Stuart Therapeutics, a clinical-stage ophthalmic biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for the treatment of anterior segment, refractive and posterior segment eye disorders, has added Lukas Scheibler, PhD as its Chief Science and Technology Officer.

“The advancement of our pipeline of novel collagen mimetic peptide therapeutics has increased the need for us to augment our capabilities. We are excited to have Lukas join the Stuart Therapeutics team as our Chief Science and Technology Officer. He has an extensive background in pharma, and we are particularly excited about his capabilities in retinal indications, an area where Stuart has developed some very exciting pre-clinical results,” said Eric Schlumpf, Stuart’s President and CEO.

Scheibler will work with a research team that includes Brian Del Buono, PhD, EVP R&D, and David Calkins, PhD. Calkins, who has acted as the company’s Chief Science Officer, will take on the new role as the head of Stuart Therapeutics’ Scientific Advisory Board.

Experience

Scheibler is an R&D professional with in-depth experience in drug development. Prior to his role at Stuart, he was the Chief Research Officer at Apellis Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for creating and managing all preclinical research projects and advancing them into clinical development to establish proof of concept.

Before this, he held leading roles in Acucela, Alcon and Novartis in research, clinical development and business development. He holds a PhD from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and has completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.

“Stuart Therapeutics is developing an extremely interesting therapeutic platform that targets diseased tissues in a novel way compared to conventional therapeutics for ophthalmology,” said Scheibler. “I’m pleased to be a part of this strong group, and am looking forward to helping drive their new programs, including retinal diseases, forward to success.”