Jury of Experts of the nTTP-GCT

Expertise:
Hildegard Büning has been active in the field of gene and cell therapy for over 27 years. She is one of the leading experts on adeno-associated viruses (AAV) and vectors derived from them. Her work focuses on improving efficacy, redirecting tropism to predefined target cell populations, and reducing the immunogenicity of this vector system in order to increase the efficiency and safety of AAV vector-based gene therapies.

She was president of the German Society for Gene Therapy (DG-GT e.V.) and president of the European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) and has developed new training programs for both societies, among other things. She is currently a member of the board of DG-GT e.V. as scientific secretary.

• Medical doctor with a PhD and Adj. Prof. thesis (habilitation) in immunology (University of Heidelberg)
• active in the field of transplant immunology since 1987 and in stem cell transplantation since 2004
• Medical Director of the ZKRD since 2020, coordinating donor searches nationally and internationally
• member of the WMDA Cell & Gene Therapy Committee since 2021

Expertise:

Immunogenetics, Molecular Biology, NGS and Molecular Diagnostics

Expertise:

Francis Ayuk is a specialist in hematology/oncology with more than 20 years of experience in clinical and clinical-translational stem cell transplantation and cell therapy. Since April 1, 2025, he has been Director of the Interdisciplinary Clinic and Polyclinic for Stem Cell Transplantation at the UKE and University Professor (W3) for Stem Cell Transplantation and Cell-Based Therapies.

Expertise:

Dr. Ulf Bethke is an experienced expert in cell and gene therapy and currently serves as Executive Expert for the APAC region at Miltenyi Biotec. With a solid background in pharmaceutical technology, biochemistry, and immunology, Dr. Bethke has contributed significantly to the advancement of manufacturing and regulatory processes for cell-based therapeutic products, particularly stem cells and CAR-T cells.

Expertise:

• development and manufacturing of ATMPs, including GTMPs
• method validation
• regulatory affairs (GMP and pharmaceutical law)
• expertise in accordance with section 15 (3) and (3a) of the Medicinal Products Act (AMG)

Expertise:

In 2013, Britta Eiz-Vesper and her group founded alloCELL, the world's first allogeneic T-cell donor registry, with the aim of identifying suitable T-cell donors and providing patients with personalized antiviral T-cell immunotherapies. She is an expert in the clinical production of antiviral T cells (>700 fresh preparations, 2,500 cryopreserved products (Germany and Europe)) and GMP-compliant T cell engineering technology.

Expertise:

• >12 years hands-on experience with human pluripotent stem cells
• holistic understanding of GCT development both in Big Pharma and Biotech
• developing and implementing Cell & Gene Therapy strategy at Bayer (iPSCs, AAVs, Gene Editing)
• insights into GCT innovation ecosystems and translation of research in Germany/EU/USA

Expertise:

Strong expertise in cell and gene therapy with a focus on translational research, regulatory requirements, GMP process development, clinical development and application of ATMPs. Many years of experience in interdisciplinary project management. Specialist in internal medicine, hematology, oncology, immunology.

Expertise:

Dr. Grunwald is Technology Manager and Patent Assessor, New Therapies. Her competences include:

• patent law/protection rights in general (Germ. Patent Assessor, European Patent attorney trainee)
• translational/experimental research, gene/cell therapies
• myology, cell/molecular biology, systems biology, bioinformatics

Expertise:

Johnny Kim serves as Director of the Department for Cardiovascular Therapeutics at TRON in Mainz, and as an adjunct professor at Yale University. He is Spokesperson of curATime - Cluster for atherothrombosis and individualized medicine - a "Clusters4Future" initiative of the BMFTR. He is a recognised expert in the fields of tissue regeneration, stem cell, developmental and reprogramming biology.

Expertise:

• 25 years of experience in GCT research in the following areas:  
  • development of retroviral gene transfer vectors and co-expression systems
  • gene and cell therapy of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC)
  • targeted differentiation of iPSCs to HSPCs
  • forced HSPC expansion using HOX transcription factors
• Member of the EU COST Action “iPS-Haplo” (CA21151), working group 6 “Training and Dissemination”
• Many years of expertise in GMP for cell therapeutics

Expertise:

Dr. Thekla Kurz is a specialist pharmacist with a doctorate in pharmaceutical technology and international management experience. For more than 30 years she has worked in the development and manufacture of drugs and vaccines, translating numerous innovative technologies. She lectures at Darmstadt Technical University on the development of GCT drugs and is an expert advisor at Science4Life. Thekla Kurz currently heads the Miltenyi Bioindustry business unit at Miltenyi Biotec B.V. & Co. The business unit's activities include the development and manufacturing of lentiviral vectors and cell products as a CDMO and for own development candidates.

