Our team has years of neurology drug discovery and development experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology arenas and is supported by world-class scientific founders and advisors.
Rita Balice-Gordon
Chief Executive Officer
Rita brings 30 years of experience in neuroscience research, drug discovery and development from senior leadership roles in biopharma and a distinguished academic research career.
Prior to joining Muna, she led small molecule, biologics and gene therapy programs in neurologic, neurodegenerative and rare genetic diseases at Sanofi, and psychiatry and pain programs at Pfizer.
Anders Hinsby
Chief Operating Officer
Anders brings 25 years of experience in biotech leadership and venture capital investment.
Prior to joining Muna, he co-founded and was CEO of Orphazyme, creating an ambitious and mature clinical stage pipeline in rare protein misfolding and lysosomal storage diseases.
Niels Plath, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Niels brings more than 15 years of experience in neuroscience-focused R&D from the pharmaceutical industry and academia.
Prior to joining Muna, he led small molecule and biologics portfolio projects and teams discovering and developing therapeutics for neurological and psychiatric disorders at Lundbeck.
Jakob Busch-Petersen, PhD
Chief Development Officer
Jakob brings 25 years of experience in small molecule medicinal chemistry, drug discovery and technology in biopharma.
Prior to joining Muna, he was the head of small molecule external innovation at Roche responsible for scouting, and developing novel early stage therapeutic and technology programs with external partners.
Joachim Vilstrup, PhD
Head of Protein Chemistry and Structural Biology
Joachim has more than 7 years of experience in protein chemistry and early-stage drug discovery in academia and biotech, focused on cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Joachim is a scientific co-founder of Muna and holds a PhD in protein chemistry and structural biology.
Prior to joining Muna he led protein chemistry, structural biology and biophysics teams in an early stage small molecule drug development company.
Lars Christian Roenn, PhD
Head of Preclinical Biology
Lars has more than 20 years of R&D experience in biotech and pharma, focused on neurodegeneration and rare diseases.
Prior to joining Muna, he held team- and project lead roles on several CNS drug discovery programs at NeuroSearch, Roche and Lundbeck.
Wei-Ting Chen, PhD
Head of Discovery Biology
Wei-Ting has more than 10 years of neuroscience and neurodegenerative disease experience, focused on pathogenic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Prior to joining Muna, she worked with Prof. Bart De Strooper at VIB/KU Leuven where she led a large target screening project that utilized cutting edge spatial transcriptomic technology, that provides the foundation for her work at Muna focused on novel pathways and targets that modulate resilience to the effects of misfolded protein pathology on cognition.
Maria Dalby, PhD
Head of Bioinformatics
Maria has more than 10 years of experience in Bioinformatics, focused on genetics and transcriptional regulation in healthy and diseased brains.
Before joining Muna, Maria worked on preclinical and clinical drug development projects at Lundbeck, where she was engaged in the identification of translational biomarkers for neuroinflammation across CNS disorders.
Manuela Polydoro, PhD
Head of Translational Medicine
Manuela has more than 10 years of experience in neurodegeneration research, drug discovery and development in pharma and biotech.
Prior to joining Muna, she led and managed cross-functional teams developing treatments for neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases at Novartis, Amgen and startup biotech companies.
Heleen Verlinden, PhD
Head of Operations, Leuven and Program Management
Heleen has more than 10 years of experience in R&D, drug discovery and clinical development in academina and the pharmaceutical industry.
Prior to joining Muna, she coordinated small molecule, biologics and antibody programs in oncology, infectious and autoimmune diseases at SGS and Aelin Therapeutics.
