Our Team
Bill Manos
Bill is a lawyer by profession, entrepreneur and investor.
He graduated in Law and Economics from Adelaide University, after which he practiced as a commercial lawyer.
He was elected to the Adelaide City Council where he served for 8 years and became the Deputy Lord Mayor of Adelaide.
After a decade in the law he co-founded Mancorp, a commercial property development and investment company that operated successfully for 20 years.
In 2007 he established Manos Capital, a private Investment company.
He is a long term member of The Sydney Angels network and an active and passionate investor in start-ups.
In 2018 he established Skin2Neuron to commercialize the biotech IP developed by Prof Michael Valenzuela at the University of Sydney. Bill is Director of Skin2Neuron.
Michael Valenzuela
Visiting Professor at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, University of NSW, and former Professor of Regenerative Medicine at University of Sydney, Michael is one of Australia’s most distinguished researchers. Accolades include the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Medical Research and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Excellence Award, and others.
He is amongst <1% worldwide with research impact across stem cells, neuroimaging, clinical trials & cognition. Michael has led four clinical trials to completion, attracted >$16M in research funds and published 100+ papers with more than 10,000 citations, as well as a popular science book (Maintain Your Brain).
Michael is primary inventor of the HFN technology, Co-Founder of S2N and Chief Executive Officer. He is an expert panel member of the Australian Dementia Network Memory Clinics initiative, a senior advisor to the International Federation on Ageing, and an advisor to the World Health Organization on healthy ageing and cognition.
Tim Oldham
Tim is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of AdAlta Ltd. Prior to this he was Executive Leader at Tijan Ventures and CEO/MD of Cell Therapies Pty Ltd, a company specializing in the manufacturing and distribution services for cell therapeutics.
Previous executive roles span more than 15 years of life sciences business development, alliance management and sales and marketing experience in Europe, Asia and Australia. He has been President of Asia Pacific for Hospira Inc. and held various European business development, strategic marketing and regional leadership roles with Mayne Pharma (injectable generics, biosimilars and infusion management systems). After gaining his PhD (Chemistry) at Imperial College, London he was an engagement manager with McKinsey & Company.
Current Non-executive Director roles include Acrux Ltd and Imunexus Ltd and he is a former Non-Executive Director of Respiri Ltd. Other industry advocacy roles include current membership of AusBiotech’s Regenerative Medicine Advisory Group, and past chair of the European Generic Medicines Association’s Biosimilars and Biotechnology Committee, Director of the Generic Medicines Industry Association and the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.
Tim serves Skin2Neuron as an expert consultant on cell manufacture and biotech commercialization.
Rob McInnes
Rob is principal at Rob McInnes IP Advisory. He specializes in the structure and negotiation of patent licences and contracts for the commercialization of technologies. He also advises founders of, and investors in, technology ventures. He is one of the few Australian lawyers to have met Certified Licensing Professional requirements.
He is recognised as an 'IP Star' by Managing Intellectual Property, and since 2010 has been ranked as Australia's highest recommended IP licensing lawyer.
Having gained experience both as a lawyer in private practice and as an in-house manager of IP and technology transfer, Rob’s preferred role is close adviser to management in research organizations and technology-based ventures. He likes to help managers make business decisions and negotiate assertively to achieve favourable outcomes. He is not an arm's length technical adviser.
Rob serves Skin2Neuron as an expert consultant on IP strategy and commercial deal making.
Helen Wray
Helen is an experienced life sciences professional with a career in development of novel leading-edge medical technologies spanning more than 25 years. Working predominantly in the commercialisation of regenerative medicine and implantable technologies, she has held leadership and executive roles within multi-national and Australian life science companies, taking technologies from the lab through effective technology transfer and scale-up, as well as supporting product approvals and commercial launches.
Helen has worked on significant projects for public and private companies including ReCell® and CellSpray® for Clinical Cell Culture (Avita Medical), AlphaCor ® an implantable artificial cornea for Argus Biomedical Pty Ltd and tissue based cardiovascular technologies for Admedus Ltd. For more than 10 years, she held an executive director role at Capra Commercialisation Partners, consulting to universities, start-ups and ASX listed companies. Most recently, Helen was the founding CEO of Captix Biomedical Pty Ltd, a research stage regenerative medicine technology company where she is now a non-executive Director.
Helen has a Bachelor of Science (Hons Path) and Master of Business Administration (Adv), from the University of Western Australia, a Master of IP Law from the University of Melbourne and is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Helen serves S2N as an expert consultant on regenerative medicine commercialization.
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Peter French
Peter is a cell and molecular biologist with extensive experience in both basic and clinical medical research and in the biotechnology industry in Australia and the USA.
He has a track record of successful business creation, capital raising, and strategic leadership of private and public biotechnology, diagnostic and medical devices companies. He is extensively networked in the biotech and life sciences community in Australia, having been the President of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology Inc (ANZSCDBI), and the Secretary of the Federation of Australian Science and Technology Societies (FASTS).
Highlights of his biotechnology company career include founder of ASX-listed cord blood company Cryosite Limited, Co-founder and Director of BCAL Diagnostics Pty Limited, and Managing Director of NASDAQ- and ASX-listed gene therapy company Benitec Biopharma Limited.
Currently, he is Chair of UNSW’s spin-off company PENAO Pty Limited, Chair of Mediland Pharm Limited and Strategic Technology Advisor to BARD1 Life Sciences Limited.
Peter is an Associate of the Royal Society of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales. In 2015 Peter was awarded the title of Innovator of Influence from the Australian Science and Innovation Forum. In 2019 he received the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Science Alumni Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Peter serves Skin2Neuron as a consultant on capital raising and commercial strategy.
Dr Thomas Lonngren
Thomas was Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency from 2001-2010. He established the EMA from a small unknown agency in 2001 to a world-renowned regulatory agency and was responsible for all of its operations.
He previously served with the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) as Director of Operations (1978-93) and Deputy Director-General, (1993 – 2000). He is currently Chairman of the Board of Egetis Therapeutics [NASDAQ NORDIC: EGTX] and a board member of Compass Pathways [NASDAQ: CMPS] and NDA Group (EU and US).
Thomas is an Honorary Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Great Britain, Honorary Doctor of Uppsala University, Sweden and Honorary Doctor of the University of Bath, United Kingdom.
Thomas joins the S2N Advisory Board to contribute his particular expertise in regulatory and commercial strategy.
Scientific Advisory Commitee
Skin2Neuron is proud to benefit from the experience and expertise of the following world class scientists and clinicians:
Dr Jeffrey Schweitzer Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
Prof Henry Brodaty Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, University of NSW
Prof Alvaro Pascual Leone Harvard Medical School, Harvard University USA
Prof Lars Ittner Dementia Resarch Centre, Macquarie University
Dr Erica Jacobson Neurosurgery, Sydney Children’s Hospital
Dr Russell Knudsen The Knudsen Clinic
Meet the Product Development Lab Team
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Dr Adam Johnson
Head of Laboratory & co-inventor
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Dr Dario Gerace
Senior Scientific Officer
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Linah Alsaif
Biomedical Engineer
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Sarah Houston
Senior Product Development Officer
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Manon Levayer
Quality Associate
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Alyona Mylovanova
Administrative Consultant
Skin2Neuron works closely with Dr Adam Denley (Principal), Dr Sarah Hennebry (Senior Associate) and Dr Kieran Williams (Principal) at FPA who manage our IP.