BioFIT 2026 Exhibitor List

Alexander Zagajewski is an AI/ML Research Scientist at Novo Nordisk, bringing over 7 years of experience in developing data-driven solutions utilizing machine learning and generative AI with complex multimodal data. He is an expert in machine learning, predictive modeling, computer vision, deep learning, and cloud computing. Alexander excels at leading cross-functional collaborations with engineering teams across multiple sites to drive innovation.

Arezki Yaïche is since 2014 a financial journalist specialised in M&A and EU competition law. As a Senior France Correspondent and Paris Bureau Chief for the global M&A newswire Mergermarket (owned by ION Group), he writes on all types of transactions from competition issues, early stage fundraises, and private deals to takeovers of listed companies and IPOs. Arezki was previously Senior Correspondent Antitrust for regulatory newswire MLex in Brussels between 2019 and 2021. Before that he worked four years as M&A reporter and Paris Bureau Chief for Mergermarket . Arezki also has a six-year experience as Communication consultant specialised in Finance and EU regulation. He worked for financial and public institutions including Dexia Asset Management in Brussels, Credit Agricole Assurances in France, the French embassy in Stockholm, the European Parliament, and the French Ministry for Agriculture.

Charlotta Topelius is the CEO of CurifyLabs, a pioneering healthtech company transforming the way pharmacies compound medicines through automation and 3D printing technologies. Since 2021, she has led CurifyLabs’ growth from an academic spin-out into an international scale-up, enabling pharmacies to produce sustainable, on-demand, and patient-specific treatments. With a background spanning entrepreneurship, leadership, and international business development, Charlotta brings more than 15 years of experience across the pharmaceutical, technology, and services sectors. Prior to founding CurifyLabs, she held leadership roles at companies including Detail Online, HMSHost, and as co-founder and CEO of BrandBuddy Group, where she built and successfully exited a fast-growing recruitment and staffing company. She also serves as a Board Member at Witted Megacorp PLC, a publicly listed software development company. Charlotta holds an M.Sc. (Econ.) in Management and Organisation from the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, with additional international studies in Reykjavik. Recognized for her ability to bridge pharma, technology, and business, she is passionate about bringing personalized medicine closer to patients and building organizations that can scale globally.

Dr. Christian Hugo Hoffmann is a successful entrepreneur and AI entrepreneur. His first venture, a spin-off of his doctoral project in finance at the University of St. Gallen, which he sold, focused on a risk management solution using AI. He then held C-level positions in German- and French-speaking Switzerland and co-founded companies in Germany, Switzerland, and Malawi. He is currently working as a cluster-preneur with the AI Startup Center in Zurich and is involved in numerous deep tech startups. He actively advocates for greater responsibility in his writings, speeches, and practical entrepreneurship.

Damien BERTRAND is Senior Business Developer in Life Sciences at Sopartec, the technology transfer and investment company from UCLouvain, in Belgium. He holds a doctorate in Sciences and additional university certificates in innovation and business management. He cumulates more than 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry including large corporations as well as startup companies, starting in technical roles to evolve progressively towards partnerships and business management. Through this pathway, he developed a broad and diversified professional network in med-tech and biopharmaceutical industries worldwide; he also elaborated a broad overview over the leading tendencies and needs of the life science sector, including the growing role of digital technologies and artificial intelligence. In his daily work, Damien Bertrand shapes up valorisation strategies on the research results issued from the Life Science sector at UCLouvain, that he materializes through licenses with established market players or through spinoff companies.

Damien Chopy is a Senior Director, Business Development Project Leader in the Roche Pharma Corporate Business Development team for 7 years. His curiosity and interest in cross-pollination between teams and therapeutic areas have contributed to the identification, informed decisions and transactions on complex and strategic opportunities to complement Roche and Genentech portfolio with innovative assets and emerging therapeutic modalities. Recently in Oncology, he had the pleasure to lead the setup of Roche partnership with Medilink on Ph1 cMet ADC and the acquisition of Poseida Therapeutics. Since joining Roche in 2013, Damien has held various roles with increased responsibilities at the interface of the sciences in the Roche Institute team (Roche France) prior to moving to the R&D unit in Basel. He is also part of the Steering Committee of Biofit.

David Stíbal is a Vice Director of the BioTech incubator and venture builder i&i Prague. David completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, earned a Ph.D. from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, and conducted postdoctoral research at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At i&i Prague, David focuses on the evaluation of the business potential of scientific projects, establishing and initial management of startups, as well as on the long-term development of projects all the way to their successful commercialization. i&i Prague focuses on creating innovative BioTech start-ups and spin-offs in the fields of drug development, diagnostics and MedTech and from the region of the Czech Republic, Poland and overall Central Europe. i&i Prague is closely connected to the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry in Prague and benefits from its knowhow, network and previous commercialization successes.

