About us

Our mission is to improve pharmaceutical R+D productivity through a lean drug discovery process based on cutting-edge computational technologies.

Passion

We love what we do and we are extremely motivated to work and deliver results. We have fun at work.

Innovation

We are an open-minded company that is fully committed to open-discussion and out-of-the-box thinking to deliver innovative solutions to partners and customers.

Challenge

We like to set ambitious goals, strive and achieve them.

Excellence

We base our strategy on the quality of our solutions. We believe it’s best to do one thing really well than many things just well.

Honesty

We strongly believe that human relations are crucial for an organization’s success. Hence, we enforce working with honesty, respect and integrity inside the company and with our collaborators and partners.

Collaboration

We recognize collaboration (and cross-discipline collaboration specially) as the appropriate mechanism to build solutions with greater impact. As a result, we are a company that is always looking for win-win collaborations and partnerships with organizations that share our mission and values.

Meet the team

Enric Gibert

Enric Gibert

CEO & Co-founder

Javier Luque

Javier Luque

CSO & Co-founder

Enric Herrero

Enric Herrero

CTO & Co-founder

Remy Hoffmann

Remy Hoffmann

CDBO

Tiziana Ginex

Tiziana Ginex

Senior Researcher

Fernando Martín

Fernando Martin

Business Developer Manager

Ana Caballero

Business Developer Manager

Anna Padrès

Anna Padrès

Intern Business Developer

Javier Vázquez

Javier Vázquez

Senior Researcher

Albert Herrero

Albert Herrero

Senior Engineer

Marc Blanch

Marc Blanch

Software Developer

Brian Medel

Brian Medel

Research intern

Carol Sánchez

Carolina Sánchez

Scientific Advisor

Manel Lopez

Manel Lopez

Principal Scientist

Nicola Scafuri

Nicola Scafuri

Senior Researcher

Alex Keller

Alex Kèller

Intern Software Engineer

Daniel Alvarez

Principal Scientist

Advisory Board

Board of Directors

Advisory Board

woody sherman

Woody Sherman

Mariana Vaschetto advisory board

Mariana Vaschetto

Manel Lopez

Manel López

Albert Zamora

Albert Zamora

Joan Bigorra

Joan Bigorra

Board of Directors

Enric Gibert

Enric Gibert

Enric Herrero

Enric Herrero

Albert Palomer

Albert Palomer

Venkat Reddy

Venkat Reddy

Yamina Hakem

Yamina Hakem

Join us

Have you studied computer science, computer engineering, biofinformatics, computational chemistry or medicinal chemistry?

Are you willing to work in an innovative software company?

Do you enjoy team working, innovation and challenging the status quo?

Are you looking for an industrial PhD degree on computer science or computational chemistry?

Send us your CV and a couple of references to hr[@]pharmacelera.com and join us!

Open positions

Computational Chemist – Barcelona. More information here.

Enric Gibert

Enric Gibert

CEO and co-founder

Enric holds a PhD in Computer Engineering from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and an Executive General Management Program degree from IESE Business School. Enric was a research visitor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and he worked for 10 years at Intel, where he led international teams from Israel, Germany, the United States and Spain in the fields of High-Performance Computing and Hardware/Software co-design. Enric is a co-author in 25 scientific publications and 20 filed patents and he was co-director of 3 PhD theses. Enric is co-founder and CEO of Pharmacelera.

Javier Luque

Javier Luque

CSO and co-founder

Javier is a full-time professor at the University of Barcelona (UB), where he leads the Computational Biology and Drug Design (CBDD) research group, and he has a broad expertise in computational chemistry, medicinal chemistry and Computer-Aided Drug Design software. Javier has authored more than 400 publications that have been referenced more than 15,000 times, has an h-index of 72 based on Google Scholar and accumulates 12% of the official references of MOPAC (the open-source QM package).

Enric Herrero

Enric Herrero

CTO and co-founder

Enric holds a PhD in Computer Engineering from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), where he obtained the UPC Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis. Enric was a research visitor at the University of California at San Diego. He is a co-founder of Pharmacelera and leads the Research & Development efforts. Prior to that, he worked at Intel in machine learning and hardware acceleration. Enric is a co-author in 14 scientific publications and 17 patents and has been co-director of 1 PhD thesis.

