Jean-Marie Ruysschaert received his Master degree and Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the Free University of Brussels. He was collaborating during his PhD work with I. Prigogine, Nobel Prize Laureate. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cambridge University (U.K.), Weizmann Institute of Sciences with E. Katchalski (Israel), and Carnegie Institute with D. Pagano (Baltimore, MD). He then joined the Department of Chemistry at the Free University of Brussels where he created the laboratory for Chemistry and Physics of Macromolecules at the Interfaces, and later the Center for Structural Biology and Bioinformatics (Brussels, Belgium) of which he became Director since 2000. He has authored more than 400 articles, reviews, monographies in international journals (h-index: 71) and 2 patents. Jean-Marie Ruysschaert and his team demonstrated for the first time that, liposomes can be injected intravenously safely in patients. He was awarded the Avanti Lipid Prize in 2017. His research interest is mainly focused on the structures, activities and interactions between membrane components (lipids and proteins) and more recently on the immunology of lipid nanoparticles.

Christophe Vandier is Professor of Physiology at the University of Tours (France) and Director of the Nutrition-Growth-Cancer Laboratory (joint research unit between the University of Tours and INSERM, UMR 1069). After working in the field of vascular physiology for 10 years, he joined the Nutrition-Growth and Cancer laboratory of the University of Tours in 2004 to develop research aimed on studying the role of ion channels as molecular actors of nutritional lipids in cancer. At the same time, he participated as coordinator in the development of the «Ion Channels and Cancer» network of the Cancéropôle Grand Ouest, which has now become the «marine molecules, metabolism and cancer» network that he co-coordinates. Christophe Vandier has a h factor of 31 with a total of 86 publications, 5 patents and is co-founder of the start-up Lifesome Therapeutics.

Ana Bouchet is Scientific co-founder and CEO of Lifesome Therapeutics. She developed her academic career in lipid biophysics (Biophysics PhD, UBA, Argentina). She joined Prof. Christophe Vandier’s group with the financial support of the Prestige Marie Curie Fellowship programme and investigated the lipid-associated dysregulation of channels in cancer and metastasis development. She pursued Innovation Managing studies at IESE Business School and in 2021 she led Lifesome acceleration programme (CATAPULL) supported by Madrid Science Park and Madrid Innovation.

Luis Tebar has gained extensive expertise in Clinical Regulatory Affairs after holding management positions at Eli Lilly, small pharmaceutical companies and non-profit Research Institutes at reference hospitals. He has managed European multicenter oncology and haematology clinical trials, and independent studies aimed to orphan drug authorisation. His experience includes study protocol design, clinical trial application and studies start-up. Previously he has worked as drug discovery and target validation researcher at small biotech companies (TCD Pharma, ViveBiotech) and Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO). Luis Tebar was awarded a PhD degree at Neuroscience Research Center (Spanish National Research Council-Universidad Miguel Hernández). His work was focused on validation of molecules involved in nerve regeneration by developing transgenic and knock-out mice models (MRC-LMB Cambridge, UK). He further developed these investigations at University College London, working as post-doctoral research fellow, being responsible of Medical Research Council funded research programs and authoring high impact articles. He joined Lifesome Therapeutics as Research Scientist in 2024.

Natalia Alfaro developed her academic career in cellular and molecular biology (Biological Sciences PhD, UNL, Argentina). She has broad experience as Scientific Professional and Biotechnology Technician acquired at the National Tuberculosis Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory (National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) «Dr. Emilio Coni», Argentina). She joined Lifesome Therapeutics in 2023 as Scientific Researcher.

Diego Pazos Castro obtained his PhD in Biotechnology in 2023 (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM), after developing novel immunotherapy treatments against food allergy and asthma. During this time, he also joined McMaster University (Ontario, Canada) and developed new flow cytometry tools to study rare populations of B cells. He joined Uppsala University (Sweden) as a postdoctoral fellow to study the role of mast cells in cancer. Beyond the lab, he is passionate about disseminating science to non-scientific audiences and was awarded the “2021 My Thesis in a Nutshell” prize (UPM) because of said activity. He joined Lifesome Therapeutics as a Research Scientist in 2024.

Antoine Briffaux is a seasoned executive with over two decades of experience in operations, business development, and strategic planning. With a strong track record in enhancing business processes and fostering growth, Antoine has led successful initiatives across both the non-governmental and industry sectors. Currently, he serves as the Director of Business Development at Lifesome Therapeutics SL, where he spearheads strategic commercial growth and capital funding efforts. Antoine is also the Founder and Managing Director of BriBCventures SRL, where he leverages his extensive expertise to support biotech startups in achieving their business goals. Passionate about innovation and patient-centered care, Antoine is dedicated to driving transformative advancements in precision medicine.

Alberto Encinas obtained his Diploma in Pathological Anatomy and Cytology in 2023 and pursued additional Animal Experimentation studies in 2024. During this time, he joined Madrid’s Wildlife Recovery Centre and Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospital, where he gained experience in histology, diagnostic and working with experimental rodents. He joined Lifesome Therapeutics as a Lab Technician Trainee in 2024.