The Selmod leadership team is a group of highly motivated individuals, focused on developing new therapies for AMR infections, experienced pharma professionals or expert scientific advisors from Europe and North America.

In the last decade, members have contributed to the approval of 2 new antibiotics, 2 investigational antibiotics that have completed phase 3 studies, amongst other clinical candidates in other therapeutic areas.

We are dedicated to progress new antimicrobial therapies to patients and ultimately saving lives.

Management Team

Our leadership team includes Frank Otto Gombert, Adam C. Belley, Bettina Hauptmann Eidens and Francis A. Kurz.

Frank Otto Gombert, Dr. rer. nat., CEO

Biochemist with a track record of 4 clinical candidates including an anti-bacterial drug. He previously was engaged at GPRS, Polyphor (phase 3 candidates Murapevadin and Balixafortide, phase 2 candidate POL6014), Novartis and Sandoz. He joined Selmod in 2019 as an investor and CEO.
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Adam C. BELLEY, Ph.D. CSO

Adam has over 20 years of experience in infectious disease research, obtaining a Ph.D. in Parasitology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. During his postdoctoral fellowship at the Montreal General Hospital Research Institute, he investigated genetic differences in tuberculosis vaccine strains of Mycobacterium bovis. His industrial experience includes bacteriophage-inspired antibiotic discovery (As Senior Scientist at Phagetech Inc., St. Laurent, QC, Canada. in St. Laurent, Canada) and he managed the bacteriophage antibiotic discovery project. At The Medicines Company (acquired by Novartis), Saint-Laurent he successfully contributed to the microbiological and preclinical development of the lipoglycopeptide antibiotic Orbactiv® (approved 2014; The Medicines Company)(oritavancin, approved 2014). As a microbiology expert, he has supported the development of various clinical developments studies including the investigational drug combination EXBLIFEP® (cefepime/-enmetazobactam) for Complicated Urinary Tract Infections (from Allecra Therapeutics SAS, Saint. Louis, France).
ResearchGate
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Bettina HAUPTMANN EIDENS, MBA M.Sc., People and Governance

Bettina owns obtained a Master in Biochemistry from the University of Geneva, Switzerland    and a MBA of the Cornell University, USA. She started her carrier at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Switzerland, as Executive development Manager. At DSM Nutritional Products, Switzerland, she headed the Management Development Department and acted then as Global HR Business Partner of the Human and Animal Nutrition & Health business unit of DSM Nutritional Products, Switzerland. As Director EMEA HR at The Juice Plus Company Europe, she build up and expanded the HR offices including in Belgium and Dubai. Currently, she is running her own independent consultant and coaching office - Cairns Consulting & Coaching, Switzerland    - supporting all types and sizes of companies in leadership and management aspects.
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Scientific Advisory Board

The advisory board includes scientific from the fields of medicinal chemistry, pre-clinical to early clinical development, regulatory, clinical antifungal therapy, structural biology and financing experts.
Prof Dr. Roderich D. Süssmuth will join the advisory board after concluding the in-licensing of the Gyrase inhibitor from the TU Berlin. Additional experts in pharmacology and clinical development will join Selmod as advisors, while we are progressing with our drug development projects.

Roderich D. Süssmuth, Prof. Dr.

Rudolf-Wiechert-Professor for Biological Chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin. His research group (~40 people) is active in molecular biology, biochemistry, analytical chemistry and organic synthesis and is dedicated to bioactive compounds, their biochemical assembly and chemical synthesis. He contributes his expertise in bioorganic and medicinal chemistry. Prof. Süssmuth is a member of the board of Pentracor GmbH (Henningsdorf, Germany) for the development of medical devices in the area of myocardial infarct, as well as a consultant to the CMO CORDEN Pharma.
biochemie.tu-berlin.de

Mahmoud Afif GHANNOUM, Prof. Dr.

Prof. Ghannoum received MSc in Medicinal Chemistry and PhD in Microbial Physiology from University of Technology (UK) and MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland (USA) As Tenured Professor and Director of the Integrated Microbiome Core and Center for Medical Mycology, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center he contributed more than 450 peer reviewed publications fulled by over 25M USD funding, mainly NIH research grants.
He his Past President of the Medical Mycological Society of the Americas
He is Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and the European Confederation of Medical Mycology and Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America.
Awarded the Freedom to Discover Award from Bristol-Myers Squibb for his pioneering work on microbial biofilms.
Coined the term ‘Mycobiome”
“Mahmoud Ghannoum, the scientist who is now known as the leading microbiome researcher in the world” - The Washington Post
Case Western Reserve University

Board of Directors

The board of directors is formed by Dr. Philipp Knechtle (co-founder) and Dr. Markus Hofer (co-founder) and investors.

Markus Hofer, MBA, MSc, co-founder

Enterpreneurial Business building in Life Sciences. Experienced investor, manager and business leader. Focus on leadership team compositions and team building.
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Philipp Knechtle, Ph.D. CSO and co-founder

Philipp has a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Basel and did his postdoc at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. Philipp's previous positions were antifungal compound development at Evolva and Polyphor. Philipp has joined Allecra Therapeutics SAS in 2017 and performed successfully the clinical development of EXBLIFEP® (cefepime-enmetazobactam) for Complicated Urinary Tract Infections.
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