Team
Mark Pruzanski
Chief Executive Officer
Mark Pruzanski joined Alentis in 2025.
He is a physician and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in the life sciences industry. Most recently, he served as Chairman and CEO of Versanis Bio where he spearheaded the development of a novel approach to obesity therapy until the company’s acquisition by Eli Lilly and Company. Prior to joining Versanis, he founded and was the longstanding CEO of Intercept Pharmaceuticals, where he successfully steered the molecule obeticholic acid from discovery to a globally marketed product in chronic liver disease.
Mark is currently a member of the Board of Directors of several biotechnology companies and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Mark received his M.D. from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, a M.A. degree in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C., and a B.A. degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Luigi Manenti
Chief Medical Officer
Luigi Manenti joined Alentis in 2023, bringing extensive international pharmaceutical experience designing and executing innovative clinical trials, particularly in translational clinical oncology as a physician and scientist.
Prior to Alentis, he served as CMO of HiFiBiO Therapeutics where he led the clinical development organization that delivered successful IND and CTA submissions and secured supply agreements for the investigational oncology drug tislelizumab.
Luigi previously served as Team Leader for Solid Tumors in Novartis’s Oncology Business Unit and at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), the innovation engine of Novartis, as Executive Global Clinical Program Leader, leading the development of multiple programs including the cancer drug capmatinib (Tabrecta). Prior roles include several positions at Roche in Switzerland and China.
Luigi is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), has published several articles, and is a co-inventor of several patent applications.
Luigi holds an M.D. in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Pavia in Italy.
Jon Freve
Chief Financial Officer
Jon Freve joined Alentis in 2024 bringing more than 25 years of financial experience in biotech. Prior to Alentis, he served as CFO of Galecto, a NASDAQ-listed clinical-stage biotechnology company with locations in Copenhagen and Boston, where he led the IPO process in 2020. Prior to Galecto, Jon served as CFO and Treasurer of Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-listed clinical-stage biotechnology company in Boston, where he led the IPO process in 2016. Before that, he was at Santaris Pharma in Copenhagen, which was acquired by Roche in 2014.
Jon began his career at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked in audit and transaction services. Jon has worked on multiple successful initial public offerings, secondary offerings, mergers and acquisitions.
He is a certified public accountant in Massachusetts and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Bryan Yoon
General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer
Bryan joined Alentis in 2025 and has over 20 years of experience working with life sciences companies, most recently serving as Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at Terns Pharmaceuticals, where he led corporate strategy, business development, and company operations, and was instrumental in its successful transition to a publicly traded company. Prior to Terns, Mr. Yoon held various executive leadership positions at LogicBio Therapeutics, Nightstar Therapeutics (acquired by Biogen in 2019), and Intercept Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, Mr. Yoon advised biopharmaceutical companies as an attorney at Mintz Levin and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Mr. Yoon received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
Aditya Venugopal
Chief Business Officer
Aditya joined Alentis in 2025, bringing over 15 years of experience in the life sciences industry, most recently as Head of Corporate Development and Operations at Versanis Bio, where he was instrumental in scaling operations, securing investor funding, and driving the M&A process that led to the company’s acquisition by Eli Lilly and Company. Prior to joining Versanis, Dr. Venugopal led Business Development at VectivBio until its acquisition by Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, and before that he held several senior leadership roles at Intercept Pharmaceuticals, including Head of Strategic Planning. Dr. Venugopal began his career as a strategic life sciences consultant at Easton Associates and Navigant Consulting.
He holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis from Cornell’s Weill Medical School.
Alberto Toso
Chief Scientific Officer
Alberto Toso joined Alentis as Head of Oncology in 2021. He has more than 10 years of drug development experience in small and large molecules for immune oncology (IO) and targeted therapies. Prior to Alentis, he was Department Head in the molecular targeted therapy group, oncology at Roche where he led small molecule projects for IO through various stages of development.
As a postdoc at the Institute of Oncology Research in Bellinzona, Switzerland, Alberto developed and characterized mouse models for prostate cancer. His work has been published in top scientific journals such as Nature, Nature Communications and Cell Reports.
Alberto holds a PhD in Biochemistry from ETH, in Zurich, Switzerland.
Markus Meyer
EVP Program Management & Operations
Markus Meyer joined Alentis in 2019. Markus is a senior R&D Leader and Project Management Professional (PMP) with over 20 years of drug development experience in multiple aspects of biopharmaceutical R&D. Markus is a molecular biologist by training and drug developer with profound experience from discovery to Phase III with small molecules, antibodies and mRNAs.
Prior to Alentis, Markus was Director Project Management at CureVac managing collaboration projects with mRNA-based tumor vaccines in oncology. Previously, he was Global Project Leader at Novartis/Sandoz, where he was in charge of global biosimilar projects. Prior to this Markus was a Senior R&D Project Leader at Roche responsible for managing global drug development projects in several therapeutic areas.
