Advisors

Helmuth van Es, Ph.D.

Non-executive director and Special Advisor CEO

Helmuth is co-founder and until March 2023 CEO and executive board director of Citryll. He has more than 30 years of experience in the health and life sciences as a scientist and entrepreneur. He has an MSc in Biology/Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Medicine from the University of Amsterdam; his Ph.D. work was on genetic disorders in bilirubin and drug metabolism. Subsequently he was a postdoctoral researcher at Einstein College in New York, and later at McGill University in Montreal, Canada where he worked on drug resistance in malaria. He started his biotech career as a senior scientist at IntroGene, Crucell (now part of J&J). At IntroGene he was responsible for stem cell-based gene therapies for Gaucher disease in partnership with Genzyme. He then co-authored the business plan for Galapagos with former Crucell CEO Ronald Brus to co-found Galapagos. At Galapagos he was Head of Science of the Leiden site under the leadership of CEO Onno van de Stolpe until 2006. He co-developed the strategy of the company that then moved from an adenoviral RNAi technology platform company to a biology driven, drug discovery, development and commercial company. His therapeutic area expertise includes osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, hearing loss, SLE, Dengue, bacterial infections and cystic fibrosis. As part of the Galapagos team he was responsible for setting up alliances with companies like GSK, Bayer, Incyte and Celgene and the CF foundation. Helmuth is co-inventor of the Galapagos discovery including the groundbreaking industrial application of RNAi.

In 2006 he co-founded a number of companies. Audion Therapeutics BV, is now a pioneering clinical stage, regenerative medicine, small molecule based company focusing on treating acquired hearing loss originally built on intellectual property from Professor Albert Edge (co-founder) at Harvard in Boston. He is co-inventor of LY3056480 a small molecule Notch inhibitor currently in the final stages of phase 2.. He co-founded Effecta Pharma Ltd, discovering antivirals for Dengue and related viruses. He is co-founder and board member of Antabio in France, UK, USA, a company focusing on a new generation of anti-bacterials combatting antibiotic drug resistance. He has advised number of companies including the France, USA, and China based antibody discovery and development company Hifibio. 

Mariana Kaplan, M.D.

Senior Investigator
Chief of the Systemic Autoimmunity Branch
Deputy Scientific Director at the NIH

Dr. Kaplan is Chief of the Systemic Autoimmunity Branch and Deputy Scientific Director at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at the NIH.

 

Before her appointment, she was a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Michigan. She is an Internist and a Rheumatologist. Her research focuses on characterizing the role of the innate immune system in the development of systemic rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Her lab has focused on the role of neutrophils and neutrophil extracellular traps in autoimmunity, chronic inflammatory diseases and vasculopathy. Dr. Kaplan also investigates mechanisms of vascular damage in autoimmunity.

 

Dr. Kaplan has served in numerous roles at the American College of Rheumatology/Rheumatology Research Foundation, the American Association of Immunologists, and the Lupus Foundation of America. She was inducted to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians and received the Henry Kunkel Young Investigator Award from the American College of Rheumatology and the Evelyn Hess Award from the Lupus Foundation of America. Dr. Kaplan is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and is Deputy Editor of Arthritis & Rheumatology.

David Jayne, M.D. PhD

Professor of Clinical Autoimmunity,
University of Cambridge Director
of the Vasculitis and Lupus Service,
Addenbrooke’s Hospital

David Jayne is Professor of Clinical Autoimmunity at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Director of the Vasculitis and Lupus service at Addenbrookes Hospital Cambridge. He trained at the Universities of Cambridge and London, and in nephrology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. He was a research fellow at Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge and was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Nephrology at St George’s Hospital London. Since 2001 he has been working in Cambridge where he is an Honorary Consultant Physician at Addenbrookes Hospital.

His research has focused on ANCA associated vasculitis and on the development of clinical trials to optimise current therapies and introduce new agents. Topics have included intravenous immunoglobulin, plasma exchange, mycophenolate mofetil and several newer immunosuppressives including avacopan and rituximab. In parallel, he has investigated newer therapies in SLE and lupus nephritis, including stem cell transplantation, mycophenolate mofetil and many immunomodulators. He is President of the European Vasculitis Society and coordinator of trials and academic meetings. He has published over 600 papers and has chaired or contributed to numerous guideline statements including the EULAR-ERA task force on lupus nephritis and KDIGO guidelines for glomerulonephritis. 

Garth Rapeport, M.D. PhD

Visiting Professor at the National Heart & Lung Institute,
Imperial College School of Medicine, London

Garth is visiting Professor at the National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College School of Medicine in London and Entrepreneur in Residence at F Prime. He was previously co-founder and CEO of Pulmocide and Respivert Ltd. which were drug discovery companies focused on the identification of novel disease modifying treatments for severe asthma and new generation inhaled respiratory antiviral and antifungal agents. Garth is a medical graduate who undertook post-graduate training at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford. After working at Pfizer Research in the UK he moved to GSK where he was SVP of Drug Discovery in the Respiratory area in which he led the discovery and early development new inhaled therapies for asthma and COPD.