About Us

Our breakthrough science in understanding how to harness the immune system physiologically came from empirical observations by founder Dr Richard Edelson of the extraordinary and unexpected clinical outcomes seen in his cutaneous T cell lymphoma patients undergoing extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP).

Dr Edelson invented ECP in the 1980s as an ex vivo chemotherapy to lower the burden of malignant T cells in these patients. Surprisingly, several of his early patients experienced complete remissions. Serendipitously, the extracorporeal device used in ECP had created the conditions for a natural physiological priming of immunity to take place. As well as immune stimulation in cancer patients, ECP clinicians subsequently had success in dampening immunity in organ transplant and graft vs host disease.

About Us
Laboratory experiments

The ability to drive immunity in two directions suggested the involvement of dendritic cells. Decades of subsequent research revealed the physiologic priming in ECP turned out to be the interaction of platelets with blood monocytes to make dendritic cells.

Dr Edelson realised that platelet-activated monocytes could revolutionize the field of dendritic cell therapies. For decades these therapies had struggled clinically to match the impact of natural dendritic cells in vivo. This was largely due to their method of production, which required the contortion of mixing monocytes with cytokines in a highly non-physiologic manner over several days. Transimmune was established to exploit this radically simple method of producing dendritic cells and use them as a platform to build therapeutics capable of a truly physiologic partnership with the immune network.

Our Timeline

How we deciphered extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) and learned to program immunity as nature does it
  1. Unexpected clinical results
    Unexpected clinical results
    Edelson reports first cases of successful treatment of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) patients using ECP. New England Journal of Medicine Vol.316 (6) 1987.
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  2. ECP Regulatory Approval
    ECP Regulatory Approval
    FDA grants J&J Therakos approval for use of ECP to treat CTCL
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  3. Wider clinical use of ECP
    Publication of use of ECP in management of cardiac transplant Rejection. New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 339 (24) 1998.
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  4. ECP - a dendritic cell therapy
    Publication of role of dendritic cell priming as key to ECP mechanism. Blood 2010 Vol. 116 (23)
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  5. Transimmune founded
    Transimmune AG incorporated and raises $5m seed investment from QureInvest Fund. Foundational patents filed.
  6. ECP market leader aquired
    Mallinckrodt acquires ECP market leader Therakos for $1.3bn.
  7. Endorsement by ECP clinicians
    American Council for ECP Consensus paper endorses Transimmune’s science. J Clin Apher Vol. 33(4) 2018.
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  8. Endorsement by ECP Market Leader
    Mallinckrodt strikes research collaboration with Transimmune.
  9. Building cell therapy platform
    Initiated research program with Emory University and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  10. Major Grant Award
    Award of inaugural ARPA-H grant with Emory, Yale and University of Georgia
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Our People

Management Team
Supervisory Board
Scientific Advisors
Justin Duckworth Circle Illustration
Justin Duckworth
Co-Founder & CEO
Mr Duckworth is a founder of Transimmune and became CEO in 2022. Prior to that he was a healthcare venture capitalist of 22 years, most recently as Managing General Partner of QureInvest Fund. In addition to fund management, he was heavily involved in corporate development for portfolio companies Ethris and Transimmune. Prior to QureInvest, he was a Partner at Nomura Phase4 Ventures and an advisor at HBM Partners. He studied biochemistry at the Oxford University and is an ACA.
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Guenter Bauer Circle Illustration
Guenter Bauer
CTO
Dr Bauer is an engineer who has gained many years of experience in business development at medical device companies including Evotec Technologies, Perkin Elmer and Scienion AG. Most recently he held the role of CEO of Transimmune AG and will continue as VP Technology as the company transitions to become fully operational.
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Olga Sobolev Circle Illustration
Olga Sobolev
VP Immunology
Dr Sobolev is a highly experienced immunologist who coordinates the work performed by Dr Edelson’s team at Yale with the company. Before joining Transimmune she worked in the lab of Prof. Adrian Hayday at Kings College London and prior to that in the lab of Prof. Richard Hynes at MIT.
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Maxi Köster Circle Illustration
Maxi Köster
Finance & Admin Manager
Ms. Maximilliane Köster is responsible for finance and administration at Transimmune. Ms Köster had previously worked Deloitte & Touche GmbH where she was an integral part of their auditing team. After completing a banking apprenticeship in Düsseldorf, Maxi studied Business Administration in Freiberg and Düsseldorf. She holds an MBA from the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany.
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Dr Hubert Besner Circle Illustration
Dr Hubert Besner
Chair of the Board
Hubert Besner is a partner and co-founder of m law group. He focuses his practice on corporate matters, M&A and technology transactions. His German, US and international clients include public and private companies as well as investors and venture capital firms in the life sciences and biotechnology business.
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Dr Richard Edelson Circle Illustration
Dr Richard Edelson
Founder, Member of the Board & Scientific Advisor
Richard Edelson is currently the Anthony Brady Professor of Dermatology at Yale. Previously he was the Lerner Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the Yale University School of Medicine (YSM). From 2003 to 2009, he was Physician-in-Chief and Director of the NIH-designated Yale University Comprehensive Cancer Center. From 2000-2003, he was YSM Deputy Dean for Clinical Affairs, overseeing academic activities in all clinical departments.
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Dr Karsten Henco Circle Illustration
Dr Karsten Henco
Co-Founder & Member of the Board
Karsten started his industrial career in the 1980s when he was involved in the establishment of the molecular biology and recombinant DNA technology facilities of BASF AG in Ludwigshafen, Germany. He is co-founder or co-founding investor of fourteen biotech companies in Germany, USA, Canada and Austria, such as Qiagen NV, Evotec AG, NewLab AG, Coley Pharmaceuticals Inc, U3 Pharma AG, Neurimmune Therapeutics AG, HS LifeSciences and QureInvest.
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Dr Richard Edelson Circle Illustration
Dr Richard Edelson
Founder, Member of the Board & Scientific Advisor
Richard Edelson is currently the Anthony Brady Professor of Dermatology at Yale. Previously he was the Lerner Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the Yale University School of Medicine (YSM). From 2003 to 2009, he was Physician-in-Chief and Director of the NIH-designated Yale University Comprehensive Cancer Center. From 2000-2003, he was YSM Deputy Dean for Clinical Affairs, overseeing academic activities in all clinical departments.
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Dr Philip Santangelo Circle Illustration
Dr Philip Santangelo
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Philip J. Santangelo is the John and Jan Portman Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech. He graduated from Polytechnic University in 1991 with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. In 1998, he obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California at Davis under Dr. Ian Kennedy, on the development of laser-based diagnostics for multiphase reacting jets and droplet streams.
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