Ali Salanti

Professor, CEO at VAR2Pharmaceuticals ApS

Presenter

Ali Salanti is a Danish professor and Head of Centre for Translational medicine and Parasitology at University of Copenhagen and founder of 4 clinical stage biotech companies where he acting CEO in two of these. He first gained international recognition in 2003 for identifying VAR2CSA, a unique malaria protein that enables Plasmodium falciparum to evade immune clearance by binding to a distinct chondroitin sulfate motif in the placenta. This finding was effectively translated to several clinical trials with a clinical phase II is in the planning. Development of a this malaria vaccine led to the invention of a novel virus like particle vaccine platform which formed the basis for the biotech company AdaptVac now engaged in multiple clinical trials including a phase III trial in infectious disease and a phase I trial in oncology. Building on placental malaria pathology, he uncovered that the same oncofetal chondroitin sulfate (ofCS) structure that the malaria parasite binds to in the placenta re-appears in all malignancies and remains non-expressed in all normal tissue (beside fetal tissue). This led to the therapeutic company VAR2Pharmaceuticals and the diagnostic company VARCT Diagnostics. Targeting ofCS in cancer has proven very effective preclinical and a phase 0 immuno-PET/CT study is ongoing while preparations for a phase I-IIa trial with an antibody drug conjugate has commenced. His research bridges basic science, biotechnology, and clinical translation, reflected in his role as founder of several biotech companies and as a principal investigator on major international research programs. Professor Salanti has more than 150 publications, an H-index of 48, has been awarded over 10 patents and raised over €50M in private capital