LET'S MEET with
OUR TEAM
OUR TEAM
Alexandre
Lemoalle
president
Alexandre brings to Ampleia three decades of experience across pharma, biotech and investment banking.
Alexandre is Head of Strategic Projects at Genethon and Managing Partner at Finpact, a French boutique dedicated to fund raising in healthcare and planet care.
He was Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Genethon where we contributed to the execution of strategic deals.
Before joining Genethon, Alexandre spent 20 years at Sanofi including ten years in finance across in Europe and Asia and ten years general management and executive positions. As part of his time at Sanofi, he led the group in 25 acquisitions including Genzyme in 2011 and was CFO Asia, member of the Finance ExCom of Sanofi.
Alexandre is graduated from Institut Supérieur de Gestion (ISG) business school.
Pierre-Albert
Colcomb
chief operating officer
Before joining Ampleia, Pierre-Albert was Business Development Director at Genethon, a leading gene therapy developer where he contributed to crafting deals with key players in rare diseases and gene therapy including Sarepta, Spark (acq. by Roche) or AveXis (acq. by Novartis). He was instrumental in the creation of several biotechs, including Atamyo Therapeutics. As part of his position, Pierre-Albert was also responsible for the business development activities of I-Stem, a research center dedicated to cell culture and differentiation. He negotiated several deals in the field of drug screening and cell therapy, including a strategic partnership with Urgo Group in skin diseases.
Pierre-Albert started his career as an analyst at Clipperton Finance, a technology-focused investment bank.
He graduated from ESPCI Paris and ESSEC Business School.
Emilienne
Soma
Head of Development
Emilienne is Head of Development at Ampleia since July 2023.
She joined Ampleia from OSE immunotherapeutics, a clinical stage biotech in immuno-oncology and immuno-inflammation. where she was Director of Pharmaceutical programs and Strategic partnerships. In particular, she was clinical CMC lead for BI 765063 anti-SIRPa, lusvertikimab, and FR-104/VEL-101 anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies and managed the alliances with Boehringer Ingelheim and Veloxis.
Prior to joining OSE, Emilienne was Director of global program coordination at Nanobiotix where she overviewed the development of NBTXR3, a class III medical device being developed to potentiate radiation therapy in oncology.
She joined Nanobiotix from Gensight, a gene therapy company in neuro-ophthalmology where she was overviewing the CMC developments including for Gensight’s lead candidate for Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. Before joining Gensight, Emilienne held several development roles at Sotio, a cell therapy biotech developing an autologuous dendritic cell vaccine for prostate cancer. Emilienne started her career at BioAlliance Pharma, a biotech dedicated to oncology and infectious diseases. She holds a Pharm.D and a Ph.D in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Paris Saclay University.
Marion
Pilorge
Head of Sourcing & Startups
Marion is Head of Sourcing & Startups and joined Ampleia in 2023.
She brings 15 years of experience in lifescience, genetic and rare diseases and business development.
Prior to joining Ampleia, Marion was business development director at Imagine Institute. She led negotiations and contributed to the execution of 40+ partnerships with pharma companies and biotechs within the rare diseases field. She was in charge of Imagine’s Accelerator program, executing due diligence processes to bring projects from research stage to pre-seed funding.
In 3 years, Marion has supported 6 projects, which led to 2 start up creations. Marion started her career at Alcimed, a consulting firm dedicated to innovative industries. She was part of the healthcare team and supported healththech clients in their product development, market access plan and global development strategy. Marion was awarded her PhD in Genetics and Neurosciences from the University Pierre et Marie Curie. Her research on the genetics of Autism Spectrum Disorders, led to the identification of a new genetic syndrome (Intellectual developmental disorder, X-linked syndromic, Pilorge type) and to publications in top-tier journals. Marion also graduated from University Paris Dauphine/Mines Paris with a MSc in Innovation and Technology Management.
