Our Company
Rinri was established in 2018 by Marcelo Rivolta, a Professor of Sensory Stem Cell Biology, who has dedicated his research to discovering new regenerative therapeutics for hearing loss. With a hope to tackle the unmet medical need faced by millions of people across the world and make a significant impact on both the lives of patients and healthcare systems globally.
Drawing from this research, Rinri Therapeutics is now developing the world’s first regenerative cell therapies for hearing loss. Rinri’s therapy will have the ability to replace the dead or damaged specialised sensory cells of the inner ear that cause sensorineural hearing loss, the most common form of the condition. Rinri’s therapies are the first to have demonstrated that cell therapy has the potential to reverse hearing loss.
Rinri, which means ‘ear’ in Quechua – an indigenous language of South America – is now accelerating the preclinical development of its technology through to hopefully being the first to deliver first-in-human (FIH) clinical trials in the near future.
Our Team
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.
Marcelo has made key advances in the development of stem cell technologies to treat hearing loss and his programme of research has been supported by the MRC, the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform, the EU, the Wellcome Trust and charities such as the Royal National Institute for Deaf People. He has also led several UK and international collaborations with industry and academia.
Marcelo qualified in Medicine and Surgery in 1989 at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina, gained his Ph.D. at the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders in Maryland, USA.
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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.
Having spent most of his career within blue-chip biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, Simon has developed deep sector knowledge and experience of the biotech sector and the advanced therapeutics landscape. He joined Rinri from IP Group, a specialist deep-tech venture capital firm, where he worked in early-stage investment and venture building; creating spin outs from transformative opportunities. This gave him broad exposure to the life sciences market across therapeutics, medical diagnostics, medical devices, synthetic biology, and antimicrobials.
Simon believes that through its strong preclinical data, Rinri’s technology is at the forefront of otology and has enormous potential to succeed and make a real-world impact on patients and healthcare systems. He holds a BSc. (Hons.) from Leeds University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of York.
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Dr. Terri Gaskell
Chief Technology Officer
Terri has over 20 years of research and development experience within life sciences, in both academic and industry roles, with a focus on the development and translation of cell and gene-based therapies.
Terri joined Rinri from the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult where she worked for over seven years on the translation of a broad range of candidate therapies, alongside underpinning technologies and infrastructure. Her role at CGT Catapult also included advising academics and small companies on the development of advanced therapies.
Prior to this, Terri held senior roles in industry, focussed on the development of processes for the expansion and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells for therapeutic use and drug discovery. Terri received her BSc. (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Dundee and holds a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh.
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Professor Doug Hartley
Chief Medical Officer
Doug is a Professor of Otology at Nottingham University and a consultant ENT surgeon at Nottingham University Hospital’s NHS Trust – Queen’s Medical Centre. He qualified, with distinction, from Newcastle Medical School in 1995, and was awarded a DPhil from Oxford University in the field of hearing research in 2001.
Doug worked as a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Oxford, and was the first recipient of a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist Fellowship in Otolaryngology. He spent time as a Surgical Fellow at the Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre, after becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and completing his higher surgical training at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
Specializing in Otology, including cochlear implantation, his research team at the NIHR Nottingham Hearing Biomedical Research Centre is interested in developing novel objective measures of hearing loss and communication impairments. He is also the lead surgeon for the Nottingham Auditory Implant Program and he serves on grant review panels for the RNID and the NIHR.
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Rachel Haines
Director of Clinical Operations
Rachel Haines joined Rinri Therapeutics as Director of Clinical Operations in October 2022. She is a hearing scientist by training and has worked in translational research and clinical trials within both the domestic and international markets and public and private sectors since 2007.
Rachel specialises in audiology and otology and has a track record of leading clinical operations in this area. She has extensive experience managing large cross-functional teams and has organised multi-centre, multi-national, randomised, controlled drug, interventional and surgical trials. Rachel has also taught on internationally attended good clinical practice (GCP) and trials methodology courses, and published trial results in high-impact journals, leading to guideline changes.
She joins Rinri with an already broad portfolio of trials for hearing devices and traditional interventions and is passionate about the potential for stem cell technology for this therapeutic area. Successfully delivering the clinical operations strategy for Rinri, and contributing to the future of hearing therapeutics, will be the full-circle realisation of her early career ambitions.
Ben Stephens
Director of Finance
Ben has 25 years’ experience at board level finance and operational roles in the Pharma and Industrial sectors. For the last 10 years, Ben has worked in Pharma, drug development and licensing and then more recently in early-stage Biotech businesses. These include University spin outs from the UK’s leading institutions, with companies’ initial formation through to Clinical trial stages. Ben brings a range of Financial and Operational skill sets to Rinri, along with a passion for making new drug development succeed.
