Scientific Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Josef Penninger, MD, PhD
Chairman
Josef Penninger born in Gurten, Austria, is since July 1, 2023 the Scientific Director of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany. At the same time, he was appointed Professor for Precision Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna.
He studied Medicine at the University of Innsbruck, from 1990 to 1994 he worked as post-doctoral fellow at the Ontario Cancer Institute, thereafter until 2002 at the Department of Immunology and Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. As Principal Investigator at Amgen, his independent lab contributed to the development of the antibody Denosumab for bone loss and found the first connection for RANKL to mammary gland development in pregnancy and breast cancer.
In 2002, he moved to Vienna, to start and develop the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, which has become one of the prime research centers in the world.
From the end of 2018 to June 2023 Josef Penninger returned to Canada and was the Director of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia (the largest such institute at any Canadian University). Dr. Penninger created a similar environment at the LSI that nurtured and trained the best and brightest young minds of UBC scholars. His major accomplishments include pioneering insights into the molecular basis of osteoporosis and breast cancer and demonstrating a critical role for ACE2 as the cellular receptor for SARS Coronavirus infections and linking ACE2 to lung failure in such infections.
Josef Penninger is a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Austrian Academy of Sciences (elected as the youngest member), the Academia Europea, and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
Since 1995 Josef Penninger has been receiving multiple competitive research grants in the EU and North America, among those a Canada 150 Research Chair in Functional Genetics, an Innovator Award from the US Department of Defense, an EU Excellence Grant, as well as an ERC Advanced Grant.
Josef Penninger has earned a long list of awards and honorary awards. Among those are the Ernst-Jung-Prize for Medicine, the Descartes-Prize (highest European award) and the Wittgenstein-Prize, also referred to as the “Austrian Nobel Prize”. In 2015 he placed 11th in the ranking of the most influential thought leaders in German-speaking countries and was among the Top 10 of the most cited scientists worldwide twice. Josef is a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Austrian Academy of Sciences (elected as the youngest member), the Academia Europea, and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
Josef is a Professor in Immunology at the University of Toronto (Status-only academic appointment), Professor at the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia and has been given an Honorary Professor title of the Chinese University of Qingdao as well as the Technical University Braunschweig and is a recipient of the Austrian Cross of Merit.
Dr. Norbert Bischofberger, PhD
Dr. Norbert Bischofberger received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Zurich’s ETH and received an honorary doctorate in Natural Sciences (2016) from The University of Innsbruck and an honorary doctorate in Letters in Medicine (2017) from Baylor College of Medicine.
He is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Kronos Biotech and he was the Executive Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer at Gilead Sciences.
He was part of the core management team that grew Gilead from less than 50 employees with no revenues to 10,000 employees with $25B in revenue.
Dr. Bert Klebl, PhD
Dr. Bert Klebl is Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer of Lead Discovery Center (LDC) in Dortmund, Germany.
Dr. Bert Klebl has gathered more than 20 years of professional experience in the life sciences industry.
He has worked in different positions in drug discovery and early development, most recently as Senior Director Discovery Biology and Head of Biology at GPC Biotech.
Before that he was Axxima’s Vice President Research responsible for the discovery and development of the company’s portfolio of kinase inhibitors for various therapeutic indications.
In previous positions, he has worked as a project and platform manager, as well as a scientist at Aventis and Hoechst Marion Roussel.
He earned his PhD in biochemistry at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and did postdoctoral work at the NRC Biotechnology Research Institute in Montreal, Canada.
In the course of his research, he has published more than 55 articles in peer reviewed journals and co invented more than 25 patents and patent applications.