Greta Canóvas

Greta Cánovas

CFO

Greta holds a Business degree form Univeristat de Barcelona and Financial Management and Controlling postgraduate courses from UPF Barcelona School of Management. Greta accumulates more than 10 years of experience in finance management positions, focusing the last 6 years in Biotech and SaaS companies.

Remy Hoffmann

Rémy Hoffmann

Chief Business Development Officer

Rémy has over 30 years of experience in Sales and Business Development across various industries. He has experience in positioning and selling Computational Chemistry Medicinal Chemistry, ADME, Tox, Biology, Scale-up chemistry products and services. His areas of expertise include Providing effective sales techniques for Products & Services; Developing sales strategies; Nurturing and developing collaborative projects; Scientific Support to sales organisations; Transversal interaction with Product Marketing and R&D teams; Interaction with various customers (researchers from the pharma, biotech, academic and government teams) and Team Management.
He has published several articles in Computational Chemistry, and has co-edited two books (pharmacophores, data mining).
Prior to joining Pharmacelera, Rémy was associated with Jubilant Biosys as Senior Director Business Development for Discovery Services in Europe. Prior to  Jubilant Biosys, he was associated with companies like Sai Life Sciences, BioAscent Discovery Ltd,  Prestwick Chemicals, Thomson Reuters, Accelrys, etc.
He holds a Pharmacy degree and a Ph.D (Medicinal Chemistry) from Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France.

Tiziana Ginex

Tiziana Ginex

Head of Services

Tiziana obtained her PhD in Food Science and Technology with mention of excellence at the University of Parma (Italy) with a thesis focused on the application of computational techniques to food-related topics. During this period, she also contributed to the early development of QM-derived descriptors implemented in the PharmQSAR software. She accumulated 8 years of experience in computational chemistry and drug discovery working in academia. She was postdoctoral researcher in the Computational Biology and Drug Design research group at the University of Barcelona (Spain) and at the Spanish National Research Council (CIB-CSIC) in Madrid (Spain). She was also invited researcher at the University of Bristol (UK). She co-authored more than 25 peer-reviewed papers.

Fernando Martín

Fernando Martín

Business Development Manager

Fernando holds a PhD degree in Computational Chemistry from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and he did a post-doc in the NMR unit of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan applying molecular modelling techniques to epigenetic diseases. Fernando accumulates 5 years of experience in business development and product management in technology companies in the area of drug discovery. Fernando is co-author in 7 publications.

Ana Caballero

Research Scientist

Ana holds a Pharmacy degree, a specialization in Molecular Biology, and a PhD in Computational Toxicology from Jozef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Ljubljana, Slovenia. She accumulates 6 years of experience in the development and application of computational methods for toxicity evaluation. Ana has published 6 scientific articles in Computational Chemistry and Drug Discovery. Ana has experience working in business development within the drug discovery ecosystem.

Anna Padrès

Anna Padrès

Intern Business Developer

Anna is currently studying a double degree in Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Barcelona. At Pharmacelera Anna joined the business and development team to work with them and gain experience in this field. She is really interested in chemistry. 

Javier Vázquez

Javier Vázquez

Senior Researcher

Javier holds a PhD in Computational Chemistry from Universitat de Barcelona (UB). His thesis was co-directed by Professor Javier Luque and Enric Herrero. Javier accumulates 6 years of experience in computational chemistry and molecular modelling and he has been an active contributor to the development of PharmScreen and PharmQSAR since he joined the company. Javier is co-author in 3 chemistry publications and 1 patent.

Albert Herrero

Albert Herrero

Senior Engineer

Albert holds a Computer Science degree from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), a MSc in Software Engineering from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and a MSc in Computational Engineering and Mathematics from Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). Albert accumulates more than 10 years of experience in software development and High-Performance Computing. Albert is co-author in 1 publication.

Marc Blanch

Marc Blanch

Software Developer

Marc holds a Higher-Level Training Cycle in telecommunications and is finishing a degree of Telematic Engineering from La Salle University. He brings more than six years of experience in Front-End and Back-End development in big Banking applications and e-commerce applications,  those companies are among the most important Spanish companies.

