Our Team

Dr Gisela Mautner

Director

MD-PhD (TU-LMU Munich), MPH (Harvard), MBA (Kellogg), FACPE (Australia), AMCEOI, MAICD

Dr Mautner is an international business leader with significant experience developing and launching new pharmaceutical products, and delivering successful corporate strategies in highly competitive global markets.

After joining Noxopharm in 2019 as Chief Medical Officer, Gisela was appointed to the CEO and Managing Director roles in early 2022. Her focus is on leading the strategy for Noxopharm’s next stage of development, and the creation and out-licensing of drug assets in oncology and inflammatory disease.

In addition to serving on the Noxopharm Board, she is also a Non-Executive Director of Nyrada Inc, a US biotechnology company listed on the ASX, as well as a member of the Board of NFP Australian Ice Racing.

Before joining Noxopharm, Gisela spent more than 30 years in the medical sector, including leadership in global pharmaceutical organisations across multiple continents and therapeutic areas.

Having held senior positions at major companies including MSD (Merck), Bayer and Amgen, in roles encompassing operations, medical and scientific advisory, research and marketing, Gisela brings a deep understanding of the industry to Noxopharm.

Gisela has strong industry networks and served as President, Vice-President and Treasurer of the Australian Pharmaceutical Physicians Association (APPA) for many years, and is currently serving as Past-President. She is also the Australian delegate for the International Federation of Associations of Pharmaceutical Physicians (IFAPP), which connects the pharmaceutical industry globally.

Gisela’s leadership experience is founded on an education at some of the world’s highest-ranking institutions, with an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, a Master of Public Health from Harvard, a PhD from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Technical University in Munich. She is also a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the CEO Institute.

Dr Olivier Laczka

Chief Scientific Officer

BSc, MSc, PhD

Olivier is a highly experienced leader in drug development, biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology and diagnostics.

His skillset includes immunoassays, patents, scientific writing and grants, as well as people and project management. Olivier brings to Noxopharm diverse experience in generating both intellectual property and research funding, along with managing effective collaborations with commercial organisations, academic institutions, governments, and private entities at the international level.

Prior to joining the company in 2018, Olivier was a senior research scientist with 3M, PriME Biologics and AEGROS Innovations. He also held various roles in academic institutions such as UTS Sydney, Macquarie University, and the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona.

Olivier holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a Master of Applied Biotechnology and Microbiology from Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieur de Luminy in Marseille, and a Bachelor degree in Biology and Environmental Sciences from the Institut Universitaire de Technology in Nantes.

Assoc. Prof. Michael P. Gantier

Scientific Advisor

MEng (Biol), PhD.

Associate Professor Michael Gantier leads the Nucleic Acids and Innate Immunity laboratory in the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Disease at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. The central theme of his research is to define how nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) modulate immune responses. He was trained as a biological engineer in Compiegne, France, prior to undertaking his PhD in Medicine and Therapeutics in University College Dublin with Prof. Seamas Donnelly, working on the then emerging RNA interference technology. 

Following on his PhD studies he joined the laboratory of Prof Bryan Williams in 2006, to define the interaction of RNAs with the innate immune system. This led to the discoveries of structural determinants of RNAs which underlie their capacity to activate or inhibit immune responses by Toll Like Receptors, a theme he has developed further in his independent laboratory since 2015. 

More recently, his laboratory discovered how immune responses could be engaged in damaged cells, with implications in infection, immunity, and cancer - through the engagement of the cGAS-STING pathway.

In 2015, following the award of an ARC Future Fellowship and several NHMRC project grants, he was promoted to lead his own research group in the Hudson Institute of Medical Research and in 2020 was promoted to Associate Professor.

He received the prestigious Milstein Young Investigator award from the International Cytokine and Interferon Society (2010), and Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society Young Investigator award (2014) among several other international and national awards. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed publications, and is an inventor on 5 PCT patents. He currently serves as Associate Editor for the prestigious Molecular Therapy-Nucleic Acids journal and Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research. 

Associate Professor Gantier’s team made the ground-breaking discovery that idronoxil was a potent inhibitor of TBK1, effectively blocking STING and MAVS signalling, at the root of the NOXCOVID trial.

Dr Daniel Wenholz

Pharmaceutical Chemist

BSc Hons; PhD.

After finishing a Bachelor of Science at UTS, Daniel worked for 2 years in an Environmental Chemistry role in Canberra. He returned to Sydney in 2016 to obtain a PhD degree in Medicinal Chemistry funded by a UNSW Research Excellence Award.

After the completion of his PhD, Daniel entered an academic position at UNSW funded by Noxopharm where he helped guide the chemistry direction and strategies of the drug discovery program. Daniel was then able to officially join Noxopharm as Pharmaceutical Chemist in 2020 before more recently taking on the role of Director of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. In this position he has driven the pharmaceutical chemistry efforts on multiple projects and oversees every aspect of the drug discovery alongside the biology-focused Noxopharm team members.

Daniel maintains close links with UNSW Sydney with a recently appointed Visiting Fellow position that allows for further collaboration between Noxopharm and the University.

Cameron Jones

Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary

CA, BBus, GIA(Cert)

Cameron is the Managing Director of Bio101, a financial services firm providing accounting, tax and company secretarial services specialising in the healthcare and life science sectors. A qualified Chartered Accountant and registered tax agent, Cameron acts as CFO and Company Secretary for a number of ASX listed life science companies and Venture Capital investee companies. In his role at Bio101 Cameron has assisted a number of clients in the IPO process and fills the role and acts as Australian Resident Director.

Cameron is a Director and Treasurer of registered charities Cystic Fibrosis Community Care Ltd (CFCC) and BioAutism Ltd and Chair of the Investment Committee for CFCC.

Dr Mary Speir

Senior Research Scientist

BSc Hons; PhD

Mary joined the team in late 2021 as a Senior Research Scientist, where she helps coordinate important in vivo research related to autoimmune diseases and mRNA vaccines.

She works closely with Associate Professor Michael Gantier’s team at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, acting as a valuable link between the two organisations and contributing to the scientific progress being made in the development and discovery of new anti-inflammatory drugs for a range of diseases.

Her background is in programmed cell death, and she has highly relevant experience running mouse models of infectious and inflammatory disease.

After completing her PhD at Monash University in 2015, Mary worked as a postdoctoral scientist in New Zealand, the US and Australia.

She maintains an Honorary position at the Hudson Institute, reinforcing the close working relationship between their team and Pharmorage and Noxopharm personnel.