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Robert H. Ring, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Robert Ring is CEO of Kaerus Bioscience. A neuroscientist by training, Dr Ring is a globally-recognized expert in neurodevelopmental disorders with over 25 years of experience in CNS medicines research and development spanning a unique arc of leadership positions in industry, governmental agencies, and non-profit research foundations.
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Dr. Ring began his career at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, heading the company’s mood and anxiety disorders discovery research. At Wyeth, he was a pioneer in the development of therapeutics targeting vasopressin and oxytocin systems of the brain. From Wyeth, Ring joined Pfizer to head the Autism Research Unit, overseeing the first dedicated drug discovery unit in large pharma focused exclusively on the development of therapeutics for the autism spectrum and related neurodevelopmental disorders such as Fragile X syndrome. After Pfizer, he moved from industry to the patient space, serving as Chief Science Officer of Autism Speaks, a global science and advocacy foundation in the autism space. There he led the launch and served as the founding president of DELSIA, the foundation’s venture arm supporting commercialization of scientific innovations for individuals with autism. He also spearheaded the creation of MSSNG, in collaboration with Google and Toronto SickKids, an open-access database of whole genome sequence data from over ten thousand multiplex families with autism. In 2015, Ring was appointed to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he served for 5 years as a strategic advisor in shaping research strategy and funding priorities at in autism across federal agencies.
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Dr. Ring earned a PhD in Molecular Neurobiology from Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope (CA), and a BA in both Biology and Fine Art (double major) from Westmont College (CA). He holds adjunct faculty appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and in Pharmacology and Physiology at Drexel University College of Medicine. Ring has served on the scientific advisory board of numerous non-profit organizations in the rare CNS space, including the Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation, the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Research Foundation, and Global Genes.
Marc Ceusters, PhD
Head of Development
Dr Marc Ceusters is Head of Development at Kaerus. He is a medicinal chemist by training and brings to Kaerus a wealth of industry leadership experience and expertise in the management of CNS drug development programs.
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Dr Ceusters began his career at Janssen Pharmaceutical Research and Development (Belgium), where he worked for 25 years beginning as a discovery chemist and progressing to leadership over early clinical development programs in neuroscience. He has an extensive track record of leading programs leading programs from discovery into early clinical testing and clinical proof-of-concept for schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. He also led externalization ventures at Janssen in the epilepsy space. After Janssen, Marc founded a pharma R&D consulting firm The Marc Ceusters Company (Belgium), which advises and provides drug development project management support to biopharma SMEs.
Marc earned a PhD in organic and peptide chemistry from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), where he also completed postdoctoral fellowship training in radio-chemistry. He also was awarded the titles of Science Fellow and Honorary Fellow at VUB and serves on the advisory board of Denercon.
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Valentin Gribkoff, PhD
Ion Channel Pharmacology
Dr. Valentin Gribkoff oversees ion channel biology and pharmacology at Kaerus. He brings over 35 years of industry experience in the discovery and early development of ion channel modulators to Kaerus.
Dr. Gribkoff has previously served as Head of CNS Ion Channel Biology at Bristol-Myers Squibb (USA), Vice-President of Ion Channel Biology at Scion Pharmaceuticals in (USA), Chief Scientific Officer of Knopp Biosciences (USA) Pittsburgh, Head of Research at Elan Pharma and the Head of Pharmacology at Resolute Bio.
Valentin is a founder and Chief Technical Officer of Mensura Health. Dr Gribkoff has over 35 years of professional experience in the biotech/pharma industry, including 17 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he was the head of the CNS Ion Channel Drug Discovery group. While at BMS he headed a group that first cloned and expressed a number of important neuronal potassium channels, including BK channels and KCNQ 2-5. The group discovered modulators of these channels, including the clinically-tested BK activator BMS-204352. He was later the Vice- President of Ion Channel Biology at Scion Pharmaceuticals, CSO of Knopp Neurosciences and Head of Research at Elan Pharma. He is currently an Assoc. Professor Adjunct at Yale School of Medicine, where he maintains a research program in synaptic physiology and neurodegeneration, and a co-Founder of GlioQuell in London, UK.
Dr. Gribkoff earned a PhD in physiological psychology and neuroscience from the University of California Riverside, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship train in the Department of Physiology, Tulane University School of Medicine. He has a joint faculty appointment at Yale University School of Medicine.
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Annelieke Peters, PhD ERT
Toxicology
Dr. Annelieke Peters leads toxicology at Kaerus. She brings over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry as a toxicologist for preclinical and clinical development programs. Annelieke has a special interest and expertise in pediatric drug development.
