Hedi Ben Brahim
Chief Executive Officer
Hedi Ben Brahim was CEO of Transgene from 2021 to 2023. During his tenure, he and his team launched two products in clinic and demonstrated the unique benefits of viral based personalized vaccines in a successful phase 1 program. Prior to that, Hedi was Vice-President, Immunotherapy of Institut Mérieux from 2018 to 2020. In this role, he was the Chairman of ABL Inc., a contract research & development, and contract biomanufacturing organization (CRO/CMO). Prior to joining the Institut Mérieux, he was General Manager at a subsidiary of Vallourec, a solutions provider to the energy sector. Hedi began his career in the public sector at the Ministry of the Economy, Action and Public Accounts, then at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. He is a graduate of École Polytechnique and École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris.
Magali Richard
Co-founder, board member & advisor
Magali has fifteen years of experience in the field of biotechnology, combining academia and industry. Magali graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, and holds a PhD in Molecular Biology (Paris 6). From 2009 to 2011 she worked as a Scientist at Biomarin Pharmaceuticals, pursuing in the rare diseases space and gaining biotech experience in the United States. Subsequently, Magali worked for 6 years at the Boston Consulting Group, working with various large pharmaceutical companies on all activities along the value chain. She then joined the Executive Committee of DBV Technologies as Chief Strategy Officer. She is today HP Community Lead at Alan.
David Schilansky
Co-founder & Chairman, representing Home Biosciences
David has more than twenty years of professional experience, mainly in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. From 2011 to 2020, he co-headed DBV Technologies. During this period, he led two IPOs on Euronext and Nasdaq, raising more than one billion US dollars in total. David began his career as an investment banker in M&A at Warburg, before joining Technicolor as head of financial communication. He then worked at Ipsen, from 2005 to 2011, where he held various roles in finance, including that of Group CFO, before moving to DBV. David has been a board member of Lysogene SA, a phase III gene therapy company in CNS, since 2016. David graduated from Paris Dauphine and Imperial College (London). He is today CFO of Ariceum.
Céline Vallot
Co-founder, CSO and SAB Chair
Céline Vallot is the head of the Dynamics of Epigenetic Plasticity group at Institut Curie (UMR3244/Translational Department). She joined the Translational Department of IC as a junior group leader in 2017 and is an expert in multi-omics data analysis and epigenetic regulation. She got awarded an ATIP-Avenir grant in 2017, the Bronze Medal of the CNRS in 2018, and the Prix Olga Sain in 2019. Her lab investigates the dynamics of acquisition of chromatin features in cancer cells in vivo and in vitro combining cancer biology to single-cell microfluidics and data mining. Her group has recently co-developed means to analyze the epigenome of cancer cells at single-cell resolution and revealed the heterogeneity of chromatin states within breast tumors. With her group, she has created a series of tools for single-cell data analysis. She has co-founded the single-cell facility of the IC. Céline also holds a MS from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris.
Institutional founders
Home Biosciences
Europe’s first biotech Venture Builder
Institut Curie
A leading player in the fight against cancer
Thomas Bonald, PhD
Professor at Telecom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, head of the DIG (Data, Intelligence and Graphs) team
- Engineer (Polytechnique -Telecom) and PhD in informatics
- Leading expert in data analysis and machine learning, especially on graphs, knowledge bases and natural language processing
Sophie Postel-Vinay, MD/PhD
Drug Development Department and U981 Research Unit at Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus
- MD in Medical Oncology and PhD in Oncology
- ATIP-Avenir ‘Young Group Leader’ (2017, Soeurs Lucie et Olga Fradiss award, Irene Joliot Curie award (2017)
- Expert in chromatin remodeling, DNA repair defect, immune system modulation in solid tumor
- Expert in early clinical trials in Oncology
Céline Vallot, PhD, Co-founder, CSO
head of the Dynamics of Epigenetic Plasticity group at Institut Curie (UMR3244/Translational Department)
- Engineer (Polytechnique) and PhD
- Leader expert in epigenomic and single-cell technologies in oncology