Brian Medel

Brian Medel

Research intern

Brian holds a Chemistry Degree from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a MSc in Bioinformatics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He accumulates more than 2 years of experience in molecular simulations and computational chemistry. At Pharmacelera, Brian is developing his PhD in Computational Chemistry under the direction of Dr. Javier Vázquez and Prof. Jana Selent (IMIM). Brian is co-author in 5 scientific publications.

Nicola Scafuri

Nicola Scafuri

Senior Researcher

Nicola obtained his PhD in 2016 from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier (France), focusing on the computational exploration of reaction mechanisms facilitated by Palladium catalysts to create novel carbon-carbon bonds. After the PhD, he accumulated 5 years of expertise in computational chemistry and computational structural biology within the academic realm. He was postdoctoral research at both the CNRS in Montpellier (France) and the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa (Italy). He gained industrial experience as computational chemist at a biotech startup in Berlin (Germany), where he contributed to shape the R&D roadmap of the company. He is author and co-author of 5 scientific publications.

Carol Sánchez

Carolina Estarellas

Scientific Advisor

Carol holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Science and Technology from University of Balearic Islands (UIB), awarded as Outstanding PhD Thesis. During her PhD, she was a research visitor at University of Barcelona, Catalan Institute of Chemical Research (Tarragona) and Sheffield University. Carol performed several post-doctoral stays at Masaryk University (Czech Republic), University of Barcelona (UB) and University College London (UCL), in the latest as a Marie Curie Fellow. Now, she is a lecturer professor at the University of Barcelona (UB), joining the  Computational Biology and Drug Design (CBDD) research group. She has experience in computational chemistry and drug discovery, with a high expertise in the use of a wide variety of computational techniques. Carol has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications that have been referenced more than 2,000 times, and has an h-index of 24 based on Google Scholar.

Alex Keller

Àlex Keller

Intern Software Engineer

Alex is a last-year student of Computer Science degree from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). At Pharmacelera, Alex is developing his bachelor’s thesis and working in the backend.

Manel Lopez

Manel López

Senior Researcher

Manel holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Modelling from Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and a Master Degree in Organic Chemistry from the same university. Manel accumulates more than 25 years of industrial experience in the fields of molecular modelling, medicinal and organic chemistry and drug discovery. He worked for 22 years in Almirall and he is now the head of Computational Chemistry at AB Science. Manel is co-author in one patent and in 26 scientific publications.

Daniel Alvarez

Principal Scientist

Daniel, a Computational Chemist, obtained his PhD from the University of Barcelona (UB) in 2014, focusing on co-solvent based molecular simulations for Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD). During his thesis, he collaborated with external companies on drug discovery programs using structure-based and ligand-based strategies. He later joined a Paris-based scientific software development company, leading the creation of a web-based protein structure repository for CADD. This repository incorporated various structure-based methodologies, like pocket similarity searches and off-target predictions. Transitioning to Gain Therapeutics, Daniel led computational chemistry efforts in oncology programs and upgraded the company’s proprietary cheminformatics virtual screening platform. With over a decade’s experience, Daniel brings extensive expertise in applying diverse CADD methodologies within industrial settings.

woody sherman

Woody Sherman

Woody Sherman holds a Ph.D. in computational chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During graduate school he founded MolySym, an educational technology company focused on designing human-computer interfaces to improve physical science learning. He also worked at Biogen where he applied novel computational methods for antibody affinity optimization, culminating in a patent and publications. He joined Schrödinger in 2004 where he spent more than 12 years developing and applying advanced computational methods used at biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies throughout the world. As vice president and global head of applications sciences at Schrodinger, Woody led many of the breakthrough projects, including Induced Fit Docking, WaterMap, High-Throughput Virtual Screening, Protein Preparation Wizard, and FEP+. Woody is a key opinion leader in molecular simulations, computer-aided drug design and high-performance computing. He has co-authored more than 80 publications in several fields of computational chemistry and drug discovery. Woody is currently the chief scientific officer at Silicon Therapeutics and an adjunct professor in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Mariana Vaschetto advisory board

Mariana Vaschetto

Mariana holds a PhD in Chemistry from Universidad de Santiago de Chile and she later performed post-doc stays at the University of Durham and Universität Konstanz working on Quantum Mechanics. Mariana is an experienced multilingual and multicultural entrepreneur and manager in the software and scientific industries. She accumulates 25 years of experience in Marketing and Business Development in the Life and Materials Science sector in companies such as Accelrys (now DS Biovia), Perkin Elmer, Dotmatics and Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD). She also serves as advisor and member of the board in several life science companies.

