Meet the Team
behind Tubulis

Dominik Schumacher, PhD, serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Tubulis.

From the early founding phase on, Dominik successfully secured several prestigious start-up awards for Tubulis. In 2019, he was awarded as one of MIT’s Innovators Under 35. Dominik is also a Life Science Investor and has been actively investing in young, European biotech companies. Prior to co-founding Tubulis in 2018, Dominik worked at the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmacology (FMP) and as a group leader at the Ludwig Maximillian University (LMU) in Munich.

Dominik obtained his PhD from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany and studied Chemistry and Economics at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.

Jonas Helma-Smets, PhD, serves as Chief Scientific Officer at Tubulis.

Jonas brings more than 10 years experience in biotechnology and antibody engineering to Tubulis and secured several prestigious start-up awards for the company. Prior to co-founding Tubulis, Jonas was a Group Leader at the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich. He also co-founded ChromoTek GmbH, a company focused on developing nanobody derivatives for proteome analysis and cell-based diagnostics.

Jonas studied biology and obtained his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at the LMU in Munich.

Ingo Lehrke, PhD, serves as Chief Business Officer at Tubulis.

Ingo brings over 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry to Tubulis and a passion for strategic business development. He also serves as Chief Executive Officer at Algiax Pharmaceuticals, a company developing treatments for neuropathic pain. Prior, he held the position of Managing Director at the drug delivery company tesa Labtec GmbH.

Ingo studied pharmaceutics at the University of Münster and obtained his PhD at the University of Heidelberg. He also studied business administration, specialising in marketing and finance.

Günter Fingerle-Rowson, PhD, MD, serves as Chief Medical Officer at Tubulis.

Günter brings more than 12 years of academic, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry experience to Tubulis. He worked in Global Clinical Development at MorphoSys and F. Hoffmann-La Roche as well as in Medical Affairs at Janssen-Cilag. Günter has gained a lot of experience throughout of all phases of clinical development and successfully brought three novel drugs to cancer patients.

Günter obtained his MD from the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich and a MD PhD in Molecular Medicine from New York University and is board-certified in hematology / medical oncology and in internal medicine.

Björn Hock is a seasoned expert in protein therapeutics and the ADC space and serves as the Chief Development Officer of Tubulis on a consultant basis.

Most recently, he served as interim CEO at Aerium Therapeutics (formerly SwissThera SA). From 2017 until 2021, he was the Vice President of Biologics, Technologies and Development at Ferring Pharmaceuticals. Prior, he worked in various positions at Merck for more than ten years, including his position as the Senior Director and Global Head of ADC and Targeted Therapeutics, where he oversaw the development of protein therapeutics from concept to lead stage.

Dr. Hock obtained his PhD in Biochemistry at the Chemotherapeutisches Forschungsinstitut Georg Speyer-Haus.

John Smither serves as Interim Chief Financial Officer at Tubulis.

John Smither brings extensive financial and operating management experience to Tubulis. Most recently he served as the CFO at Arcutis Biotherapeutics, where he led an IPO and capital raises. He has acted as CFO at Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, Unity Biotechnology, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, and interim CFO at Kite Pharma during its Gilead integration. His board roles include Achaogen, Dompé Biotec, eFFECTOR, and currently New Amsterdam Pharma and Genelux. Earlier, he was Amgen’s VP of Finance for Europe, overseeing 28 countries, and an Audit Partner at Ernst & Young.

John holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from California State University, Los Angeles.

Marc-André Kasper, PhD, serves as Vice President of Chemistry and Early Development at Tubulis.

Marc is a highly skilled chemist whose PhD and postdoctoral research, as conducted in the lab of Tubulis’ scientific co-founder, Prof. Christian Hackenberger, at the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) Berlin, significantly contributed to the development of the company’s proprietary novel conjugation platform technologies that build the cornerstone for its unique approach to ADC design. With his deep scientific expertise and innovative drive, Marc oversees the continuous development of our technological platform suite and the generation of new product candidates to unlock the full therapeutic potential of ADCs. He is with Tubulis from the beginning and held positions as Head of Research, Chemistry, and Director of Chemistry and Early Discovery.

Marc holds a PhD in Chemistry from the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Annette Vogl, PhD, serves as Vice President of Biology and Translational Research at Tubulis.

