Dr Michael Thurn brings broad experience in drug discovery, development, regulation and commercialisation, acquired through leadership roles in research organisations and industry, including early-stage, fastgrowing, private and publicly listed biotechnology companies. His previous responsibilities have included leading a variety of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lnvestigational New Drug (IND) applications across a range of therapeutic areas and the evaluation of drugs and vaccines for registration in Australia as a part of the Drug Safety Evaluation Branch (DSEB) of the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA).
Michael has also been responsible for the execution of Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials and business development activities across animal and human health products. He possesses strong entrepreneurial, leadership and management skills that have seen him achieve outstanding results over a 25 year career in the biotechnology industry, including co-founding MARPTherapeutics and roles with Botanix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:BOT), Mimetica, Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, Cytopia, Xenome and Novogen. During this time, Dr Thurn has gained Australian and US capital markets exposure and has successfully accessed funding through private and public channels, partnerships, and non-dilutive means.
Jeroen de Groot is a highly accomplished R&D and business executive who has an extensive background leading international contract research organizations, with particular experience in innovation, drug discovery and development. Jeroen was previously Chief Operation Officer Early Discovery at Charles River Laboratories, where he spent almost a decade. He also worked at contract research firm Galapagos and, prior to that, spent 13 years at TNO, where he began his career as a bench scientist and was involved in research into bone & joint diseases, inflammatory & degenerative diseases, ADME, pharmacokinetics & human studies. He studied biology at Leiden university, and earned a PhD at Utrecht University Medical Center & TNO.