Novartis Venture Fund

Bart Dzikowski is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund, where he heads Transactions & Legal. Before this role he held senior positions in Novartis' Transactions groups, which he joined in 2009, and earlier worked as a VP in investment banking at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and as a transactions attorney at Allen & Overy in New York. He holds Juris Doctor and Civil Law degrees from McGill Law School and is a member of the New York State Bar.

Florian Muellershausen, PhD, is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund based in Basel, Switzerland. Before joining the fund, he served as a Scientific Manager for the R&D Committee of the Novartis Board of Directors and held drug discovery roles in Novartis R&D, including Laboratory Head in target discovery and Translational Medicine Expert in autoimmunity. He holds an MSc in Biochemistry from Free University Berlin, a PhD in Biochemistry from Ruhr University Bochum, and completed postdoctoral training at Novartis in Switzerland.

Florian Muellershausen, PhD, is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund. Before joining NVF, he served as a Scientific Manager for the R&D Committee of the Novartis Board of Directors and previously held drug discovery roles in Novartis R&D, including Laboratory Head in target discovery and Translational Medicine Expert in autoimmunity within early clinical research. He holds an MSc in Biochemistry from Free University Berlin, a PhD in Biochemistry from Ruhr University Bochum, and completed postdoctoral training at Novartis in Switzerland.

Laura Brass is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund. She previously served as a Managing Director at MPM Capital and was part of the founding management team and SVP of Business Development at TriNetX, and earlier was CEO of the early-stage antiviral company Aferon. She holds a BA in Philosophy and BS in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a PhD in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Marianne Uteng, PhD, is a Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund in Basel. She previously worked in Novartis Global Drug Development and its Pre-Clinical Safety Department, leading teams on safety assessments for early and late-stage programs, and supported Novartis BD&L Search & Evaluation while building collaborations with biotech companies and academia. She holds an MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Oslo and a PhD in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biophysics from a joint EMBL–University of Oslo program.

Adam Cotton is a Principal at the Novartis Venture Fund. Before joining the firm, he conducted antibody engineering research in the labs of Jim Wells and Ian Seiple, and he is a scientific co-founder of Epi Biologics who also contributed to establishing Rezo Therapeutics and HYKU Biosciences as they emerged from academic labs. He holds a BA in Chemistry from Harvard University, an MBA from the University of New Mexico, and a PhD in Chemistry & Chemical Biology from the University of California, San Francisco.

Beat Steffen is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund. He previously held commercial roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in the US and Switzerland, launching products in the cardiovascular area, and earlier worked at McKinsey & Company in Zurich with pharmaceutical clients. He is a Swiss-trained physician specializing in cardiovascular surgery and intensive care and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Mathias Frederiksen is a Principal at the Novartis Venture Fund, based in Basel. Before joining NVF, he was a group leader in Novartis R&D, where his work covered neuroscience-focused medicinal chemistry, chemical genomics, and target discovery, with a focus on epigenetic dysregulation in disease, and he served on the portfolio management and strategy team. He holds a BSc in Chemistry from Mount Allison University, a PhD in Chemistry from Imperial College London, and completed a postdoctorate at Stanford University.

Anja Koenig, who holds a PhD in Physics from Cornell University, leads the Novartis Venture Fund and was previously a Managing Director at the fund covering Switzerland, the UK, the rest of Europe, and Asia/Pacific. Before joining NVF, she was an Associate Partner at McKinsey and Company in New York, working with healthcare companies across the US, Europe, and emerging markets. She is involved in the Swiss startup ecosystem and serves on the board of Sensirion, a publicly listed Swiss engineering company.

Christoph A. Meier, MD, is Head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital Zurich and Professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Geneva. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer and deputy CEO at the University Hospital Basel, and held leadership roles in internal medicine and endocrinology at Triemli Hospital in Zurich and the University Hospital Geneva. He earned his medical degree from the University of Basel and completed fellowships at the NIH, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Elaine Jones holds a PhD and has over 20 years of experience as a life science-focused venture capitalist. She was previously Vice President of Venture Capital at Pfizer Ventures, a General Partner at EuclidSR Partners, and began her investing career at S.R. One, the corporate fund of GlaxoSmithKline; earlier she was Director of Scientific Licensing and a research scientist at SmithKline Beecham. She earned a BS in Biology from Juniata College and a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh, with postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health.

Elena Battistello is an Analyst at the Novartis Venture Fund. Before joining the firm, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the New York University School of Medicine working on cancer immunotherapies, and prior to that she conducted research on targeted therapy and immunotherapy for blood tumors at EPFL. She holds a BSc from Padua University, a double MSc from Paris-Diderot University and Padua University, and a PhD from EPFL.

Fiona H. Marshall holds a PhD and serves as President of Biomedical Research at Novartis and sits on the company's Executive Committee, having joined in 2022. She previously led Discovery Sciences, Preclinical Development and Translational Medicine at MSD (Merck & Co.), and before that co-founded Heptares Therapeutics, where she was Chief Scientific Officer through its acquisition by Sosei. Earlier roles included Director of Molecular Pharmacology at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and senior positions at GSK; she earned a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bath and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge.

Michael Gilman, PhD, is a scientist, general manager, biotech executive and entrepreneur. He founded and led Padlock Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2016) and Stromedix (acquired by Biogen Idec), and held senior research and pipeline roles at Biogen Idec and ARIAD Pharmaceuticals. Earlier he was on the scientific staff at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; he holds a PhD in Biochemistry from UC Berkeley and an SB in Life Science from MIT.

Michael Hengartner, PhD, MBA, is President of the ETH Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the ETH Domain. He previously served as Rector of the University of Zurich (2014-2020) and President of swissuniversities (2016-2020). He studied biochemistry at the Université Laval, earned his PhD at MIT in 1994, led a research group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and later held a professorship at the University of Zurich, focusing his research on the molecular basis of apoptosis.

Michelle Ma is an Associate at the Novartis Venture Fund based in Cambridge, MA. Before joining the firm, she conducted research in Eric Fischer's lab, where her thesis examined mechanisms of protein degraders using biochemistry and structural biology. She earned a BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley and a PhD in Biochemistry from Harvard University.

Mukul Mehta was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Novartis in March 2026, following more than 20 years in finance roles across the company's Commercial, Development, Business Services, and Corporate Finance functions since 2003. Before that role he oversaw Business Planning & Analysis, Digital Finance, and Tax, and earlier worked in India's heavy engineering and banking sectors. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from PEC Chandigarh, India.

Samantha Guinn, PhD, is an Analyst at the Novartis Venture Fund. She was previously an Associate at Flagship Pioneering, where she worked on venture hypotheses, therapeutic concepts, and landscaping assessments, and earlier conducted research in the lab of Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee focused on cancer-associated fibroblast cellular crosstalk in pancreatic cancer. She holds a BSc from Colorado State University, an MMSc in Immunology from Harvard Medical School, and a PhD in Immunology from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Shreeram Aradhye, MD, is President of Development and Chief Medical Officer at Novartis and a member of its Executive Committee, overseeing advancement of the company's pipeline of investigational medicines. He first joined Novartis in 1999 and held leadership roles across the US, Switzerland, Germany, and India before spending several years at US biotechnology companies, including leading development of clinical-stage RNAi assets at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, then rejoined Novartis in May 2022. Earlier he was a transplant nephrologist, attending physician, and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his medical training at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in 1989.