Dr. Samuele Cazzamalli studied Medicinal Chemistry at Universitá degli Studi di Milano, where he graduated with a thesis on the development of novel techniques for the application of biocatalysts in flow chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Carlo De Micheli. Samuele performed his PhD at ETH Zurich in the group of Professor Dario Neri with a focus on non-internalizing antibody- and small molecule-drug conjugates for the treatment of cancer. Samuele currently heads research at Philochem. He is the recipient of the 2024 EFMC Prize for Young Medicinal Chemist in Industry.
The updated list of peer-reviewed publications by Dr. Cazzamalli can be found https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SjyqgywAAAAJ&hl=it&oi=ao

Dr. Nicholas Favalli graduated with a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Milan in 2015. He completed his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dario Neri at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich in 2020. Nicholas joined Philochem in 2020 as Scientist and is currently a Group Leader for DNA-encoded Chemical Library research.

Andrea Galbiati earned his Master degree in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Milan, completing a thesis on the design and synthesis of selective NMDA receptor antagonists under the guidance of Prof. Andrea Pinto. He went on to pursue his PhD in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Milan (under Prof. Paola Conti) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (under Prof. Rob Leurs), concentrating on the development of antiparasitic and antitumor drugs. Currently, Andrea leads a research group in the Chemistry unit at Philochem, where he focuses on the development of targeted Small Molecule Therapeutics for cancer treatment.

Sara Puglioli earned her MSc in Medicinal Chemistry at the Università degli Studi di Firenze. She worked as a Research Associate at SpiroChem AG in Basel, designing, planning, and performing custom multi-step organic syntheses. She conducted her industrial PhD studies at Philochem AG, focusing on DNA-encoded chemical libraries and their applications in discovering novel tumor-targeting ligands. Her research journey has been featured by Chem (Cell Press) in an article available here.

Sebastian Oehler did his Ph.D. at ETH Zurich and Philochem AG under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dario Neri, focusing on methodological advances of DNA-Encoded Chemical Libraries and the synthesis of novel highly productive DELs. He continued his journey as a scientist, now group leader, at Philochem AG, exploring DELs as a powerful tool to discover and develop small molecule ligands for the selective delivery of diagnostic and therapeutic payloads at the disease site.

Matilde graduated in 2020 in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies from the University of Siena with a thesis on the targeted delivery of antiviral drugs. After a seven-month research fellowship at the University of Siena, she joined Philochem in 2021 as an industrial PhD student in the chemistry group, focusing on small-molecule drug conjugates for the treatment of solid tumors.

Tony Georgiev obtained his MSc degree in chemistry from ETH Zurich, with a thesis on organic synthesis in the group of Prof. Jeffrey W. Bode. He performed his industrial PhD at Philochem AG under the supervision of Dr. Samuele Cazzamalli and Dr. Sebastian Oehler with a focus on the discovery and development of novel ligands for imaging and therapy of prostate cancer. Tony currently holds a research scientist position and is continuing his work on the use of small molecules derived from DNA-encoded Chemical Libraries for pharmacodelivery applications.

Andrea Ciamarone earned his Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Bologna in 2021, completing a thesis on the design and synthesis of ultra-rigid analogues of the opioid Endomorphin-1 under Prof. Luca Gentilucci. The same year, He began a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Bologna in collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia under Prof. Andrea Cavalli, focusing on the development of antitumor agents. In 2023, he joined Philochem as a visiting PhD student, working under Dr. Samuele Cazzamalli and Dr. Francesca Migliorini on novel ligands from DNA-encoded Chemical Libraries (DEL) for pharmacodelivery applications. He is currently continuing his career as a research scientist, further advancing his work on DEL-based drug discovery and development.

Laura Alvigini holds a master degree in Chemistry from University of Pavia (Italy), where she completed an experimental thesis at CERN in Geneva. In 2019, she began her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Structural Biology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. A. Mattevi. During her Ph.D., she contributed to a European-funded biocatalysis project (SMARTBOX, Horizon 2020) and conducted biochemical characterization of the Coenzyme Q10 metabolon, awarded with an ERC Advanced Grant.

In November 2022, Laura joined Philochem, where she focused her research on establishing a novel peptide phage-display platform to identify potential new peptide-based drugs for cancer therapy.

Dr. Abdullah Elsayed earned his Pharmacy degree from Ain Shams University in Cairo. Following his move to Switzerland, he completed a Master’s in Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zürich, where his thesis with Prof. Dario Neri centered on advancing CAR-T cell therapies for solid tumours. He continued his academic journey at ETH Zürich for his doctoral studies, conducted in collaboration with Philochem AG, focusing on the development of bispecific T cell engagers for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Today, Dr. Elsayed leads a research group, where he remains dedicated to pioneering next-generation bispecific antibodies.

