Axxam announces the appointment of Dr. Doris Hafenbradl as Vice-President, Discovery Services

Bresso (Milan, Italy), January 7th, 2013. Axxam SpA, a privately owned contract research and discovery company, announced today that Dr. Doris Hafenbradl has joined the company as Vice President Discovery Services. Doris brings to Axxam considerable industry experience that spans from target discovery to lead generation and preclinical candidate nomination.

Doris joins Axxam from BioFocus where, as Senior Director Biology & Natural Products, she was responsible for the Basel’ site (Switzerland) and her activities contributed to a significant broadening of epigenetics drug discovery services. Under her guidance a number of novel technologies for HTS and Fragment Based Drug Discovery were integrated into hit finding strategies tailored to various drug discovery programs.

During her previous positions at GPC Biotech/Axxima Pharmaceuticals and Proteros Biostructures, Doris has led various international research & development collaborations and drug discovery programs in oncology, infectious diseases and inflammation. Prior to this Doris spent more than six years in the US, working at Diversa Corp (now Verenium) and at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego. Doris holds an MS and PhD in Microbiology from the University of Regensburg, Germany.

Stefan Lohmer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Axxam, said: “Doris’ significant experience in the early drug discovery business will have an immediate impact on Axxam’s growing integrated lead discovery services. Doris will be responsible for increasing our HTS-based discovery service business that supports our clients through innovative technologies and dedicated experts. We are very pleased to welcome Doris to Axxam.”