Professor Klaus Kutz, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Professor Klaus Kutz has 15 years of experience as an independent consultant in Clinical Pharmacology and Safety for pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations. Professor Kutz’s specialty over the last six years is oncology, including preparation of multiple NDAs and INDs for small and medium sized pharmaceutical companies. He has prepared, organized and reported clinical Phase I studies in oncology and Phase II studies in different cancer indications (prostate, gastric, ovarian, small cell lung cancer) and Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas. He has more than 12 years of experience as Head of Clinical Pharmacology with worldwide responsibilities for Phase I and Clinical Pharmacokinetics in two internationally operating pharmaceutical companies, setting up and restructuring international Clinical Pharmacology departments. His achievements include the successful world-wide registration of multiple important Sandoz’ compounds by preparation of multiple NDAs and Expert reports (including Written Summary), as well as the preparation of multiple INDs for Sandoz Pharma Ltd. and Sanofi Research. A specialist for Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Clinical Pharmacology, Professor Kutz is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Bonn, Germany.

Dr. Ralf Brandt

Dr. Brandt is the co-founder of vivoPharm. He is a biochemist and cell biologist with over 15 years experience in research programs of experimental oncology. Furthermore, he has immense experience in in vivo pharmacology and anti-cancer drug profiling. He received his Licence (BSc in Biochemistry and Animal Physiology) in 1986, and his PhD (in Biochemistry) in 1991 from the Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Dr. Brandt was employed at research positions at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, USA and at Schering AG, Germany. Since 1990, Dr. Brandt has been active in the field of preclinical oncology. He led the Tumour Biology program at Novartis Pharma AG, Switzerland and established several transgenic mouse lines developing tumours under the control of oncogenes. During Dr. Brandt's long career in the pharmaceutical industry he has acquired significant knowledge and expertise in leading business units and representation of services to the pre-clinical research market. Dr. Brandt is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Receptor Inc. in Toronto Canada.

Macarena Perán, Ph.D.

Dr. Macarena Perán holds a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Málaga, Spain. Dr. Perán moved to the Neuroscience Department at Durham University, UK, where she studied the Cellular Distribution and Immobilisation of GABAA Receptors on the cell membrane and graduated in 2000 with a Ph.D. She moved back to Spain and completed another Ph.D. program in the Faculty of Medicine focused on Changes in the Behavior of Central Nervous Proteins; she completed a second Ph.D. from Granada University. In 2005/2006, she attended Bath University, UK, Prof. David Tosh lab, and changed her research interest to the developed of new anti-cancer drugs and cell therapy for regenerative medicine. In 2011, she spent a year as a visiting scientist in the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, California, Prof. Juan Carlos Izpisua-Belmonte lab. Currently, Dr. Perán is Reader in Anatomy at University of Jaen in Spain and is working with the Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Pathobiology (IBIMER).

Juan Antonio Marchal Corrales

Dr. Juan Antonio Marchal Corrales is Professor of Anatomy and Embryology at the Faculty of Medicine of University of Granada. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1992, obtaining the degree “summa cum laude”. He defended his doctoral thesis in 1996. Prof. Marchal has worked at three universities in different educational categories and is responsible of the research group "Differentiation, Regeneration and Cancer". He has participated in 39 research projects of national and international character, being principal investigator in 13 of them. He has a total of 145 publications in journals, of which 125 are listed in the Journal Citation Reports. He has spent time at the University of Sassari (Italy) and as visiting professor. He is inventor of 14 patents, 4 of them licensed. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Graduate School of the University of Granada, member of the standing committee of the Scientific Council and coordinator of Area Research in the Biosanitary Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA) and member of the Governing Board at the Institute of Pathobiology and Regenerative Medicine (IBIMER). He has recently been named director of the Chair Drs. Galera and Requena of Cancer Stem Cell Research at the University of Granada.

Dr. Garcia

Dr. Garcia, graduated in Biology from University of Granada (Spain) in 1997, became a Molecular Biologist working in the National Centre of Biotechnology characterizing the mechanism of action of  “ Protein kinase induced by interferon: PKR”. These studies gave rise to a PhD title awarded with an Extraordinary Thesis Award by the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2004. In 2002, Dr García completed a 3-months stay at the University of Wyoming (USA) with Dr. Roth.  During the postdoctoral period, she got major public and private funding to characterize new activity of the main tumor suppressor genes that are mutated in more than 50% of human cancers such as p53, ARF and Rb. Dr García currently has a competitive research contract from the National Health System to lead translational cancer research, aiming at the integration of basic, clinical and epidemiological cancer research in the University Hospital Complex of Granada. She leads a line of research involving new antitumor drugs, biological therapies, biomarkers and cancer stem cell studies. Finally, Dr García has more than 30 peer-reviewed publications in international journals with an average impact factor of 5 and a H-Index of 14.