OUR PEOPLE
An experienced team dedicated to innovation in neuroscience
Axoltis Pharma brings together experienced leaders in drug development, clinical research, neuroscience, and regulatory affairs to advance NX210c drug candidate toward patients.
Axoltis Team
Yann GODFRIN, Ph.D., Eng.
Chief Executive Officer
20+ years of experience in management of Biopharmaceutical companies focused product development from bench to Phase III clinical trial. Dr Godfrin was co-Founder, former CEO and CSO of ERYTECH Pharma (EPA/NASDAQ: ERYP). In addition to his entrepreurship, Dr Godfrin is an expert in pre-clinical and clinical product development strategy and has been consultant for several biopharmaceutical companies. He is the inventor of more than 15 patents families and several scientific publications. Dr Godfrin holds a Ph.D. degree in Health & Life Sciences (University of Nantes, France), an Engineer degree in Biomedical Sciences (University of Compiègne, France) and a Master degree in Pharmaceutical Drug Development (University of Lyon, France).
Dr. Annette JANUS, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr Annette Janus is a Board-certified Neurologist and Neuromuscular Electrophysiologist with a background in Medical Technology and Biological Therapeutics and has 20+ years of clinical research experience in both academia and global pharma. She has provided leadership in 40+ international clinical trials, with particular expertise in neurological disease, rare indications, genetic disorders and autoimmune disease, having supported drug development for patients ranging from infants to the elderly. She has worked in partnership with contract research organizations, diagnostic vendors and supported relationships with Key Opinion Leaders and advocacy groups to support advances in medicines for patients and their families.
Luca BOLLIGER, Ph.D.
Observer
20+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. First as Global discovery portfolio manager at Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. He then pursued his career in the financial industry as a Fundamental analyst at BT&T asset management. He established Biopolo Ticino before becoming Director Business Development at Actelion. Luca Bolliger joined Recordati from Novimmune where he was VP and Director Corporate Licensing.
Sébastien MARIE, MSc.
Clinical Operations Director
20+ years of experience in clinical trial management. Prior to joining Axoltis Pharma in 2017, he served as Clinical Project Manager for a CRO, managing various full-service projects with biotechs, especially in early phase, and with pharma companies. Sébastien Marie holds a MSc. degree in physiology (Burgundy University, France), a Degree specialized in Clinical Research (Normandy University, France) and a certification in International Project Management (AFITEP, Paris, France).
Jérémy CAIMI
Administration & Finance Manager
Juliette LE DOUCE, Ph.D.
Clinical Project Manager
10+ years of experience in R&D in academia and healthcare industry. Dr Le Douce pursued a postdoctoral stay at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) as an expert in neurodegenerative diseases and cellular interactions before joining Axoltis Pharma in 2018 as a preclinical project manager. After leading preclinical research in cognition for more than 3 years, she joined the clinical team in 2022 as a clinical project manager and provides daily support to the clinical department. She authored several high ranked scientific publications and funding applications.
Lucile BRUYAS, Eng.
Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls Project Manager
4 years of experience in project management in peptide production and pharmaceutical industry. Ms Bruyas is a Chemistry Engineer (Sigma Clermont – France). Prior to joining Axoltis, she coordinated product development as well as product manufacturing in CMDO companies specializing in peptide production.
Déborah LIGOUT
Clinical Trial Assistant / Clinical Research Associate
Déborah has a 9 year experience in clinical research as a Clinical Research Associate across a range of settings, including academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and industry sponsors. Throughout her career, she also contributed to team coordination and supported Clinical Research Associates. She joined Axoltis in early 2026 as a Clinical Trial Assistant / Clinical Research Associate and provides daily support to the clinical department.
Nicolas REBERGUE, Ph.D., Eng.
Preclinical R&D Project Manager
7+ years of experience in Neuroscience R&D at the interface between academia and pharma. Dr Rebergue has a strong expertise in Glycobiology and neurodegenerative diseases including Tauopathies. He holds an Engineer degree in Biotechnology (Sup’Biotech, France) and a PhD in Cellular and Molecular biology (University Paris-Est Créteil, France). He is author of high ranked scientific publications and patents. Dr Rebergue is a member of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN).
Anne-Valérie SIMOND
Executive Assistant
Supervisory Board
The supervisory board is non-executive, advise and control the executive board of the company.
Gilles AVENARD, M.D.
Chairman
Current board member and advisor for several biotech companies, Gilles Avenard is CEO of Acticor Biotech. He was COO Medical Doctor and was the co-founder and COO of BioAlliance Pharma SA – ONXEO (NYSE EURONEXT) until 2010. He was notably involved in the development of several innovative medicines through to their official registration on both European and North-American territories. Before that, he worked as Project Director for Hoechst Marion Roussel (Sanofi) and was Medical Director of Bio-Transfusion (LFB).
Jean-Guillaume LAFAY
Vice Chairman
A philanthropist and serial entrepreneur in biotech, Mr. Lafay is the former CEO and co-founder of Mablink Bioscience, a developer of Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADC), sold to Eli Lilly in 2023. He currently serves as chairman and founder of private equity firm Norfoalk, and chairman and founder of Dictamen, a recently launched endowment fund.
Yoann RIBAY
Member
Representative of UI Investissement
20+ years of experience as investor in private equity including 15 years in venture capital. He manages 3 venture capital funds and he has dealt more than thirty interventions.