Markus holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Munich and Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry (Martinsried) and had a post-doctoral fellowship at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany.
Valentina Aureggi
SVP BD & Strategic Partnerships
Valentina Aureggi joined Alentis in 2020, bringing over a decade of experience in business development, pharma partnering, and corporate strategy in the pharmaceutical sector.
Prior to joining Alentis, Valentina served at Roche as Global competitive intelligence manager for multiple franchises from preclinical to late clinical development within the Global Product Strategy organization and she also led scouting activities for in-licensing opportunities within Roche Partnering. In this latter role, she had broad responsibilities across Pharma Business Development including strategy, search and evaluation of in-licensing opportunities and cross-functional due diligence. She also worked for several years as a Senior Consultant in Life Sciences supporting multiple large pharma clients in key decision-making processes including business development, portfolio strategy, and competitive intelligence.
Valentina is a synthetic chemist by training and worked early in her career in process chemistry at Novartis, Basel.
Valentina earned a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Neuchâtel, and she then completed two post-doctoral fellowships at University of Toronto and ETH in Zurich, Switzerland.
Geoffrey Teixeira
SVP Head of Fibrosis
Geoffrey Teixeira joined Alentis as Head of Fibrosis in 2021, bringing nearly a decade of industrial drug development experience in inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. He was most recently the Translational Research Lead of Fibrosis at Galapagos, Mechelen, Belgium. In this role, he was responsible for leading translational activities for the company’s fibrosis pipeline, and for reverse translation activities and platform development, combining multi-omics and machine learning approaches for the identification of new targets and biomarkers.
Prior to Galapagos, Geoffrey was Project Leader and Therapeutic Area Lead of Fibrosis at Evotec, Göttingen, Germany, overseeing and bringing drug discovery programs (small molecules and biologics) as well as the R&D platforms of NASH and tissue fibrosis to decision milestones. These initiatives led to multiple alliances with biopharmaceutical companies and investors. He also worked as a scientist at Genkyotex, Geneva, Switzerland where he was responsible for setting-up animal models for tissue fibrosis.
Geoffrey holds a PhD in Physiology from the University of Lyon, France.
Roberta Marchione
VP Head of CMC
Roberta Marchione joined Alentis in 2020. She brings over seven years’ experience managing and executing the CMC strategy for the development of biopharmaceuticals from preclinical to clinical phase.
Prior to joining Alentis, Roberta worked as a CMC consultant where she provided services in CMC development and CMC Regulatory activities to different clinical stage companies. She also worked as a scientist at Amal Therapeutics (acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim) where she was responsible for protein-based vaccine process development, formulation development and process transfer.
Roberta earned her PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Grenoble in France and completed two Postdoctoral Fellowships at International Center for Infectiology Research, ENS Lyon, France and at the Institute of Structural Biology, Grenoble, France.
Thomas Baumert
Founder
Thomas Baumert is the founder of Alentis. Thomas is Professor of Medicine and Chair, Head of the Inserm Research Institute for Viral and Liver Diseases (IVH, Inserm U1110), Director of the Laboratory of Excellence HEPSYS at the University of Strasbourg and Hepatologist at the Center for Liver and Digestive Disease at the Strasbourg University Hospitals. Thomas brings 25+ years of internationally recognized unique R&D experience in liver disease and cancer.
Following his doctoral thesis at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and his internship at the University of Munich, Thomas was a Fellow at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Liver Diseases Branch at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA. He subsequently joined the Department of Medicine at the University Hospital in Freiburg, Germany to become a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist, attending physician, Lab Head, Associate Professor and department Deputy Head. He then relocated to the University of Strasbourg in France as full Professor of Medicine and Chair to head a newly created Inserm research unit on virus-host interactions and liver disease and establish a highly recognized program in translational hepatology. He also spent a sabbatical as a research scholar at the BROAD Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
The understanding of the molecular mechanisms of liver disease biology has allowed his laboratory to uncover novel strategies for the treatment of chronic liver disease and cancer. Thomas’ work has been recognized with several awards such as the Hans Popper Young Investigator Award, the Chair of Excellence Award of the French National Research Agency, and the Prix Galien and the Mémain-Pelletier Award of the French Academy of Science. He has received several European Research Council (ERC) awards for the discovery and development of novel approaches to treat chronic liver disease and cancer. He has published 400+ articles in peer-reviewed high-impact journals including Nature and N. Engl. J. Med. and is an inventor of several patent applications. He is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Hepatology – the leading liver journal worldwide and serves as an editorial board member of several other high-impact journals. He is a member of the EASL, AASLD, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and American Association of Physicians (AAP).
Thomas holds an M.D. from the University of Heidelberg and is a board-certified and licensed internist and gastroenterologist.