Simona Angerani graduated from Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy) in 2015, with a master thesis on small molecule-drug conjugates in the group of Prof. Cesare Gennari. She then moved to Switzerland to conduct her Ph.D. at the University of Geneva under the supervision of Prof. Nicolas Winssinger, focusing on PNA-based supramolecular networks. After a postdoc in the group of Prof. Oliver Hartley at the Centre Médical Universitaire of the University of Geneva, Simona worked as senior scientist and team leader at Orion Biotechnology, focusing on phage display and protein engineering. Since August 2025 Simona joined the peptide phage display team at Philochem, where she contributes to the identification of novel peptide-based drug candidates for cancer therapy.

Christian earned his Bachelor's degree at Newcastle University (UK) and his Master’s at University College London (UCL), working on fourth-generation CAR T-cells under Prof. Martin Pule and Dr. Claire Roddie. He then joined Prof. Dario Neri’s lab at ETH Zürich for his PhD, where he developed Adaptor CAR T-cells and studied how fluorescein conjugation influences bispecific adaptors that connect CAR T-cells to tumor cells. In 2020, as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Markus G. Manz’s lab, he published the AdCAR-T platform for hematological and solid tumors. In 2025, he became a Senior Scientist in Prof. Chiara F. Magnani’s lab, focusing on immunocytokines and CAR T-cells in solid tumor models. As of 2026, he aims to develop antibody-conjugates and innovative immunocytokines with his research team.

Mattia Matasci holds a PhD degree from the ETH Zurich. After post-doctoral training at EPFL Lausanne, he joined Philochem, initially working on antibody technology and then focusing on the final engineering and early production of clinical product candidates. Having more than 10 years of industrial experience in the development and manufacturing of therapeutic proteins, he currently heads the cell line development unit.

Ettore Gilardoni graduated in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutics in 2017 at the University of Milan and got the PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2021 at the same University. Ettore joined Philochem in April 2021 as Research Scientists and since July 2022 he leads the Mass Spectrometry activities at Philochem.

Since 2023: Head of Project Management and Head of Strategy, Philochem AG, Philogen S.p.A. Group

Since 2014: Project Management, Clinical Development, Philochem AG, Philogen S.p.A. Group in the Disease Area Neuro-Oncology and Oncology

2014 Doctor of Sciences (Dr. sc. ETH Zurich), ETH Zürich, Switzerland with the PhD hesis “Targeted delivery of immunomodulators for the therapy of cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases” in the group of Prof. Dario Neri; Award: ETH Silver Medal

2010 Master of Science ETH in Pharmaceutical Sciences, ETH Zürich and Diploma of Eidg. Dipl. Apotheker ETH

Dr. Giuliano Elia graduated in Chemistry in 1979 in Rome, Italy. He worked as a researcher at the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Rome from 1990-1999 and at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel from 1999 until 2000. From 2000 to 2006, Giuliano served as senior assistant at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich from 2000-2006. Dr. Giuliano was Professor and Director of Mass Spectrometry at the UCD Conway Institute in Dublin from 2006-2013. Since 2013, Giuliano is a Senior Director for Product Development at Philochem. Dr. Elia is author of more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and has an h-index = 40.

Jacqueline Mock studied Interdisciplinary Sciences with a focus on biology and chemistry at ETH Zurich. Following her MSc degree, she joined the lab of Prof. Dario Neri at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zurich where she obtained her PhD for the thesis entitled “TNF superfamily members as payloads for antibody-cytokine anticancer therapeutics”. She currently works as Clinical Project Manager for the Philogen group, taking care of the clinical translation of novel radiopharmaceuticals and other new drug candidates.

Dr. Sheila Dakhel Plaza studied Biomedical Sciences at the University of Barcelona. She pursued her doctoral studies at Philochem AG under the supervision of Dr. Samuele Cazzamalli with a focus on the discovery of novel strategies to increase the tolerability of antibody-based cytokines. After the completion of her industrial Ph.D., she continued her career as a group leader in the Biology team. Sheila currently holds a clinical project manager position for the development of late-stage melanoma trials.

Dr. Louis Plüss studied Biology at ETH Zürich. After obtaining his Master's degree in 2019, Louis joined Philochem for his doctoral studies where he focused on the development of novel antibodies for cancer therapeutics. Following the completion of his doctoral studies in 2023, he started his professional career in the clinical project management group.