Our Team
Professionals
Alon
Chen
Scientific Vision
Ilana
Fogelman
Chief executive officer
Michel Ben Horovitz
Chief Financial Officer
Sharon Manashirov
Head of Science
Andrés
Montefeltro
Head of Delivery Platform Technology
Ruben
Pavia
Staff scientist
Alon Chen
Scientific Vision
Professor Alon Chen is the President of Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel and a Director at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich Germany. Prof. Chen also serves as the Head of the Max Planck Society – Weizmann Institute of Science Laboratory for Experimental Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurogenetics. Prof. Chen’s research focuses on the Neurobiology of Stress, particularly the mechanisms by which the brain is regulating the response to stressful challenges and how this response is linked to psychiatric disorders.
His lab has made discoveries linking the action of specific stress-related genes with anxiety, depression, social behaviors and metabolism. Prof. Chen and his research team use both mouse genetic models and human patients to ultimately create the scientific groundwork for therapeutic interventions to treat stress-related emotional disorders such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress, anorexia nervosa, and depression.
Ilana Fogelman
Chief executive officer
Dr. Fogelman became the CEO of miCure on June 1, 2022. She brings more than 30 years of experience in the development and due diligence of medical technologies (drugs, biologics and in-vitro diagnostics), including regulatory affairs (former FDA medical reviewer), clinical trial design and analysis, market research (former biotech equity analyst), and competitive Intelligence. Co-founder of C2N Diagnostics, a private company developing treatments and diagnostics for Alzheimer’s Disease (C2N launched the PrecivityADTM test, a blood test to aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s). As the COO of LifeTech Research, a consulting firm providing fundamental research to financial institutions, she conducted In-depth due diligence of more than 250 disruptive medical technologies across multiple therapeutic areas. Originally from Brazil, where she obtained her MD, followed by five years of training at Harvard where she obtained an MPH and completed two post-doctoral fellowships (in HIV clinical trials and cellular immunology).
Michel Ben Horovitz
Chief Financial Officer
Former CFO of RXZ Investimentos, an investment company focused on listed and private equities. Mr. Horovitz was also a founding partner of two Brazilian Hedge Funds; Skopos Administradora de Recursos and VIX Investimentos. Mr. Horovitz holds a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Universidade de São Paulo.
Sharon Manashirov
Head of Science
Mr. Manashirov was involved in the original miR-135 related research at Prof. Chen’s lab and has been working in miCure since its foundation. He has over 10 years of research experience in the field of neurobiology and during his M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies at Prof. Chen’s laboratory, his research focused on linking alteration in epigenetic mechanism and psychiatric disorders as well as identifying translatable targets for the clinic. He has been based in Barcelona since 2017.
Andrés Montefeltro
Head of Delivery Platform Technology
Andrés is the CEO and co-founder of CUBIQ FOODS (2018-present), a leading Spanish foodtech company. He is also Managing partner of Lingea Management & Consulting firm, supporting companies in Business development and Oligonucleotide delivery program development.
Before, as CEO, Senior Vice President, Research Head & Founder, of nLife Therapeutics (2006-2018, he has been involved in the development of oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents, published papers in the field of oligonculeotides for CNS therapies and issued the foundational patents. He holds a B.D. in Biotechnology from the Rosario University in Argentina and a PDD-2004 from IESE Business School (Spain).
Ruben Pavia
Staff scientist
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Advisory
Board
Jesse
Cedarbaum
Scientific consultant
Fabio
Jung
Strategic consultant
Jose Roberto
Ferraz
Board observer
Jesse Cedarbaum
Scientific consultant
Served as Vice President, Movement and Neuromuscular Disorders Clinical Development at Biogen Idec between 2014-2019. Prior to joining Biogen, Dr. Cedarbaum was Vice President, Global Clinical Development for Neuroscience at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he was responsible for late-stage programs in neurology and psychiatry.
He has also held senior clinical development positions at Cytokinetics, Elan and Regeneron.
Fabio Jung
Strategic consultant
Mr. Fabio Jung graduated a medical school in the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Post Doctoral Fellow at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
MBA in Finance and Health Care Management from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Founding Partner, One Partners
Jose Roberto Ferraz
Board observer
J.R. Ferraz has 32 years of international experience in the healthcare industry leading organizations in a variety of segments such as Surgery, Specialty Pharma, E-commerce and retail OTC. He has held senior executive positions at Livanova plc, Nestle Health and Johnson & Johnson and had board experiences in Brazil and Internationally.
Mr. Ferraz holds bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and post graduated in International Marketing and Finance, with both honors being from Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV).
Board of Directors
Roberto
Ruhman
Chairman of the Board
Bernardo
Parnes
Board Member
Marcelo Bandeira
de Mello
Board Member
Roberto Ruhman
Chairman of the Board
Roberto Ruhman is Brazilian, currently living in London, and has a professional career of more than 35 years of experience in financial markets, investment banking and asset management sectors, both as an executive and as an entrepreneur. He graduated from business school (Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo – Fundação Getúlio Vargas).
His career began at Citibank N.A. Brasil, and he worked at Banco Safra S/A. In both institutions, he was a senior bank executive in two different stints.
Roberto started his entrepreneurial activity when he founded Indosuez Capital Emerging Markets. He later joined Banco Matrix S/A as a partner. Roberto next went on to found RXZ Investimentos Ltda., an investment company. Additionally, between 2013-17, Roberto was a member of J. Rothschild Capital Management Limited’s Board of Directors. Currently, he is a founding partner of Joatinga Advisory UK Ltd, along with being the Chairman of the Board of miCure Therapeutics Ltd (an Israeli biotech start-up).
Bernardo Parnes
Board Member
Bernardo Parnes, founding partner of Investment One Partners, has more than 30 years of experience leading renowned Brazilian and Global financial institutions. He was CEO for Latin America at Deutsche Bank and Chief Country Officer for Brazil.
He structured Banco Bradesco BBI S/A, and managed JSI Investimentos Ltda., Joseph Safra’s family office. He was president of Merrill Lynch Brazil for more than 10 years, having started his career in finance at Citibank, where he worked for 7 years.
Marcelo Bandeira de Mello
Board Member
Former partner and manager of Banco Matrix S.A., where he worked for eight years. Lawyer and partner of law firms for more than ten years, performing in corporate and tax areas, capital markets and estate planning.
Graduated from Pontifícia Universidade Católicade São Paulo (PUC/SP), in 1987, with a J.D.