Annette is a versed biologist with strong expertise in cell biology, protein homeostasis and translational research. She joined Tubulis in 2020 and has held positions of increasing responsibility overseeing discovery biology and preclinical work. Prior to Tubulis, she held positions as Postdoctoral Researcher and Senior Scientific Researcher at Genentech, where she investigated the underlying pathobiology and developed therapeutic strategies to target central nervous system protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Annette holds a PhD in Neurobiology and Neurosciences from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry and the Technical University of Munich, where she also worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher.

Armin Weidmann, PhD, serves as Vice President Quality at Tubulis.

Armin brings 20 years of expertise in the biotech industry to Tubulis with extensive leadership experience in the areas of GxP quality management, compliance management and corporate internal audit functions. Previously, he worked in several positions at MorphoSys AG, with increasing responsibilities including VP Head of Global QA & Internal Audit and VP Head of Global Compliance & QA, where he led development and commercial quality management and compliance programs in Germany and the US.

Armin studied biochemistry at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, and obtained his PhD in Virology & Immunology at the Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg, Germany. After two years of post-doctoral studies in Germany and USA he joined the biotech industry.

Olivier Marcq, PhD, serves as Vice President CMC at Tubulis.

Olivier is an expert in bioconjugation therapeutics with more than 15 years of leadership expertise in the pharmaceutical industry encompassing CMC operation and strategy, GMP manufacturing as well as R&D, early and late phase development of biologics, particularly ADCs and conjugate vaccines. Previously, he was working in several positions at Vaxcyte including Senior Director, where he led programs and well as process development and manufacturing activities for multivalent bioconjugate vaccines. Olivier is also the founder and Principal of Omnium Bioconsulting, that provides bioconjugates process development and CMC strategy counseling. His prior experiences also comprise positions at Astellas Pharma, Pfizer and Wyeth, where he led team and projects for the development and manufacturing of ADCs and other bioconjugate therapeutics.

Olivier obtained his PhD in Chemistry at the Université de Bourgogne, France.

Mary Ann Lumiqued serves as Vice President Program Management at Tubulis.

Mary Ann brings more than 20 years of experience in the management of drug development and commercialization projects as well as in the development and execution of medical affairs strategies to Tubulis. Previously, she worked at MorphoSys as Program Leader Proprietary Development and, most recently, as Head of Global Medical Affairs Project Strategy and Operations. Before that, she held leading positions at private and public life sciences companies, including Ipsen, where she successfully directed and implemented lifecycle product development and brand strategy plans.

Mary Ann has a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience as well as a Professional Award in Biotechnology Management from the University of California, San Diego and Santa Cruz.

Andreas Montag serves as Vice President Finance at Tubulis.

Andreas brings with him more than ten years of experience in financial leadership, strategic planning, and operational project realization cultivated across internationally operating organizations. Before joining Tubulis in 2023, he held positions with increasing responsibility at Fraport AG, including Asset Director and Investment Manager. In this role, he was instrumental in planning, financing and executing M&As as well as major investment projects around the globe, led due diligence processes and oversaw financial planning and project management. He also guided Fraport’s Management and Supervisory Board in their investment decisions.

Andreas holds a Master Double Degree in Business Administration and Economics with focus on International Business and Finance from University of Cologne, Germany, and Aalto University, Helsinki Finland.

Moetaz B. Albizem, MD, serves as Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Operations at Tubulis.

Moetaz brings more than 25 years of experience in the areas of clinical drug development and medical affairs to Tubulis, particularly in the field of antibody-based therapeutics. Most recently, he worked at Aerium Therapeutics as Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Operations. Prior to that, he held leading positions overseeing clinical operations and trial management at several global biopharmaceutical companies, including Regeneron, Incyte and Amgen.

Moetaz obtained his MD from the Belarusian State Medical University.

Yariv Houvras, MD, PhD, serves as Vice President of Clinical and Translational Development at Tubulis.

Yariv is an internationally renowned physician-scientist with over 20 years of expertise in the cancer medicine. Most recently Yariv was a Senior Medical Director at Regeneron. Previously, Yariv was Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College where his lab focused on genetic mechanisms of tumor initiation. In clinical practice Yariv specialized in the treatment of thyroid and rare endocrine cancers. Dr. Houvras’ has published in leading journals including Nature, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Yariv completed postdoctoral research at Havard Medical School, fellowship Dana Farber Cancer Institute, residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and MD/PHD training at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.