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Dr. Peters has previously worked as toxicologist at Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics (Amsterdam, NL), study director for toxicology at Solvay Pharmaceuticals (Netherlands) and project toxicologist at Astellas Pharma (Netherlands). She has supported the transition of numerous drugs from preclinical to phase 1 (and beyond), and participated in scientific advice meetings with the FDA, EMA and local authorities. Since 2018, she has worked at D2team BV (Netherlands), a consulting firm that she co-founded, provides biotechnology partners critical expertise in key areas of drug development.
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Dr. Peters earned her PhD in biochemical toxicology from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands), and completed her postdoctoral fellowship training in Mechanistic Toxicology at Janssen Pharmaceutical Research and Development (Belgium). She is a European Registered Toxicologist (ERT) and board member of the Dutch Society for Toxicology.
Eef Hoeben, PhD
DMPK
Dr. Eef Hoeben leads preclinical and clinical pharmacokinetics (PK) at Kaerus. She brings over 20 years of industry experience in non-clinical and clinical PK, pharmacology and pharmacometrics (PMX) to Kaerus.
Dr. Hoeben began her career as a nonclinical and clinical PK expert at Janssen Pharmaceutical Research and Development (Belgium). During her 18-year tenure at Janssen, Eef distinguished herself as PK and PMX scientist, serving as PM leader on numerous clinical development programs, and was an Associate Director of Model Based Drug Development. After Janssen, Dr. Hoeben served as Chief Science Officer at BioNotus GCV (Belgium), overseeing bioanalytical services, scientific writing, coaching and training of young scientists. In 2019, she founded the consultancy firm eScienceQPS (Belgium), which provides biotech and pharma partners with PK/PM support, non-compartmental analysis, and scientific writing.
Eef earned both a Licentiate in biochemistry and PhD in science from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).
Jo Van Betsbrugge, PhD
CMC
Dr. Jo Van Betsbrugge is responsible for technical and operational management oversight of chemistry, manufacturing & controls (CMC) activities at Kaerus. He is a synthetic organic chemist by training with over 20 years of drug R&D experience and is an expert in cGMP-compliant manufacturing, process validation, and in the preparation of CMC sections for NDAs, CTDs and INDs
Dr. Van Betsbrugge began his career as a cofounder and President of BioQuadrant Pharmaceutical Intermediates Inc (Canada), a chemistry-based CDMO specializing in the development of small molecule and peptide drugs. Dr. Van Betsbrugge is a co-inventor and co-developer of Eli Lilly’s BAQSIMI®, a novel intranasal dry powder formulation of the diabetes drug glucagon originally developed at BioQuadrant in 2009 on behalf of Locemia Solutions (Canada).
Jo earned a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and MSc in macromolecular and physical organic chemistry from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). He’s a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
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Desirée Kanters
Clinical Operations
Desirée is clinical project manager at Kaerus. She brings over 24 years of drug development and clinical operations experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech, CRO and consultancy sectors.
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Desirée began her career in clinical research at SGS (Belgium), where she served as project manager for numerous late-stage clinical programs, including work on the rare disease Cystic Fibrosis. After SGS, she served as a Global Trial Lead for programs at Janssen Pharmaceutica (Belgium), and then Galapagos (Belgium). She has more recently served as Head of Clinical Operations at Biocontech Therapeutics (Spain), and Chief Operating Officer at Rejuvenate Biomed (Belgium).
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Desirée earned a MSc and Licentiate in nutritional sciences from Ghent University in Belgium.
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Nicholas Stern, FCCA
Chief Financial Officer
Nicholas Stern has extensive work experience in various roles and industries. Nicholas currently serves as a Non-Executive Director at One Heart Clinic and Retrac Group. In 2022, they were the Chief Financial Officer at Concr. Prior to that, they held the position of Non-Executive Director (Finance) at Keidan Harrison LLP in 2021. Nicholas also served as a Senior Funding Partner at TSF Finance and a Non-Executive Director at Chiltern Distribution LTD in the same year. In 2020, Nicholas held the role of Non-Executive Director at Cygnet Properties & Leisure PLC and J S Davidson. Nicholas was also a Subject Matter Expert in Finance, M&A, and Strategy at Babraham Research Campus. Additionally, in 2020, they founded STERNE Management Advisory and became its Managing Director. Overall, Nicholas Stern has consistently held leadership positions throughout their career.
Nick earned his in from Oxford Brookes University (UK), and FCCA (Fellow Chartered and Certified Accountant) from Oxford Brookes University (UK).
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