Dr. Lummertz da Rocha’s research at the intersection of biology, computational biology and artificial intelligence has contributed to advance the fields of stem cell biology and engineering as well as cancer research. Dr. Lummertz da Rocha trained in prestigious universities, hospitals and research institutions, such as the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Mayo Clinic, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lummertz da Rocha is an Assistant Professor at Federal University of Santa Catarina and Affiliate Faculty of Dell Medical School at the University of Texas in Austin. He has secured funding from the National Institutes of Health, USA, The State of Santa Catarina Research and Innovation Support Foundation (FAPESC) and the Serrapilheira Institute, Brazil, to support his laboratory’s research on hematopoiesis and cancer metastasis at the intersection with biomedical data science.

Claudia Mitchell is the Chair of Cellertz and the CEO of Savantia, a biotech strategy and consulting firm. She brings over 20 years of leadership experience in biopharma across the US, Europe, and Asia. Claudia is also the Chair of Cellerys and a member of the Board of Directors of Gubra and Coave Therapeutics. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President of Portfolio Strategy at Astellas Pharma in Tokyo. Prior to that, she was CEO and co-founder of Universal Cells, a US-based biotech company acquired in 2019, and co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Halo-Bio RNAi Therapeutics. Earlier in her career, she held research leadership roles at INSERM in Paris and at the LGMD2I Research Fund, a US-based nonprofit. Claudia holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Paris and an MBA in International Management from École des Ponts Business School. In 2018, she was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences for the Pacific Northwest, USA.

Rogério Vivaldi Coelho, M.D., M.B.A., retired as the president, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Sigilon Therapeutics, Inc. in December 2023. Prior to joining Sigilon, Dr. Vivaldi served as Executive Vice President and Chief Global Therapeutics Officer at Bioverativ Inc. from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that Dr. Vivaldi served as Chief Commercial Officer at Spark Therapeutics, Inc. Earlier, he held several positions of increasing responsibility over a 20-year career at Genzyme, most recently serving as the head of the company’s rare disease business, president of both the rare disease business and the renal & endocrine group, and as Senior Vice President and General Manager of its Latin America group. During his time at Genzyme, he led the successful approval of more than 15 orphan products in more than 20 countries. Dr. Vivaldi serves as a member of the board of directors and science and technology committee of Viatris Inc., a publicly traded healthcare company. Rogério also serves as a Board member of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded company and as a Chairman of the BoD of Vesper Biotechnologies, the venture builder company that co-founded Cellertz alongside Dr. Lummertz. 

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Rogerio earned a medical degree from the Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, after which he completed a residency in endocrinology at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and a fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital Center in New York in the department of genetics, focusing on Gaucher disease. He later became the first physician in Brazil to treat Gaucher disease using enzyme replacement therapy. In addition, Dr. Vivaldi holds an M.B.A. degree from COPPEAD, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Dr. Vivaldi’s experience as an executive officer in the life sciences industry and his extensive pharmaceutical commercialization and marketing experience with several different companies contributes greatly to Cellertz’s Board of Directors.

Jonas Sister is an economist with over 25 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, and M&A, with a proven track record in investment strategy, governance, and portfolio value creation.

He is a Co-Founding Partner and CFO at Vesper Biotechnologies, a venture builder pioneering biotech investments from Brazil, which co-founded Cellertz Bio.

Before founding Vesper, Jonas was a Partner at BRZ Investimentos, where he led investments and served on the boards of several portfolio companies during a ten-year tenure. Earlier in his career, he held roles in Strategic Planning, FP&A, and M&A at Votorantim, one of Brazil’s leading industrial conglomerates.

Jonas began his career at Nexxy Capital, a pioneer in Brazilian venture capital and part of the Exxel Group, then the largest private equity platform in Latin America.

He holds a degree in Economics from the University of São Paulo (USP), a specialization in International Management from Hogeschool Haarlem (Netherlands), and an MBA from Insper (Brazil).