Ulku
Cuhadar
Analyst
Ulku joined Ampleia in 2023 after more than 8 years working in academic research institutions mostly in the fields of neuroscience, immunology and molecular biology.
Prior to joining Ampleia, Ulku was postdoctoral fellow at the Paris Brain Institute where she developed innovative imaging tools to study synaptic functions of LGI1 protein in epilepsy. Prior to that, she worked as a research Assistant at King’s College London, focusing on fibromyalgia and chronic pain mechanisms using electrophysiological tools.
She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from King’s College London and an MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology. She is multilingual, proficient in English, French and Turkish.
Investment committee
Jean-Francois
Briand
Permanent member of the Investment Committee
Jean-Francois Briand is Operations and Innovation Director at AFM-Telethon.
He joined the association in 2011 and held several leading positions in the identification and selection of world-class projects in rare diseases. His team is financing and managing the exploitation of 350 research projects across international academic institutions and biotechs with the ambition to further push boundaries in disease understanding and new technologies emergence for rare disorders.
Jean-Francois started his career as scientist at the Center for Atomic Energy before joining biotech industry where he was managing molecular biology departments and developing various research projects in recombinant protein production, infectious diseases and oncology programs development.
Jean-Francois holds a PhD in microbiology and virology from Sorbonne University.
Ralph
Laufer
Permanent member of the Investment Committee
Ralph brings to Ampleia his long and successful experience in pushing drugs from discovery to commercialization.
Ralph is CSO at Neuvasq, a privately held research company focusing on the discovery and development of therapies to safeguard or rebuild CNS barriers. Prior to that, Ralph was CSO at Lysogene, a clinical-stage listed company developing gene therapies for lysosomal storage disorders. Before joining Lysogene, Ralph was Senior Vice President at Teva, in charge of small molecule Discovery and Product Development. Through his leadership, his team contributed to FDA approval of three drugs for neurological diseases and the clinical development of several programs covering a wide range of therapeutic areas, incl. neurological, inflammatory, respiratory and oncological diseases. He joined Teva from IRBM, where he was the Scientific Director. Prior to that, he was Head of Pharmacology at IRBM-Merck Research Laboratories Rome. Over his career, Ralph contributed to the discovery and/or development of several commercialized products, including Austedo® (for tardive dyskinesia and Huntington’s disease chorea) and Isentress® (for HIV-AIDS).
Ralph is board member at EG427 and scientific advisor of several biotechs, disease foundations, and academic institutions. He holds a Ph.D in biochemistry from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Serge
Braun
Permanent member of the Investment Committee
Serge Braun is Scientific director at AFM-Telethon and President of Genosafe.
Prior to joining AFM-Telethon, Serge was Vice-President of Research at Transgene, a biotech dedicated to gene therapy and immunotherapy for cancer and infectious diseases. He started his career in academic research institutions both in France and the United States, focusing his works on neuromuscular diseases.
Serge co-founded Neurofit, a CRO specialized in preclinical tests on the central and peripheral nervous system, and was Vice-President of the Alsace BioValley bioparc, a major biotech hub in Europe, for several years. Serge is member of the National Academy of Pharmacy and scientific board members in various institutions, biotechs and VC firms. Serge holds a Pharm.D and Ph.D from Louis Pasteur University on neuromuscular diseases and immunotherapies.
Our Partners
Created in 1958 in France, AFM-Telethon is an association of patients dedicated to supporting patients and developing treatments for rare diseases. All along its history, AFM-Telethon has taken a pioneering role financing disruptive research and creating its own laboratories to find treatments for these neglected diseases, and bring them to patients. Within 30 years of research, AFM-Telethon has invested €1.7b to design treatments and bring them to patient’s bedside. Supported by a wide and international network of scientists, developers and clinicians, the technologies initiated by AFM-Telethon are now becoming real therapeutic options for rare diseases patients and give hope to millions of patient affected by rare and non-rare indications.
