pixlbio

Christopher Trummer is a TechBio founder, operator, and investor integrating AI with drug discovery. He founded Celeris Therapeutics, served as CEO, and built its AI-first protein degrader platform, forging big-pharma partnerships. Under his leadership, CelerisTx raised ~€20M in committed VC capital and won a competitive EIC Accelerator grant; the company was admitted to Y Combinator (ultimately passed) and later StartX. He led the acquisition of DefiniGEN into Phenaros and is CEO & Co-Founder of Pixl Bio, building tools that translate models into medicines. He previously served on the board of the Austrian Biotech Association and selectively backs exceptional founders at the earliest stages.

Ola Spjuth is Professor of Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics at Uppsala University, where he leads Pharmb.io, a research group integrating AI and machine learning with drug discovery and chemical safety. He is Chief AI Officer (CAIO) & co-founder of Pixl Bio. His lab combines in silico modeling with robotized high-content imaging and modern IT infrastructure to generate and analyze large-scale data for screening, toxicity, and mechanism-of-action studies. He publishes widely (5,600+ citations) and advances methods such as conformal-prediction modeling (e.g., CPSign). Previously, he co-directed UPPMAX and headed SciLifeLab’s Bioinformatics Compute & Storage facility, building national capabilities in scientific computing. Current work spans intelligent experiment design and AI for high-content imaging, including recent reviews on how deep learning accelerates image-based drug discovery.He helped launch multiple ventures including Scaleout Systems and Prosilico.

Jordi Carreras-Puigvert is Chief Scientific Officer & co-founder of Pixl Bio and an Associate Professor at Uppsala University. His work centers on image-based phenomics and AI for drug discovery, including co-authoring a 2024 field review on Cell Painting. Before Pixl Bio, he led the CBCS Uppsala unit at SciLifeLab, where he helped establish Cell Painting as a national service, and contributed to the pharmb.io program advancing high-content imaging and automation. His research and collaborations span mechanism-of-action prediction, toxicity profiling, and data-driven screening—bridging advanced microscopy with machine learning to accelerate therapeutic discovery.

Morgan Ekmefjord is a TechBio platform builder and Co-founder & CTO at Pixl Bio. A computer scientist and engineer, he specializes in large-scale ML and cloud infrastructure. Before Pixl, Morgan co-founded Scaleout Systems and co-authored FEDn, an open-source framework for scalable federated learning, and contributed as a systems developer/visiting researcher in pharmaceutical bioinformatics at Uppsala University. He has also founded or co-founded products and ventures such as Climendo, Snow, and ProSilico. At Pixl Bio, Morgan leads product and platform execution—bridging ML, automation, and high-content imaging to ship robust tools for drug discovery.

Dr. Nikolaos Nikolaou is Global Head of Cell Biology & General Manager (UK) at Pixl Bio. He specializes in iPSC-derived hepatocyte systems and image-based phenotyping. Previously Head of R&D at DefiniGEN, he led disease-model portfolio development—including Opti-HEP hepatocytes and MASLD models—and progressed from Senior Scientist (May 2022) into leadership while partnering with pharma and CROs. Before industry, Nikolaos earned his DPhil at the University of Oxford and held postdoctoral posts at Oxford and the University of Cambridge, researching steroid and bile-acid metabolism in liver disease. He is a frequent speaker on hepatocyte models and predictive toxicology, including a GEN webinar on using iPSC-derived hepatocytes for disease modeling and screening.

Malek Haddad is Global Director of Business Development at Pixl Bio. He brings scale-up experience from DefiniGEN (Director, BD Europe), Nuclera, Benchling, and Synthego. At Synthego, he was part of the company’s early UK/EMEA expansion—progressing from Inside Account Specialist to Senior Account Specialist as the firm entered the UK market—and is now London-based. He holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry & Cell Biology from UC San Diego and completed a CRISPR/Gene Editing short course at Harvard. At Pixl Bio, Malek focuses on global partnerships and enterprise adoption across biopharma, CROs, and leading academic centers.

Florian Schuster is a biotech builder and investor. He is Chairman of Pixl Bio and co-founded bit.bio, the Cambridge company “coding cells” for research, drug discovery and cell therapy. At bit.bio he served in leadership roles (CFO/COO, Chief Corporate Officer) during scale-up, helping secure a $41.5M Series A and a $103M Series B, backed by, e.g., ARCH Venture Partners, Foresite Capital, Tencent, and Charles River Laboratories. Previously, he was CFO & Head of Strategic Partnerships at Tessa Therapeutics, which raised $126M led by Polaris Partners with Temasek, EDBI, Heliconia, and Heritas. He began his career in investment banking, studied at Stanford’s School of Engineering, and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School—now supporting founders and ecosystems across Europe.

Alexandra Gylfe is a biotech investor-operator and Founding Partner at Nordic Science Investments (NSI), a VC fund backing science-based spinouts across the Nordics. She previously led cancer-genomics R&D at Human Longevity, Inc. in San Diego and later served as Business Development Director at iCAN, Finland’s digital precision cancer-medicine flagship. A former visiting researcher at Stanford, Alexandra holds a PhD in cancer genetics from the University of Helsinki and an MBA from Aalto University. She also contributes to company building as a board member at Thestra, supporting strategy and operational growth. At NSI, she bridges research, product, and capital to help deep-tech teams translate breakthrough science into scalable ventures.

Ali Altaie is an Investment Manager at Almi Invest (Östra Mellansverige), Sweden’s most active startup investor. He backs early-stage companies and builds syndicates with private co-investors across the Uppsala–Örebro–Östergötland corridor. Recent activity includes Almi Invest’s January 30, 2025 investment in Phenaros Pharmaceuticals, completed alongside Nordic Science Invest, Monesi, and Länsförsäkringar Uppsala—where Altaie emphasized Phenaros’ AI-driven platform and execution. Almi Invest manages ~SEK 3.5bn and has invested in ~1,000 startups via seven regional funds and a national GreenTech fund, pairing capital with strategic support to scale companies nationwide.

Mats Johnson is a Swedish life-science executive and investor with deep bioprocessing and tools experience. He served as CEO of Bio-Works Technologies, helping build the company to an IPO, and earlier was CEO of SweTree Technologies, which he led to profitability—together mobilizing ~500 MSEK in financing across SweTree, its spin-outs, and Bio-Works. He chairs the board of MAGic Bioprocessing and represents PÄAB on the PeptiSystems board. Prior roles include senior posts at Pharmacia/Amersham (Cytiva), Karo Healthcare (VP Marketing & BD), and Global Life Sciences Solutions (VP). A KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumnus, Mats supports founders on scale-up, capital strategy, and global partnerships.