BaseLaunch team

Before joining Basel Area Business & Innovation Virginia Ballotta was the Country Manager Switzerland for Catalyze, where she helped biotech entrepreneurs and researchers acquire funding and shape their business strategy. She holds a Master`s degree in Bioengineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands), where her main research interests were tissue engineering and immunology.

Stephan is Director of Business Development & Operations and also heads Therapeutics Innovation at Basel Area Business and Innovation. He has been deeply involved in establishing and building out BaseLaunch, and was involved in the sourcing, launch, growth, and successful financing of numerous biotech ventures. Stephan joined the organization from brief stints in medical affairs at Lipomed and research at Roche. He gained his Ph.D. in RNAi and epigenetics from Novartis`s Friedrich Miescher Institute, which also affiliated with the University of Basel. Stephan holds a Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from ETH Zurich.

Before joining Basel Area Business & Innovation Martyna worked as a Project Leader at Redbiotec AG (pre-clinical stage biotech), where she was responsible for the design, development, and management of projects focused mainly on oncology and vaccine development.

Martyna holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Nicolaus Copernicus (Microbiology) in Poland and a Master’s degree in Biology from the University of Zürich (Evolutionary Biology).