Michael Keller, PhD

Expert Scientist at F. Hoffmann - La Roche Ltd.

Speaker

Michael Keller studied Chemistry and Biochemistry at ETH Zürich from 1989 to 1994. In 1994, he was awarded the ETHZ-Imperial College London exchange scholarship, which enabled him to pursue an MSc/DIC in Chemical Research at Imperial College London. He then joined the research group of Professor Manfred Mutter at the University of Lausanne, where he completed a PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry.

After spending a year as a lecturer at the same institute, he joined the Genetic Therapies Centre at Imperial College London as an Academic Visitor, specializing in non-viral delivery systems for nucleic acids. In 2002, he co-founded the Anglo-Japanese biotech company IC-Vec Ltd., which focused on developing novel cationic lipids and nanomedicines for siRNA delivery.

Michael then joined Novartis Pharma AG in Basel, where he was instrumental in building up siRNA formulation capabilities in Technical Research & Development. For his work on siRNA delivery, he was awarded the Novartis Leading Scientist Award in 2009.

In late 2017, he joined the Therapeutic Modality function at pRED/Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. in Basel, focusing on nucleic acid-based medicines (NABM) with a particular emphasis on disruptive concepts to enable efficient delivery of nucleic acids to non-hepatic tissues. He is currently a matrix lead and technical project leader at the RNAHub at F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, concentrating on superior delivery of nucleic acids for extrahepatic applications.