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.
Leila is passionate about the journey from ‘bench to bedside’ and joined Rinri on secondment from the University of Sheffield in 2021 as Pre-Clinical Manager. She has worked in the Rivolta lab for over 12 years and is highly skilled in the in vitro and in vivo processes underlying the development of the therapies Rinri has to offer. She manages the pre-clinical programme and liaises with our manufacturing partners.
Leila holds an MA in Natural Sciences (Genetics) from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Developmental Neuroscience from University College London.
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.
Faizah’s interests are embedded in research that addresses clinical needs, as demonstrated by her previous work, which aimed to develop an objective clinical measure of paediatric cochlear implant outcomes. As part of this project, Faizah led a national multi-centre study involving cochlear implant recipients.
At Rinri, Faizah focuses on working with our clinical partners to refine our clinical strategy, including the development of objective safety and efficacy measures and the surgical approach for Rinri’s upcoming clinical trial. She is also involved in Rinri’s patient and public involvement and engagement activities.
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.
Before joining Rinri, Sophie was working in the NHS as a registered physician associate, this is healthcare professional with a broad scope of practice. This gives Sophie a perspective on how the NHS runs and the practicality of clinical research within the public sector.
Sophie has a BSc. (Hons) in Biomedical Science and a MSc. in Physician Associate studies from the University of Manchester - this combines a background of laboratory science with clinical medicine in the NHS. For Rinri, Sophie will be assisting in the set-up and running of the first in human trial.
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.
She worked as a Post-doctoral Research Associate in Biomechanics groups at University of Sheffield and held roles as Senior Researcher and Project lead on various projects at Centre for Biological Engineering (Loughborough University), collaborating with several academic and industrial partners including I-Stem institute, Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering FhG-IBMT and NIBSC on development and optimisation of scalable bio-processes for the manufacturing of pluripotent stem cell products, product and process release criteria and cost-effective scalable banking and assessment of the comparability of these processes when executed at multiple sites.
Maryam received her PharmD from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and a Master’s degree in Biotechnology form University of Manchester and holds a PhD in Tissue Engineering and Biopharmaceutical Science from University of Sheffield.
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.
Before moving into the cell and gene therapy sector, Will held academic positions at University College London where his research focused on the development of the cerebral cortex and the transcriptional control of neuronal differentiation and migration. He holds a BSc in Genetics from University College Cork in Ireland, an MRes in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology from University College London and a PhD from the Wellcome Trust Programme in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology at University College London.
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. Having gained valuable CRO industry experience, Aurelien joined Rinri as a scientist in December 2021.
Gerry O’Donoghue
Gerry is Professor of Otology and Neurotology, and the Research Lead for Cochlear implantation at the University of Nottingham.
He is a Council Member of the British Association of Otolaryngologists and President-Elect of the Section of Otology at The Royal Society of Medicine, London. He has held a Hunterian Professorship at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and is founder member of the European Academy of Otology and Neurotology. He has delivered the Joseph Toynbee Memorial Lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine and was awarded an Honorary Professorship by the European Society of Paediatric Cochlear Implantation for outstanding contributions to the field.
Gerry’s principal interests lie in the field of cochlear implantation in children and adults. He has been involved in many outcomes studies and has written and lectured extensively in the field. He pioneered the development of minimally invasive surgery for paediatric cochlear implantation. Following the NICE approval of bilateral cochlear implantation for children, he has been actively involved in the national audit of the service. His work with the NIHR Nottingham Hearing BRU involves a multicentre pilot study which sets out to determine whether adults with profound hearing loss in one ear (and normal hearing in the other) can derive benefit from cochlear implantation. His interests also extend to the field of skull base surgery where he is currently exploring the concept of computer-aided shared decision making in acoustic neuroma management.
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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. After research posts at the Universities of Virginia and Washington, he completed his residence at the University of Tübingen in the field of regenerative medicine of hearing. The focus of his clinical work lies in otology and neurotology including the supply of hearing implants and cochlear implants, oncological head and neck surgery and plastic reconstruction, as well as interdisciplinary skull base surgery.