Dawid, a key member of Ardigen’s team since 2017, is not just an AI expert but also a visionary leader. While earning his PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision from Jagiellonian University, Kraków, he has become a specialist in analyzing high-content images, digital pathology, protein microarrays, and biomedical imaging. Moreover, Dawid’s proven project leadership has been instrumental in the success of various initiatives at Ardigen, including groundbreaking multimodal fusion projects. His unique approach to integrating chemical structures with raw images, and combining clinical data with raw imagery, sets new standards in the field of AI-driven biotech.

Delphine Charvin is CEO and co-founder of Elkedonia. A neuroscientist by training, she has held several CSO positions in start-ups, scale-ups, and pharma companies. She co-founded Prexton Therapeutics, later acquired by Lundbeck in a landmark $1 billion deal. Before founding Elkedonia, she was Operating Partner at Argobio, a start-up studio, where she identified the innovative project that became Argobio’s first spin-out. Under her leadership, Elkedonia successfully raised €11+ million in May this year.

Emeric is an Associate at Wellington Partners based in Munich, where he supports investments in innovative biotech and medtech companies across both Europe and the US. Before joining Wellington, he gained venture capital experience at Andera Partners and Bpifrance Large Venture. Prior to that, he also spent time in the pharmaceutical industry in rare diseases and in clinical practice across multiple therapeutic areas. Emeric holds a PharmD from Université de Paris and graduated from ESSEC Business School.

Emmanuel Poteaux has been Executive Chairman of SATT Conectus since December 2024. This appointment marks a career of 18 years of technology transfer, including 13 years with SATT Conectus. His immersion in the field of public research and technology transfer began in 2007. He worked as Legal Manager in the Technology Transfer Department of the University of Strasbourg, one of France’s largest universities. He then joined SATT Conectus at its creation in 2012, as Director of Legal Affairs and of the Partnerships Department. He was appointed Deputy Managing Director in 2018. Working in tandem with the Executive Chairman, he has been actively involved in boosting the performance of SATT Conectus, whether by rolling out multi-year operational efficiency and business development programs in partnership with other French SATTs, or revisiting the SATT investment processes for innovative projects. These actions enabled Conectus to secure new public funding and achieve record sales in 2023. Emmanuel Poteaux holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Information and Communication Law, complemented by an LMM in Commercial Law, and an Executive MBA in 2018. Thanks to a training program at Boston University in 2011, he has also acquired international expertise in the evaluation of economic opportunities linked to intellectual property and the negotiation of licensing agreements. His career path reflects his commitment and strong motivation to further develop technology transfer in Alsace, drawing on the excellence of Alsatian research and an active, supportive partnership ecosystem.

Ester Sklarsky is an investment professional in life sciences, currently at Sound Bioventures, a Scandinavian biotech venture capital fund. Prior to joining the firm, she spent over two years at Industrifonden, where she worked across the investment lifecycle, managing deal flow and performing scientific and strategic due diligence for early-stage biotech ventures. Ester began her career in management consulting at Sirona Health Solutions, advising key stakeholders in the Swedish public healthcare sector. She also gained experience as an equity analyst at DNB, with a dedicated focus on the biotech sector. She holds a B.Sc. in Biomedicine and an M.Sc. in Bioentrepreneurship, both from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

As one of the founders of Sarsia, and the principal analyst regarding life science investments, Farzad brings nearly 30 years of drug development expertise and management from large global pharma and early-stage start-ups. Farzad’s experience spans multiple national and global preclinical and clinical drug development initiatives at both administrative and Board levels. In addition to receiving training in entrepreneurial business financing from London Business School, Farzad obtained his doctoral education in pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, UK and postdoctoral training from HaukelandUniversity Hospital Bergen, Norway.

Gerald has a background in Management Consultancy and academia. A London Business School alumnus with a Doctorate from Oxford University, he has experience of several start-ups and their exits, with considerable experience in building company executive boards, which has led him now to sit on VC investment committees, among other roles. In 2010, he founded Innovation DB. Developed under contract from the UK MOD, IDB has now created an AI-enhanced data gathering system, that identifies, captures and describes emerging technologies, drawn from around 20,000 academic institutions. This provides an unparalleled dataset of research with real-world applications, that includes all biotech and pharma-related tech transfer activity to be found globally.