Dr. Edith Hessel is a mucosal immunologist with over 20 years’ experience in drug discovery and has successfully pioneered novel target discovery platforms and advanced multiple therapeutics from inception to clinical proof of concept, both in Biotech and Pharma.

After 8 years in the California Biotech sector, working in the field of Toll-like receptors, Dr. Hessel joined GlaxoSmithKline in the UK. In her role as VP, she was responsible for the creation of the Refractory Respiratory Inflammation Discovery Performance Unit, and with her team developed innovative approaches to target discovery, adding multiple programs to GSK’s pipeline. During her GSK tenure, Dr. Hessel oversaw the clinical development of nemiralisib, an inhaled PI3Kdelta inhibitor, from its early molecule stages through to a Phase 2b in patients, and led the formation of multiple strategic commercial and academic partnerships.

Together with SV Health Investors, Dr. Hessel then co-founded Mestag Therapeutics where, as CSO, she built the research team, conceptualized and implemented Mestag’s lead programs and target discovery platform, and in collaboration with the CEO, landed seed financing from both SV and J&J Innovation.
Before joining Relation Therapeutics, Dr. Hessel served as CSO at Eligo Bioscience in Paris, where she oversaw the progression of Eligo’s pipeline and led the strategic expansion of the therapeutic application of Eligo’s gene editing platform.

Dr. Hessel currently serves on the Board of the Fraunhofer ITEM Institute and is a Trustee on the Board of the British Society for Immunology. She received her PhD from Utrecht University (The Netherlands), trained as Post-Doc at DNAX Research Institute (CA, USA), and has been awarded an Honorary Professorship at the University of Manchester in recognition of her scientific achievements.