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). He completed a prestigious fellowship in Skull Base Surgery and Advanced Neuro-Otology in Cambridge. Dan was one of the surgeons in Europe who pioneered hearing preservation techniques in cochlear implant surgery. His research interest is focused on the field of optimising cochlear implant outcomes and the regeneration of damaged inner ear structures. He works closely with the NIHR and has been the principal investigator and chief investigator of NIHR funded clinical trials. Dan is a board member of the European Academy of Otology and Neurotology and a Trustee of the British Cochlear Implant Group. He served the council of the Otology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine for seven years and was its Honorary Secretary and Vice President.
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.
John has had 92 peer review articles published with the majority related to hearing loss. His research interests concentrate on identifying novel causes of genetic diseases, mitigating barriers to genetic counselling in underserved populations, developing innovative methods of providing complex genetic information to patients and physicians and helping to pioneer minimal access cochlear implant surgery. Clinically, he is the Medical Director of the Cochlear Implant Team and faculty in the Auditory Genetics Laboratory of the Ear and Hearing Centre.
Dr. Greinwald received his undergraduate B.S. degree from Wofford College and his M.D. degree from the Medical University of South Carolina. His Otolaryngology training was at the Naval Medical Centre Portsmouth Virginia and his paediatric otolaryngology fellowship at the University of Iowa. He is board certified in Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery.
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.
Hans joined Phonak, the global leading manufacturer of hearing aids, in 1999 as Marketing Director. There he oversaw the successful launch of Roger, the global standard for wireless communication for people with hearing loss, and several generations of the power hearing aid line Naída by Phonak.
In 2018 he joined Advanced Bionics, a US-based manufacturer of cochlear implants and like Phonak, part of the Sonova Group. He served as Director of Strategic Marketing until his early retirement in 2021. Hans has extensive experience in global marketing, scientific research, branding and communication strategy. He holds several patents in wireless microphones, hearing protection and sound . His prime interest is currently to help companies in the hearing health care field find their right strategy.
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.
Nick is a Director of Lizard BioConsulting, an independent consultancy specialising in business development for life science companies, which he founded in 2013. He is also Deputy Chairman of the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult and Chairman of Avvinity Therapeutics, a private company focused on immuno-oncology.
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. As Head of Market Access EMEA 2013-2017, Erica was instrumental in developing regional patient access and pricing strategies and was Chair of the Healthcare Systems Working Group of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries Association (EFPIA). Prior to UCB, Erica spent 10 years as a top-ranked biotechnology equity analyst for Merrill Lynch in London, where she conducted analyses for publicly listed European biotechnology and mid-cap pharmaceutical companies. Erica attended Brown University (Rhode Island, USA) receiving BA degrees in Biology and Comparative Literature. She moved to the UK on a Marshall Scholarship obtaining a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University Business School in Edinburgh.
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. A physician by training, with a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and a Pharmacology and Toxicology specialitism. He spent more than 10 years in academic research in the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics and in the Institute of Pharmacology of the Freie Universität in Berlin. He began his industrial career at Schering AG and moved in 1999 to Boehringer Ingelheim joining Pulmonary Research. In 2005, he took over the responsibility for the Licensing Department. In this function, he was responsible for the licensing activities of the German Boehringer Ingelheim organisation in various indication areas. He also built up the Biological Research unit at the German Research site in Biberach. Shortly after its initiation in 2010, Frank joined the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund.
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.
Marcelo has made key advances in the development of stem cell technologies to treat hearing loss and his programme of research has been supported by the MRC, the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform, the EU, the Wellcome Trust and charities such as the Royal National Institute for Deaf People. He has also led several UK and international collaborations with industry and academia.
Marcelo qualified in Medicine and Surgery in 1989 at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina, gained his Ph.D. at the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders in Maryland, USA.
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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.
Having spent most of his career within blue-chip biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, Simon has developed deep sector knowledge and experience of the biotech sector and the advanced therapeutics landscape. He joined Rinri from IP Group, a specialist deep-tech venture capital firm, where he worked in early-stage investment and venture building; creating spin outs from transformative opportunities. This gave him broad exposure to the life sciences market across therapeutics, medical diagnostics, medical devices, synthetic biology, and antimicrobials.
Simon believes that through its strong preclinical data, Rinri’s technology is at the forefront of otology and has enormous potential to succeed and make a real-world impact on patients and healthcare systems. He holds a BSc. (Hons.) from Leeds University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of York.
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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. which targeted gamma delta T-cell therapies for use in immunotherapy and was one of the founding team at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult serving as its Chief Clinical Officer advising academics and small companies developing advanced therapies. Natalie’s prior experience also includes 16 years at Pfizer, leading development activities across various therapeutic areas, including cell-based therapies in the Regenerative Medicine Unit. Natalie has a first-class degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. from University College, London.