Expertise:

Prof. Platzbecker's clinical focus is primarily on myeloid malignancies, with a particular emphasis on MDS (myelodysplastic neoplasms) and AML (acute myeloid leukemia). In addition to serving as coordinating principal investigator (CPI) in multiple academically initiated clinical trials, his research activities include the investigation of immunological target structures, novel targeted cell therapies, and the development and use of digital tools in diagnostics, therapy, and documentation support.

Prof. Platzbecker is, among other responsibilities, member of the steering committee of the German MDS Study Group (D-MDS), founding member of the European Myelodysplastic Syndromes Cooperative Group (EMSCO), and from 2020 to 2024, he served as co-speaker for the BMBF-funded science cluster "SaxoCell," which is dedicated to new production methods and application areas for gene and cell therapies.

Expertise:

Dr. Carolin Schächterle is Head of the Life Science Research Department (FA LSR) at the German Diagnostics Industry Association (VDGH).

GCT is the lighthouse topic of FA LSR, as a lot of expertise and products are involved in the manufacture and quality control of ATMPs. As head of the specialised department at VDGH, Ms. Schächterle has mediated between the BIH and member companies of the VDGH during the development process of the national strategy.

Expertise:

Professor Richard Schäfer was clinically trained in internal medicine and transfusion medicine. In his scientific career, he has been working extensively in the mesenchymal stromal cell and induced pluripotent stem cell fields at Harvard, Stanford, Tübingen, Frankfurt and Freiburg Universities. He is the Medical Director Transfusion Medicine at the Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy at Freiburg University, where he is also leading the iPSC core facility.

Expertise:

Prof. Dr. Schara-Schmidt is professor for neuropaediatrics and neuromuscular diseases. She heads the Department of Neuropaediatrics and the Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases in Children and Adolescents at the Children’s Hospital of the University Hospital Essen.

Prof. Dr. Schara-Schmidt is one of the leading national and international experts in the field of neuropaediatrics/neuromuscular diseases. She is vice president of the Society for Neuropaediatrics, board member of the German Brain Council, chair of the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty Duisburg-Essen and member of numerous national and international committees. Prof. Schara-Schmidt and her team are involved in international studies and also in real world application for gene therapies. 

For pediatric societies (DGKJ and GNP) she is responsible for the topic "gene therapies in children". 

 

Expertise:

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Matthias P. Schönermark is founder and managing director of SKC Beratungsgesellschaft mbH in Hanover and chief strategy officer of the Kintiga Group. The ENT specialist has been advising companies for many years on the successful positioning of innovative therapies in the European pharmaceutical market and is considered one of the most experienced negotiators of reimbursement conditions for cell and gene therapies.

Expertise:

• genome editing of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells
• gene therapy for bone marrow failure syndromes
• disease modeling, genome-wide on- and off-target analysis of genome editors for the pre-clinical development of gene therapies
• Head of the Research and Diagnostics Laboratory and member of the Severe Chronic Neutropenia International Registry (SCNIR) Executive Advisory Board

Expertise:

Dr. Andrea Traube is CEO of KyooBe Tech GmbH, a subsidiary of the Bausch + Ströbel Group, that develops and offers innovative platform technologies for ATMP production and pathogen inactivation. For over twenty years, she has been involved in various roles in implementing automation and production concepts, with a focus on cell culture processes and the production of cell and gene therapies.

Expertise:

Dr. Wagner-Drouet has been head of the Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Immunotherapy Division at Mainz University Medical Center for over 10 years. Her work focuses on conducting early clinical trials in cellular therapy and translational research into immune reconstitution and the management of side effects in cell therapies. In addition, she is the spokesperson for the interdisciplinary Center for Cellular Immunotherapy at Mainz University Medical Center and a mentor in various national and international programs for promoting young talent.