Albert Zamora

Albert Zamora

Albert holds a Pharmacy degree from Universitat de Barcelona (UB), an MBA from EADA Business School and a Stanford School of Business and ESADE Business School degree on Corporate Social Responsibility. Albert accumulates 18 years of experience in business development, technology transfer, marketing and entrepreneurship in the areas of biotechnology, medical devices, digital health and drug discovery in Barcelona and Silicon Valley. He has raised more than 10M euros in his different roles and has served as mentor and board member in more than 10 start-ups.

Joan Bigorra

Joan Bigorra

Joan holds a degree in Medicine from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), a Management Degree from IESE Business School, a Business and Finance degree from Harvard Business School and a master’s degree in Biomedicine, Biotechnology and EU Law from UNED. He currently is the Director of Innovation at Hospital Clínic and the Director of Strategy and Innovation at Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). Joan is an internationally recognized person in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector, working for 10 years as Medical Director at Bayer and 11 years as Director at Novartis.

Albert Palomer

Albert Palomer

Albert has over 30 years expertise in the drug discovery and chemical development of anti-infectives and CNS and pain/inflammation modulators. He holds a PhD in chemistry for the Max Planck in Germany. Before founding the start-up Abac Therapeutics where he participated in the raise of 16m€ in a series-A round, he served at Ferrer, Ciba-Geigy and Menarini, where he was co-discoverer of the marketed analgesic Enantyum©. At Ferrer he was co-discoverer of the topic quinolone antibiotic Ozanex© /Xepi©, and the CNS drug Lorediplon© in clinical development for the treatment of transient insomnia. He is the author of over 55 peer reviewed articles and of 35 issued patents and serves as scientific advisor and member of the board in 2 start-ups.

Venkat Reddy

Venkat Reddy

Venkat Reddy, PhD, is the CSO of General Inception as well as serving on the Board of both Tactile Therapeutics which he co-founded and Pharmacelera.

Prior to joining General Inception in February 2022, Venkat was the CEO/CSO at Macrophage Pharma Ltd, and was responsible for R&D strategy, operations and fundraising activities.

Venkat has a successful track record and extensive strategic and management experience from senior executive roles in both European and US biotech and pharma, including Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (SVP, Global Head of Translational Sciences) managing translational strategy for Glenmark’s innovative medicines portfolio, Pfizer (Senior Director, Strategic Alliances and Partnerships, Centers for Therapeutic Innovation), Sanofi (Senior Director, Head, Bio-Innovation France: Global Biotherapeutics) and Novartis (Group leader, GNF).

Venkat holds a PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, undertook post-doctoral studies in immunology and oncology at the Scripps Research Institute and a Masters in Biotechnology at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Yamina Hakem

Yamina Hakem

Yamina, Founder & CEO of GlobalReach BI, is a highly accomplished professional in the Life Sciences industry with over 30 years of experience in International Business Development and Information Technology. Yamina holds a Business Degree from Université Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Yamina’s journey in the Life Sciences industry began at Thomson Reuters where she partnered with global pharmaceutical companies in facilitating their development strategies. This experience laid the foundation for her to establish her own Strategic Intelligence Firm, GlobalReach BI, ten years ago. The firm’s mission is to support the development and market launch of new patient treatments.

Based in San Francisco, GlobalReach BI has always been at the forefront of innovation in the Life Sciences industry. GlobalReach BI’s use of AI technology has enabled it to provide its client partners with a wealth of data-driven insights. These insights have facilitated faster and more accurate decision-making processes in the development and market launch of new patient treatments. This innovation has put GlobalReach BI at the forefront of the Life Sciences industry.

Looking forward, Yamina is excited to see what the future holds for GlobalReach BI and the Life Sciences industry as a whole. With the rapid advancements in AI technology, there are endless possibilities for innovation and discovery. Yamina and her team at GlobalReach BI are committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation and staying ahead of the curve in the Life Sciences industry.

Contact

CONTACT INFORMATION

HEADQUARTERS

Torre R, 4a planta, Despatx A05, Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB). C/ Baldiri Reixac 4-8 08028 Barcelona