Board of Directors

Regina Hodits

Regina is a partner in the Atlas Venture Life Sciences group. She joined Atlas Venture in 2004 and focuses on investments across Europe. Regina began her career in venture capital in 200 with Apax Partners in Munich, where she was responsible for life science investments and was closely involved with Apax’ investments in Genmab, Silence Therapeutics, Astex and Wilex. Prior to Apax partners, she was an industry specialist for pharmaceutical and biotech companies at McKinsey and Company focusing on building new businesses, spin-offs and mergers in the sector.

Regina currently serves on the Boards of Atlas portfolio companies Egalet, Fibrex, Lumavita, Nitec, Novamed, F-star, Jenavalve and ProtAffin. She is also an external director of the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Respiratory CEDD. Regina holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, a Master of Science from the Technical University in Vienna, Austria and she completed her post-doctoral research at the MRC in Cambridge, UK. She has been the recipient of a number of scientific awards and research grants, and has published in several journals, including Nature Biotech and JBC.

Anja König

Anja is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund in the Basel office. She is active in Switzerland and Europe and also manages a $20m fund in Korea. Anja serves on the board of directors for Nabriva, Heptares, Covagen, Diagnoplex, and Bicycle Therapeutics. Before her appointment to the Novartis Venture Fund she held the position of assistant to the Chairman and CEO of Novartis.

Prior to joining Novartis Anja was an Associate Partner at McKinsey and Company in New York City, a global consultancy, where she was a leader in McKinsey’s North American Pharmaceutical Practice and a knowledge expert on pharmaceutical research and drug discovery. Dr. König has experience working in the US, Europe and Emerging Markets. Anja König is a scientist by training and holds a PhD in physics from Cornell University.

Dave Tapolczay

Dave has 21 years experience of R&D management; his past roles include joint worldwide head of chemistry for Zeneca agrochemicals and senior manager of chemical development for Glaxo. He was responsible for the rapid growth of Cambridge Discovery Chemistry and was a key figure in two successful sales of the company initially to Oxford Molecular and then Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Post this last acquisition Dave was VP of Pharmaceutical Sciences with responsibility for over 230 scientists. On leaving Millennium Dave was a founder of Pharmorphix Ltd which was acquired by Sigma Aldrich Fine Chemicals in August 2006. He has also been involved with the start up of 5 companies all of which are still trading and one of which has been AIM listed. He was most recently VP of Technology Development for GSK pharmaceuticals and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Research Council Technology Group (MRCT).

Dave has an international reputation in the pharmaceutical chemical development as well as an outstanding academic track record with a considerable number of patents and publications. He was a visiting Professor at Sussex University and has previously held the position of visiting lecturer at Nottingham, Reading and Durham Universities and a member of both the Technical Opportunities Panel and the User Panel of the EPSRC.

John Tite

John joined Bicycle Therapeutics as CEO on formation of the company, prior to this he was Vice President and Head of Discovery Biology for the GSK Biopharm CEDD in which capacity he established the current GSK monoclonal antibody programme and was responsible for all biology support for biopharm discovery and development programmes from target to proof of concept

John graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Zoology from University College London before completing a PhD in Immunology at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. After post-doctoral training at Yale University Medical School, John returned to the United Kingdom to take up the position of research scientist at the Wellcome Foundation working on the development of the first humanised therapeutic antibody–CAMPATH-1H. He has been involved in the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies and vaccines since that time and played a key role in the establishment of GSK’s Biopharm CEDD. He also led the strategic alliance with PowderJect on DNA vaccines and was the Chairman of the Board for the Edward Jenner Institute for Vaccine Research. John is a frequent contributor to MRC and CR-UK review panels and is currently a member of the MRC-Technology Scientific Advisory Board.

Sir Greg Winter, FRS

Greg is a scientific pioneer of protein engineering, and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, and an inventor and entrepreneur. He invented techniques to both humanize (1986) and, later, to make fully human antibodies for therapeutic uses. His technology is used in over two-thirds of the antibody products on the market, including the humanized antibodies Campath-1H, Herceptin, Avastin, Synagis and the first human antibody (Humira) to be approved by the US FDA. Greg was a founder and Board Director of Cambridge Antibody Technology (1989); the company pioneered the use of antibody repertoire technologies to make the human antibodies (floated on the LSE in 1997 and acquired by AstraZeneca in 2006). Greg was also a founder and Board Director of Domantis (2000); the company pioneered the use of domain antibodies, which use only the active portion of a full-sized antibody (and acquired by GSK in 2006). Together with Christian Heinis at the EPFL, Lausanne, he is now trying to develop very small protein mimics based on a covalently-bonded hydrophobic core; this is the technology that underpins Bicycle Therapeutics.

Greg has won several international prizes, including the Prix Louis Jeantet de Medecine (Switzerland) in 1989; the King Faisal International Prize for Medicine (Molecular Immunology, Saudi Arabia) in 1995; the Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award (USA) in 1999 and the National Biotechnology Ventures Award (USA) in 2004. Greg is Deputy Director of UK Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), Cambridge, and was formerly Joint Head of the LMB Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry. Greg is a graduate and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences; an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering; and a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He received his knighthood in 2004.