Executive Team

Ralf Paus

MD, DSc, FRSB
Founder, CEO & CSO

Research Professor of Dermatology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA
Emeritus Professor of Cutaneous Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Trained as a dermatologist, Ralf is a globally renowned physician-scientist with special expertise in clinical and basic hair research, skin aging, skin neuroendocrinology, epithelial skin stem cells, and wound healing (>720 publications, H-index: >119 [Scopus]). He has started hair follicle immunology and neuroendocrinology as research fields, has published landmark work in chemotherapy-induced hair loss, and has pioneered the discovery that human hair follicles can “smell” and “taste”. The latter explains why targeting the - as yet insufficiently tapped - chemosensory biology human hair follicles is one of CUTANEON’s favorite innovation R&D strategies.

Ralf is also a serial entrepreneur. After having (co-)founded Cutech S.r.l./Italy and Monasterium Laboratory/Germany (now: QIMA Monasterium), he has set-up CUTANEON in 2021 (operative since 2022) to develop highly innovative dermatological drugs, cosmeceuticals, and nutraceuticals. In this new endeavor, Ralf’s vision for clinically relevant preclinical R&D is informed by his background as a board-certified dermatologist and allergologist, last as Professor & Vice-Chair, Dept. of Dermatology, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany (1999-2004).

Jérémy Chéret

PhD, MSc
Principal Scientist

Voluntary Associate Professor, Dr. Phillip Frost Dept. of Dermatology & Cutaneous Surgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

Jérémy started his journey by gaining his master of sciences in Neurosciences at the University of Caen-Basse Normandie in 2009 where he gained all the knowledge about neuronal circuits, brain physiology and cancer. He later translated his knowledge on neuron biology during his PhD in the Laboratory of Dr. Laurent Misery at the University of Brest investigating the role of the peripheral nervous system during wound healing. He received his PhD in Neurobiology in early 2013 at the ABIES – AgroParisTech, Paris, which allowed him to spend some time in the wound healing company URGO and discover different aspects of the company world. Jérémy’s scientific journey moved to Germany in August 2013 when he joined Dr Paus’ laboratory in Lubeck, before moving to the University of Munster in January 2014. Jérémy was introduced to the hair follicle world, following his main interest in neurobiology by gaining knowledge in the neurobiology of the hair follicles and started to investigate the interaction between the peripheral sensory nervous system and immune cells. He joined in April 2016 the new start-up of Dr Paus, Monasterium Laboratory (now Qima Life Sciences), as a Staff Scientist, leading different projects in collaboration with industrial partners but also running different R&D projects, and discovered for the first time that hair follicles can smell by identifying the presence of a functional olfactory receptor, OR2AT4, in human hair follicles (leading to a patent) and established the first model of fully world’s first humanized reinnervated skin. In January 2019, Jérémy moved to the University of Miami, as Chief of Laboratory. He continued to characterize the human reinnervated skin system by investigating the communication between the nerve fibers and immune cells with Drs Bulfone-Paus and Yosipovitch. He also studied the physiopathology of chemotherapy-induced alopecia. In August 2024, Jérémy came back to Germany to become the Principal Scientist of CUTANEON, to oversee and coordinate all of CUTANEON’s research projects from the Berlin lab while staying involved in basic and translational research with the Miami Laboratory as Voluntary Associate Professor.

Amos Gilhar

MD
Medical Director & Head, Preclinical In Vivo Research

Emeritus Professor of Dermatology, Skin Research Laboratory, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.

Internationally renowned investigative dermatologist and skin scientist, who has pioneered ground-breaking humanized mouse models, e.g., for psoriasis, alopecia areata, androgenetic alopecia, skin rejuvenation and - most recently – vitiligo. He collaborates closely with Ralf academically and via CUTANEON (>36 joint publications since 2007, and counting), and contributes his decades of experience in both clinical dermatology and preclinical drug testing in vivo - always inspiring the CUTANEON Team to leave well-trodden paths, yet never losing defined clinical applications out of sight.

Jan Alenfall

PhD, MSc
Head of Regulatory Affairs and Patenting

Jan has over 25 years of pharmaceutical R&D experience in various company positions after his master’s degree (Biochemistry) 1988 and PhD (Pharmacology) 1995 (both University of Lund/Sweden). Jan has been involved in product development for new treatments of immunological disorders, cancer, obstetrics, and dermatology. Including basic research, product development, preclinical and clinical trials as well as commercial partnership. He has also been involved in both dermatological and parenteral development of new drug delivery systems. Specialties: International product development of particularly early-stage pharmaceutical projects. Business planning and risk evaluation. Design and execution of preclinical and clinical studies. Research focused and goal driven.

Jennifer Gherardini

PhD, MSc
Chief of Laboratory

Jennifer graduated from the University of Padova with a degree in medical biotechnology in 2011. She later joined Dr. Paus’ laboratory in Lubeck before moving to the University of Munster in January 2014 and officially starting her PhD in 2015. Jennifer focused on skin resident macrophages during her PhD research on the skin's innate immune system. In the meantime, she expanded her research also on other innate immune cells, once for all the skin resident γδT cells and their role in alopecia areata. In March 2017, she joined the new start-up of Dr Paus, Monasterium Laboratory (now Qima Life Sciences) as a staff scientist, assisting different projects in collaboration with industrial partners while finishing her PhD. Jennifer, in February 2020, moved to the University of Miami, at the Dr. Phillip Frost Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery as a post-doctoral fellow, where she focused mostly on hair follicle chemosensation by contributing to the understanding of the role of the taste receptor TAS2R4 in hair follicle growth. This led to a patent that is now the property of CUTANEON. During her years at the University of Miami, she also worked on the physiopathology of chemotherapy-induced alopecia. In March 2024, Jennifer moved back to Germany to become the Chief of Laboratory of CUTANEON, to coordinate all of CUTANEON’s personnel and supervise the research project daily.

Pascal Stämpfli

CFA
Head of Finance & Business Development

Pascal earned his M.A. in Economics from the University of St. Gallen and his charter from the CFA Institute in Virginia (US). He is passionate about market and business analysis as well as identifying strategic potentials, but also improving a company's operational and financial performance. Pascal has already assessed over 1'000 companies for financial and strategic investors. Today, he uses this knowledge to support young companies, in particular in their business development. He is fluent in German, English, Spanish and French.