Thomas Hanke

Mentor at Thoken Bio

Speaker

Immunobiologist and drug discovery expert. Builds on 30 years of hands-on experience in early-stage R&D in academia, biotech and pharma. Identifies and deploys breakthrough science, partnering and investment opportunities. Accelerates the translation and technology transfer of therapeutic platforms and concepts to competitive product candidates. Fosters innovation and builds trust in teams and organizations. Co-initiated >150 drug discovery projects and >100 collaborations, partnerships and investments. Tends to look into all corners.

2016 – 2021: At Evotec responsible for a global portfolio of strategic academic partnerships, pre-seed accelerators and early-stage investments with >30 industry partners and >65 top-tier academic institutions globally. Non-Executive Director positions with biotech companies, start-up studios and investment funds.

2013 – 2016: Oversight of Evotec’s proprietary drug discovery and development portfolio in inflammation and immuno-oncology.

2007 – 2013: Sourcing Director at Novo Nordisk where Thomas identified, evaluated and initiated pipeline-building partnerships within autoimmune / inflammatory diseases, haemophilia, growth disorders and protein technologies.

2000 – 2007: Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of TeGenero, developing first-in-class immunomodulatory monoclonal antibodies and being exposed to steep learning curves.

Until 2000: Assistant Professor for Immunobiology at the University of Würzburg, following a PostDoc at the University of California, Berkeley, where Thomas studied the activation and differentiation of lymphocytes. Thomas received his PhD in Biology from the University of Würzburg in 1995.