access.

Brian McCabe is the current Director of the EPFL Brain Mind Institute and the Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Neural Genetics and Disease at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. Prior to joining EPFL, he received a PhD from the University of Cambridge, England, completed postdoctoral research at the University of California Berkeley, USA, and was a faculty member at Columbia University Medical School, USA. His laboratory investigates motor system function, aging, and neurodegenerative disorders. Brian is also co-founder of biotech companies Avrion Therapeutics and Juvion Health Sciences.

Celine Bouquet is the BD Head of Neuroscience, Ophthalmology and Rare Diseases, Basel at Roche. Celine oversees the partnering transactions in these therapeutic areas and works closely with Roche’s internal research and development organization to identify opportunities that shape the Roche portfolio. She brings knowledge and experience from having led deals herself in various therapeutic areas while in Roche Pharma Partnering as well as her prior role, where she was overseeing portfolio prioritization, strategy setting and external alliances in the R&D organization from early discovery to Ph2. Celine joined Roche in 2012 and was heading the “Institut Roche”, dedicated to developing collaborative projects with academic partners to accelerate the transfer of basic research discoveries into innovative therapies in France. Prior to joining Roche, Celine gained experience and network across biotech, academia and tech transfer.An Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon fellow, Celine holds a PhD in neuroscience from University Paris 6 and did her postdoctoral training in neuro-ophthalmology at UCSF.

Delphine Charvin is CEO and co-founder of Elkedonia. A neuroscientist by training, she has held several CSO positions in start-ups, scale-ups, and pharma companies. She co-founded Prexton Therapeutics, later acquired by Lundbeck in a landmark $1 billion deal. Before founding Elkedonia, she was Operating Partner at Argobio, a start-up studio, where she identified the innovative project that became Argobio’s first spin-out. Under her leadership, Elkedonia successfully raised €11+ million in May this year.

Elisabeth Aloy, PhD, is the Head of Strategy at Roche Diagnostics. She has a dual background as a neuroscientist and a business leader in strategy, accelerating portfolio development and maximizing commercial value. She also has nearly two decades of strategy consulting experience, serving as a strategy consulting partner at Monitor Deloitte and leading the CNS and Rare Disease EMEA consulting practice at IQVIA.

Roberto Villaseñor is a Principal Scientist in pRED, where he leads the Brain Delivery group within the Neuroscience discovery and translational area. Roberto obtained his PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, with a background in Cell Biology. In 2014, he joined Roche to work on the Brainshuttle™ platform where he pioneered the study of the cellular mechanisms for transport across the blood-brain barrier. He has since taken on roles of increasing responsibility in the areas of blood-brain barrier biology, ADME of biologics, human in vitro model systems, and Neuroscience drug discovery. Currently, he leads the cross-functional preclinical Brainshuttle platform in Neuroscience and champions the development of novel therapeutic agents to treat Alzheimer's disease.

Beppe Cangelosi is Head of New Products & Portfolio Strategy in Neuroscience at Takeda, where Beppe leads global strategy and portfolio development, including assessing business development and partnering opportunities across several disease area strategies. With a unique blend of experience spanning Takeda, Shire, and Amgen in senior commercial and strategic roles, and a foundation in management consulting at McKinsey, Beppe brings a broad, cross-functional perspective to partnering and innovation in neuroscience.

Richard Porter is the Chief Business and Scientific Officer of uniQure, a Nasdaq listed AAV gene therapy company . He oversees research as well as non-clinical and vector development, and is responsible for business development and product planning. Dr. Porter joined uniQure as General Manager of the Corlieve subsidiary following the acquisition of Corlieve Therapeutics in July 2021. He was the founder and CEO of Corlieve developing a miRNA based therapy for refractory temporal lobe epilepsy. He brings more than 25 years of R&D experience to uniQure, having previously served as the COO of Therachon until its acquisition by Pfizer. Previously he was at Roche in positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as the Global Head of Scientific Business Strategy and Operations for Neuroscience Ophthalmology and Rare Diseases directing the strategic and operational activities of the department. He has also served as a Product General Manager of the Emerging Business Unit at Shire Pharmaceuticals and has held scientific leadership positions at Vernalis and ASTRA. Richard earned his Ph.D. in neuropharmacology from Southampton University (UK) and conducted his postdoctoral training at the Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, NY (USA) and the University of Oxford (UK).

Yves Wyckmans is the Head of International Business Development and External Innovation at Biogen, based in Baar, Switzerland. Biogen is a global pharmaceutical company active in a variety of neuro and immuno (rare) disease areas.Yves is responsible for all global, ex-US international business deals and Biogen’s connections into the European VC network, together with the newly created venture team at Biogen in US.He joined Biogen this year after a long career with Johnson & Johnson (Tibotec, Janssen, Actelion) in which he lived and worked for extended periods in US and multiple countries across Europe. Before becoming active in BD, he worked in pharmaceutical development where he led 2 global development programs in infectious diseases through the clinical development stages & submissions into successfully obtaining marketing approvals worldwide. The last 10+ years he has been active in business development, in various therapeutic areas and he completed a wide array of BD transactions since.

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