He is Investment Director in the Technological Team of UI Investissement.
Guillaume D’ARCY
Member
Representative of Simba Santé 2 (Angelor)
20+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in various positions in international business, business development, industrial project management and funding throughout Asia and Europe. Guillaume (Edhec, INSEAD MBA) has been a member of the supervisory board of the Aguettant Group of companies since 2006, a seed investor in biotech and healthcare since 2012 through the Angelor investing group, and chairs the Simba Santé 2 investment company.
Luca BOLLIGER, Ph.D.
Observer
20+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. First as Global discovery portfolio manager at Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. He then pursued his career in the financial industry as a Fundamental analyst at BT&T asset management. He established Biopolo Ticino before becoming Director Business Development at Actelion. Luca Bolliger joined Recordati from Novimmune where he was VP and Director Corporate Licensing.
Scientific Advisory Board
The scientific advisory board advises the team in strategic medical and scientific items.
Prof. Matthew CAMPBELL, Ph.D.
Trinity College of Dublin (IE)
Dr. Matthew Campbell is Professor in Genetics and Head of Department at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics in Trinity College Dublin. In 2006, he moved to Trinity College Dublin and conducted postdoctoral research with Prof Pete Humphries on the role of the blood brain/retina barriers in health and disease. In 2013, he was awarded Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (PIYRA) which allowed him to establish his own research group in TCD. Since then, he has received numerous additional awards for his research which focuses on understanding the role of the so-called blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood retina barrier (BRB) in healthy and diseased states. In 2020 he was awarded one of Europe’s most prestigious awards from the European Research Council (ERC). In the same year he was elected Science Foundation Ireland’s early career researcher of the year. He is also a PI in the SFI funded Centre Future-Neuro. He is the founder and Director of the Neurovascular Genetics Unit at TCD and has over 20 years of research expertise in the area of blood brain and blood retina barrier biology. He sits on the scientific advisory board of the Moorfields Hospital Charity as well as the UK charity Sight Research UK.
Prof. Britta ENGELHARDT, Ph.D.
Theodor Kocher Institute (CH)
Dr. Britta Engelhardt is Professor for Immunobiology and the Director of the Theodor Kocher Institute at the University of Bern in Switzerland. She is a renowned expert in brain barriers research. Her research employs advanced in vitro and in vivo live cell imaging approaches to understand the role of the brain barriers in maintaining central nervous system (CNS) immune privilege. She has published over 250 papers and has recently received the Malpighi Award 2023 of the European Society for Microcirculation (ESM) in recognition of her work. She has served Vice-Chair and Chair of the Gordon Research Conference Barriers of the CNS in 2016 and 2018, respectively and has been elected Vice-President/President Elect of the International Brain Barriers Society.
Prof. Francesca CICCHETTI, Ph.D.
University of Laval (CA)
Dr. Cicchetti is Professor at the Department of Psychiatry & Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine of Université Laval in Québec and her laboratory is most recognized for its contribution to: (1) the development of animal models of Parkinson’s disease, (2) the identification of new pharmacological approaches to treat Parkinson’s disease and (3) for shedding light on the role of various proteins in the dissemination of pathology in Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases and the role of blood brain barrier in disease onset and evolution. As of now, she has published over 120 manuscripts in various high impact journals translating into an h-index of 52 and a total of 8186 citations. She has received numerous awards and distinctions including the Canadian Institute of Health Research New Investigator Award (2007-2012), the Fonds de Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) Junior Research Award (2003-2006 and 2006-2007), the Young Investigator Award from NARSAD (2006) and Parkinson Society Canada (2002), the prestigious National Researcher award (2014-2017) as well as a Research Chair from FRQS (2017-2021). She was recently appointed Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Dr. Noelle CALLIZOT, Pharm.D., Ph.D.
Neuropharmacologist (F)
Dr Noelle Callizot is a neuropharmacologist with over 25 years’ experience in drug discovery and development in the biotechnology field. Her expertise focuses on the development of small molecules for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and ALS indications. She is co-founder of several biotech companies and CROs in France and abroad in the field of neuroscience. For many years she was Director of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Development at a listed biotech company in Cambridge (UK), where she led a compound from the screening phases to clinical phase 2b in Parkinson’s disease patients in US. She is currently CSO and co-founder of Neuro-Sys, a CRO specialising in neurodegenerative disorders. She is board member and in the SAB of several biotech companies. Noelle is Chair of the Pharmacological Therapy and Translational Research Commission and permanent SAB member of AFM-Téléthon French association.
Prof. Gregory BIX, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA
Tulane University (USA)
Dr. Greg Bix is the Director of the Clinical Neuroscience Research Center, the Vada Odom Reynolds Chair in Stroke Research, and Professor and Vice Chair of Clinical and Translational Research and academic affairs in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology and the chair of the Personnel and Honors committee at Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA. Dr. Bix is also a Professor at the University of Manchester (England), a Clinical Senior Lecturer at University of Glasgow (Scotland), and an Adjunct Professor, Queensland University of Technology (Australia). He has served on a number of prestigious international and national grant, editorial board and meeting committees. He is a productive (~ 95 publications) multi-grant awarded principal investigator in the fields of translational stroke and dementia. Dr. Bix has won many career awards including the recent Spirit of Tulane award and has given more than one hundred invited seminars, lectures and keynote addresses.