Dr. Leila Abbas

Pre-Clinical Manager

Leila has been working as a post-doctoral researcher in the field of auditory development and hearing restoration for nearly 20 years. She has a broad and in-depth knowledge of the auditory system and has published research in high-impact, well-renowned journals.

Dr. Faizah Mushtaq

Clinical Manager

Faizah is a clinically qualified audiologist who has previously provided hearing care to patients within both NHS and private settings. Subsequent completion of an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience and a PhD in translational hearing research facilitated her transition from a clinician into a researcher.

Efstratia (Tia) Papoutselou

Patient and Public Involvement Manager

Tia has over 5 five years’ experience of collaborating with patient groups, their families and members of the public to deliver research projects that are relevant to the needs of patients, carers and service users.

Sophie Price

Clinical Trial Associate

Sophie joined the Rinri theraputics as a Clinical Trial Associate in March 2023. She comes from a clinical research background within the NHS focusing on lymphoma, this research involved complexities such as cellular therapy and first in human trials.

Dr. Maryam Shariatzadeh

Senior Scientist

Maryam has over 15 years of translational research experience including 5 years within commercial projects on advanced therapies. These projects focused on the development of scalable manufacturing processes for T cell, stem cell and hPSC based technology, gaining expertise in the differentiation and expansion of cells, their scale up and transfer back to CDMO's.

William Sherlock

Senior Scientist

Will has previously worked at several MHRA and HTA licensed cell therapy manufacturing facilities where he contributed to the development and manufacture of different cell therapies for administration on the UK Specials programme. He has extensive experience with the use of embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells in a GMP environment and has supported the establishment of a new GMP manufacturing facility in Cambridgeshire.

Dr. Aurelien Bunga

Senior Scientist

Aurelien has 10 years life science R&D experience gained from both academic and industry positions with a particular focus on stem cells and neuroscience. Aurelien graduated with a First class (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds in 2013 and subsequently was awarded a Wellcome Trust PhD studentship at Cardiff University, where he pursued his interests in stem cell modelling and neuroscience, helping establish a protocol for the differentiation of iPSCs into microglia to study immune dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases. He completed his PhD in 2018 and subsequently joined Charles River Laboratories as a neuroimmunologist, taking a leading role on assay development and a broad range of client studies.

Gerry O’Donoghue

Gerry is Professor of Otology and Neurotology, and the Research Lead for Cochlear implantation at the University of Nottingham.

Hubert Löwenheim

Prof. Dr. med Hubert Löwenheim is Medical Director of the Department of Otolaryngology at the Tübingen University in Germany and Principal Investigator of Translational Research Group. Hubert studied human medicine at the Goethe University in Frankfurt and Harvard University in Boston. After completing his doctorate in hearing research, he continued his training as a specialist in Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery – and continued his scientific work at the University of Tübingen.

Dan Jiang

Professor Dan Jiang PhD FRCSI FRCS(ORL-HNS) is a Professor of Otology and Auditory Implant Surgery at King’s College London and a Consultant Otologist and Skull Base Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, Evelina London Children’s Hospital and King’s College Hospital. He is the lead clinician at St. Thomas’ Hearing Implant Centre in London. Dan was trained in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital, King’s College Hospital and The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (Queen Square).

John Grienwald

Dr. John Greinwald is a Professor of Otolaryngology and Paediatrics with over 20 years of experience in the genetic causes and treatment of deafness. Dr. Greinwald co-founded the Ear and Hearing Centre at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre . He has pioneered the establishment of diagnostic evaluation algorithms for children with sensorineural hearing loss and developed a next-generation sequencing platform to determine the genetic causes of hearing loss in children.

Dr. Hans E. Mülder

Dr. Hans E. Mülder studied nuclear physics at the Free University in Amsterdam and medical physics and audiology at the University Hospital Utrecht. He practised audiology in the Netherlands, fitted the first multichannel cochlear implants, kickstarted the usage of oto-acoustic emissions as a hearing screening tool for newborns and was a teacher of audiology, politician, and researcher.

Nick Higgins

Independent Chair

Nick is an experienced life sciences executive with significant business and corporate development achievements. He has over 35 years in the life sciences industry with extensive knowledge of UK and US markets in both private and public sectors. With a special interest in advanced therapies he has worked actively in the field of cell and gene therapies for many years.

Dr. Erica Whittaker

Investor Director

Erica is Head of UCB Ventures, a strategic corporate venture fund. She also serves on the Boards of StrideBio (Durham, North Carolina) and Ally Therapeutics (Cambridge, Massachusetts). She joined UCB in 2010 as VP Strategy & Partnering, New Medicines (discovery to clinical proof of concept), developing and leading the UCB-Harvard Research Alliance. In 2012, she joined the internal strategy team shaping UCB’s current Patient Value Strategy.

Frank Kalkbrenner

Investor Director

Frank is the Global Head of the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund. He served as board member of STAT Diagnostica (acquired by Qiagen in 2018), Hookipa Biotech (IPO at NASDAQ in 2019) and Amal Therapeutics (acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim in 2019). Currently, he is on the Boards of Rinri Therapeutics, T3 Pharma, eTheRNA, Aelin Therapeutics, Acousia Therapeutics, and Brainomix.

Professor Marcelo Rivolta

Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Marcelo is a globally recognised Professor of Sensory Stem Cell Biology. He has been based at the University of Sheffield (UK) since 2001 and has written over 40 papers on the subject, many of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals. The Rivolta laboratory is dedicated to studying the biology and behaviour of auditory stem cells, and to exploring their potential to regenerate the damaged inner ear.

Dr. Simon Chandler

Chief Executive Officer

Simon has been involved with Rinri since its inception, working closely with Marcelo Rivolta, Rinri’s founder and is responsible for the strategic direction and operation of the company.

Dr. Natalie Mount

Non Executive Director

Natalie is currently the CEO of Adaptate Biotherapeutics Ltd. focused on developing therapeutic antibodies to drug targets to modulate the activity of gamma delta T cells. Previously, Natalie was Chief Scientific Officer of GammaDelta Therapeutics Ltd.