Leadership
John Klepper
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Serial entrepreneur · Company building
John is a serial entrepreneur with exits and experience in capital raising, company building, public speaking and commercial strategy.
ViroDyn.
From concept to cure,
all in one place.
An early-stage biotechnology company bringing bioinformatics and gene editing together to investigate Crohn’s disease.
About ViroDyn
A closer look at
Crohn’s disease.
We investigate the biology behind disease to explore where new therapeutic possibilities could begin.
Our research focus
Crohn’s disease.
Early-stage researchViroDyn explores how genetic changes contribute to Crohn’s disease.
We bring bioinformatics and gene editing together to investigate those changes in the laboratory, asking whether correcting them can improve disease-relevant biology.
01
Understand.
Use genetic and biological data to identify questions worth testing.
02
Design.
Use gene editing to investigate those questions in the laboratory.
03
Test.
Assess the biological results and use the evidence to guide the next experiment.
Our moonshot
Starting with Crohn’s.
Thinking beyond it.
Most medicine treats inflammation. We are going after what causes it.
We start with Crohn’s, where the genetics are clearest, and a method built to be repeated: select the target from patient data, correct it, measure whether it matters, decide on evidence rather than enthusiasm.
The disease is the first application. The method is the company.
Our focus today
Crohn’s disease.
Build the biological evidence through focused laboratory research.
Potential next applications
Other inflammatory diseases.
Explore where the approach could address related biological questions.
The wider ambition
More diseases.
More possibilities.
Develop a research foundation that could be adapted across diseases with a genetic basis.
A long-term research ambition. Each new application would need its own biological evidence.
Our story
A personal reason
to investigate Crohn’s.
Alex Humphries, ViroDyn’s co-founder and scientific lead, lives with Crohn’s disease. For him, the questions behind the research are personal as well as scientific.
That perspective sits alongside ViroDyn’s research focus: using bioinformatics and laboratory investigation to explore the biology of Crohn’s disease.
Our team
The people behind ViroDyn.
Company builders, scientific specialists and advisers, working together around a shared research focus.
Leadership
Lead scientists
Advisers
Leadership
Alex Humphries
Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer
Computational systems biology · Crohn’s disease
Alex is a published computational systems biologist specialising in Crohn’s disease, causal modelling and therapeutic target discovery.
Leadership
Sinan Weston
Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer
UZH Zurich · Master’s in computational biology and genetic engineering
Sinan leads ViroDyn’s strategy, operations and programme delivery.
Lead scientists
Dr Owen Wells
Head of Quality Control & Lab Oversight
Genome stability · Gene therapy · GLP compliance
Owen is a genome stability specialist with extensive Oxford Biomedica experience in gene therapy, DNA repair, GLP compliance and laboratory oversight. At ViroDyn, he is Head of Quality Control & Lab Oversight.
University profile for Owen Wells (opens in a new tab)
Lead scientists
Prof Helfrid Hochegger
Lab Operations
Cancer Research UK-funded professor · Genome stability
Helfrid is a Cancer Research UK-funded professor and genome stability expert, pioneering cell-cycle research and therapeutic target discovery. At ViroDyn, he leads laboratory operations.
University profile for Helfrid Hochegger (opens in a new tab)
Advisers
Dr Antony Oliver
Scientific Adviser
Structural biology · DNA repair · Protein engineering
Antony is an internationally published structural biologist specialising in DNA repair enzymes, protein engineering and structure-guided drug discovery.
University profile for Antony Oliver (opens in a new tab)
Advisers
Prof Simon Mitchell
Computational Adviser
Computational systems biology · Immune regulation
Simon is a computational systems biologist specialising in cell signalling, immune regulation and mathematical modelling of disease mechanisms.
University profile for Simon Mitchell (opens in a new tab)Contact
Where should
we begin?
For research connections, questions about ViroDyn or investor enquiries, get in touch.
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