About Us
ResQ Biotech is a spin-off company of the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), which was founded in 2019 and is based in the Patras Science Park, Greece. The main activity of the company consists in the discovery, preclinical development and commercial exploitation of potential therapeutic molecules against diseases caused by problematic protein folding, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The creation of ResQ Biotech has been based on the high level of expertise developed in the laboratory of Dr. Georgios Skretas at the Institute of Chemical Biology of the NHRF, which concerns the use of biotechnological methods for the discovery of these molecules by applying an innovative synthetic biotechnology methodology. Additionally, the company has extensive experience in the biosynthetic production of difficult proteins, such as human membrane proteins, for further study and characterization.
ResQ Biotech's long-standing experience of pre-clinical development and commercial exploitation of scientific research allows for the successful completion of the early stages of the discovery and development of new drugs against these diseases.
GEORGIOS SKRETAS
Chief Executive Officer & Chief Scientific Officer
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Georgios Skretas received his Bachelor's degree from the School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (Greece) in 1998 and his PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Princeton University (USA) in 2006. He then worked as a post-doctoral research associate at the Institute
of Cell and Molecular Biology of the University of Texas at Austin (USA) (2006-2009). In 2010, he received a Marie Curie International Reintegration Fellowship to return to Greece and the National
Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF). Since then, he has been Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Enzyme and Synthetic Biotechnology of the Institute of Chemical Biology at the NHRF, where he currently holds the rank of Research Associate Professor. Georgios Skretas has recently been awarded the highly prestigious Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). He has published the results of his research in highly prestigious scientific journals, such as Nature Biomedical Engineering, Science Advances, Journal of the American Chemical Society and ACS Synthetic Biology, and he is inventor on four (4) patents/patent applications. He is the elected representative of Greece to the Scientific Committee of the European Section of Applied Biocatalysis.
DAFNI DELIVORIA
Chief Technology Officer
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Dafni Delivoria received her BSc in Chemistry from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) in 2009, her MSc in Pharmaceutical Science and Medicinal Chemistry from Loughborough University (UK) in 2010 and her PhD in Biotechnology from the National Technical University of Athens (Greece) in 2019. Since 2011, she has been a research scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Georgios Skretas at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), where she specializes in the discovery of chemical rescuers of disease-associated protein misfolding. During her studies Dafni performed a three-month placement in AstraZeneca R&D (UK) and two short-term visits and scientific collaboration with the laboratory of Prof. Georgiou at the University of Texas at Austin (USA) and the laboratory of Prof. Vendruscolo and Prof. Dobson at the Centre for Misfolding Diseases at the University of Cambridge (UK). The results from her research activities have been published in four scientific articles and one patent application.
ATHINA OIKONOMIDOU
Chief Operating Officer
Athina Oikonomidou holds a BSc degree in Chemical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1993) and a MBA from IESE (Un. Navarra, Barcelona, 1997). For the past 18 years she has been involved in Business Development and Technology Transfer specializing in Life Sciences and Biotechnology. She has collaborated with most Research Centers in the country, individual Researchers and Businesses. During this time she has overseen the preparation of dozens of Business Plans, has authored over 10 Feasibility Studies, Financial Sustainability Analyzes as well as Market and Commercial Development Studies. She also participates in teams conducting Patent Assessments. Athina has been the Director of Technology Transfer and Administrative Services of BSRC "Al. Fleming ”, where she oversaw the creation of the Center's intellectual property portfolio and co-ordinated the commercialization of the technologies and materials developed there. She has also worked with EkinisiLAB, the incubator of BSE companies, where he supported 23 teams in developing their Business Model and developing their Business Plan. She is an evaluator in the EU Horizon2020 SME Instrument Program where she has evaluated over 300 proposals. Athina teaches courses on "Introduction to Technology Transfer" and "Models of Commercialization in Life Sciences" in various postgraduate programs.
Scientific Advisory Board
GEORGE GEORGIOU
George Georgiou is a Professor at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Manchester, U.K. and Ph.D. from Cornell. His research is focused on the preclinical development of enzyme and antibody therapeutics for cancer and for inborn errors of metabolism and the understanding the serological antibody repertoire in human health and disease and on the discovery. Professor Georgiou was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (2005), National Academy of Medicine (2011) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016). He is also a Fellow of the American Institute for Biological and Medical Engineers (AIMBE), the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is the author of >260 research publications and co-inventor of 87 issued or pending US patents, more than 65% of which (comprising 24 distinct technology suites) have been licensed to 27 pharma & biotech companies. He founded GGMJD (1999; acquired by Maxygen in 2000), Aeglea Biotherapeutics (2013-Present; NASDAQ: AGLE) and Kyn Therapeutics Inc. (now Ikena Oncology; 2015-Present) and currently serves as a Director and Chairman of the SAB for both companies. In 2013, Georgiou was selected as one of the top 20 Translational Researchers by Nature Biotechnology. He is inventor of the FDA-approved drug Anthim (obiltoxaximab) to treat inhalational anthrax.
KOSTAS VEKRELLIS
Kostas Vekrellis received his BSc in Neuroscience from University College London Medical School/Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, with First Class Honours in 1993. He obtained his PhD in Neuroscience in 1997 from the same university working on the regulation and function of the bcl-2 family of genes and their role in neuronal survival in laboratory of Jonathan Ham and Lee. L Rubin. He then received a research fellowship from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, to work in Dennis Selkoe's laboratory in the Center for Neurologic Diseases. His research focused on the degradation mechanisms of amyloid-β peptide (Αβ), as a cause and effect of Alzheimer's disease. His work identified Insulin Degrading Enzyme (IDE) as a major Αβ-degrading protease in neurons. In 1999, he was offered an Instructor position at Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurology. Since 2002 Dr. Vekrellis is a Researcher in the Division of Basic Neurosciences at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA), where he currently holds the rank of Research Associate Professor. Dr. Vekrellis is highly experienced in cellular and animal models of neurodegeneration, as well as human histopathology. His lab interests lie in the role of protein oligomerization, misfolding and aggregation, with respect to neurodegenerative disease. Since 2012, he has been a visiting professorship at the University of Oxford, Division of Experimental Medicine, Nuffield Department of Medicine.