Our Team
Meet the people behind Scipio! This close-knit international team stemming from prestigious universities and research labs is united behind the intellectual and technical challenge of bringing ScRNA-seq to every benchtop.
Prof Stuart Edelstein
President - Chief Scientific Officer
Stuart is a world-renowned biophysicist. A foreign associate of the French Academy of Science, his academic curriculum includes professorships at Cornell University (NY, USA), University of Geneva (Switzerland), ENS (Paris, France) and the Collège de France. Stuart also has start-up experience as co-founder
of a publicly listed biotech company.
Pierre Walrafen
Chief Executive Officer
An Ecole Polytechnique alumnus and qualified European Patent Attorney, Pierre's experience in biotech covers all stages of product development and includes, in addition to 10+ years of R&D, positions as alliance manager for a strategic industrial partnership in DNA-based diagnostics and as consultant for biotechnology clients in an IP firm.
Luc Walrafen
Chief Financial Officer
After graduating from ESSEC Business School, Luc worked, in France and Germany, for financial institutions and investment funds and then specialized in administering and advising start-ups at all stages of development in their structuration, business planning, fundraising and reporting.
Anaïs Vayaboury
Assistant Scientist
Anaïs is preparing a Biomedical Research degree at the School of Applied Biology of Paris (ESTBA). Currently intern at Scipio bioscience as assistant scientist, Anaïs contributes actively to our project by using both her theoretical and practical skills, as she discovers the start-up ecosystem.
Anis Bouchnak
R&D Bioengineer
Anis is a bioengineer who recently graduated from Sup'biotech Paris in collaboration with Université Libre de Tunis. Passionate about science, he joined Scipio bioscience to work on the development of our new technologies.
Antoine Graindorge
Senior R&D Project leader
Antoine has 16+ years of experience in RNA biology, investigating the role of RNA molecules in the regulation of gene expression. He obtained his PhD in Rennes where he studied the control of embryonic mRNAs expression. He pursued post-doctoral work focusing on post-transcriptional mRNA regulations at the CRG in Barcelona, and then on the roles and mechanisms of action of long noncoding RNAs at the Institut Curie, Paris.
Azadeh Saffarian
R&D Bioinformatics Project leader
Azadeh holds a PhD in Computer Science and Bioalgorithmics applied to RNA secondary structures prediction from the University Lille1 INRIA. She pursued 7 years of postdoctoral research at Inserm and Pasteur Institute in Paris. She developed her expertise in "omics" and the development of algorithms for HLA genes.
Barbara André
Director of Bioinformatics
Barbara has 10+ years of experience in software R&D for biomedical applications.
With an engineering background in computer science and applied mathematics, she received her PhD in medical image computing from Mines Paris Tech. She contributed to innovative prototypes and led the development of sustainable software products for the industry, especially in the domain of genetic analysis.
Damien Ulveling
Bioinformatics Project Leader
Damien holds a PhD in bioinformatics from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers de Paris.
He graduated with a master's degree in cellular and molecular biology and works at the interface between bioinformatics and biologists.
His experience includes working with research teams, as well as within the ICM's iCONICS platform on data analysis from NGS sequencing and genotyping.
Frédéric Guerin
Research Engineer
Frederic has over 10 years of experience in biology research laboratories in both private and academic environments. After receiving his Master's degree in Proteomics (Lille, France), he worked for an oncology drug discovery start up. He then joined a fundamental research CNRS team and worked on genome plasticity in ciliates for five years. He also worked for a DNA-based diagnostics company, and then in an immunology genetic disease INSERM research team.
Gwenaëlle Pasquero
Director of Business Development
Gwenaëlle has 16 years of experience in the Life Science industry. After graduating as a Life Scientist, she spent 5 years in development in the pharmaceutical industry, then worked as an operational sales manager. In 2009, she joined ABF to set up the tailor-made enzymes marketing strategy and operations. She also developed key accounts internationally, leading innovative projects from conception to launch.
Hélène Eckert
R&D Project leader
Hélène has over 10 years of experience in molecular biology. After receiving her M.S. in Plant Genetics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USA), she worked on plant genetic engineering at Iowa State University (USA) and Bayer Crop Science (Lyon, France). She then joined the Curie Institute in Paris, where she spent 6 years studying long noncoding RNAs in vertebrate development.
Jun Komatsu
Director of Innovation
Jun has 10+ years of experience in biotech R&D and is an expert in structural and functional analysis of DNA molecules for genetic testing and biomedical research. With a background in general engineering and industrial chemistry, he received his PhD on the subject of micromanipulation of biological molecules in an electrostatics laboratory of the Toyohashi University of Technology (Japan).
Léa Cathaly
Assistant scientist
Léa is preparing a Professional degree in Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics, and Health, with specialization in Biotechnologies, at the Higher Technical School of the Laboratory in Paris (ETSL). She joined Scipio bioscience as work-study assistant scientist and participates to the development of our kit.
Maël Le Bohec
R&D Project leader
Maël completed his PhD in polymer chemistry in 2017 at the IMMM (Le Mans Institute of Molecules and Materials). His research focused on the design, synthesis and characterization of functionalized polymers, and in particular of PEGylated cationic polymers for transfection. His experience includes teaching general, organic, and polymer Chemistry.
Nicolas Fernandez
Senior R&D Project Leader
Nicolas has 10+ years of experience in soft matter physics and led the development of several DNA analysis consumables. Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Ponts alumnus, he received his PhD on suspension rheology from ETH Zürich (Switzerland).
Raya Poncin
R&D Project leader
Raya received her Ph.D. from the University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, where she carried out research on biopolymers for tissue engineering and cell therapy applications.
She graduated previously from the Paris Institute of Bioengineering and obtained a Master's degree in polymer science from University Paris-Est Créteil.
Sara Majello
Research Engineer
Sara has 8 years of experience in molecular biology. She completed a MSc in Genetics and Molecular Biology at Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), specializing in RNA biology. She continued studying long non-coding RNAs at the Curie Institute in Paris. She then joined the Pasteur Institute (Paris), where she worked on the emergence of hematopoietic stem cells during embryonic development.
Stanislas Lipin
R&D Bioinformatician
Stanislas completed an M.S. in medical physics at Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble followed by an M.S. bioinformatics at Paris-Saclay University. He started his career at Lumex Instruments in Russia as research engineer for 3 years. He joined Scipio bioscience in 2018 as a bioinformatics engineer and focuses on single-cell RNA sequencing data analysis.
Vivian Schindler
Office Manager
Vivian supervises our administrative projects and human resources, as well as accounting and general services. Polyglot and polyvalent, our team and partners benefit from her years of international experience. Skilled coordinator, she will respond to the inquiries of all our stakeholders.
Wilko Duprez
Head of Communications
With a scientific background including a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Queensland and two post-docs, Wilko turned to journalism graduating from Imperial College London in scientific communication and using his newfound skills as far away as Japan. After working as a scientific VR director in Denmark for many years, Wilko joined Scipio mid-2020 as its new Head of Communications.
Xavier Bussell
R&D Bioinformatician
Xavier recently completed a M.S. in bioinformatics at University of Rouen Normandy. He started his career with a two-year apprenticeship in bioinformatics at the Genoscope, before joining Scipio in 2020.
Yannick Fourne
R&D Bioinformatician
After graduating from a higher education degree in biotechnology, Yannick worked for 7 years for the company Genomic Vision. In parallel he studied to complete an engineering degree in bioinformatics, leading him to work on phosphorylation networks in the department of human genomics at Chicago University. He resumed his work at Genomic Vision afterwards, before joining Scipio in 2020.
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