Company Overview
Heqet Therapeutics is a pre-clinical stage biotech company focused on the development of non-coding RNA-based therapies to treat cardiovascular diseases, with a specific focus on acute myocardial infarction. The company stems from the groundbreaking research carried out by Prof. Mauro Giacca, currently Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences and Head of the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, King’s College London.
Millions of patients in the world suffer a myocardial infarction every year, with ischemic heart disease still being one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Heqet Therapeutics is advancing its pipeline of first-in-class compounds for cardiac regeneration to address this large unmet clinical need.
Our Team
Mauro Giacca – Scientific Founder and BoD Member
Mauro Giacca, MD PhD, is Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences and Head of the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, King’s College London. Until 2019, he has served as the Director-General of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), an organization in the United Nations system based in Italy. From 2005, he is a Full Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Trieste. From 2000-04, he has been Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Molecular Biology Laboratory at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, one of the leading academic institutions in Italy. He is the President of the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) European Section and serves on the scientific boards of numerous academic institutions and biotech companies internationally. Since 2021, he is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the United Kingdom. He received his Degree in Medicine from the University of Trieste, Italy in 1984 and his PhD in Microbiology and Virology from the University of Genoa, Italy in 1989.
Bo Rode Hansen – Executive Chair
Bo Rode Hansen is a seasoned leader in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, with over two decades of experience driving transformative change. He has held key global and international executive positions and board roles, contributing significantly to company growth through strategic planning in areas such as immunology, oncology and rare diseases. He has substantial experience from building companies from cutting edge life-science technologies and led both private held and public companies through capitalization, strategy setting and transactions.
Besides from his role at Heqet Therapeutics, Bo is a Director of the Board at Lift Biosciences Ltd, a first mover in innate immune cell therapy and at Spirea Ltd, a next generation ADC company.
He advises several start-ups and venture funds and has been Entrepreneur in Residence at Novo Holdings/Seeds. Previously, he was CEO of Scandion Oncology A/S, a clinical stage public oncology company and prior to that he was part of the company creation as well as CEO & President of Genevant Sciences based in Boston MA, a leader in RNA therapeutics and delivery. His career includes positions as global head at Roche pRED, GM of Roche Innovation Center Copenhagen and as executive at Santaris Pharma A/S, where led the company’s integration into Roche following the Roche’s aquisition.
Bo holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Copenhagen, an executive MBA from Henley Business School seconded by executive program from London Business School and Board certificate from Copenhagen Business School.
Filippo Perbellini – Head of preclinical studies
Dr Filippo Perbellini is a Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London. Filippo studied Medical Biotechnologies (Bachelor) and Biology Applied to Biomedical Research (Master) at Milan University (Italy) and completed his PhD in Cardiovascular Science in 2014 under the supervision of Prof Kieran Clarke, Carolyn Carr and Giuseppe Faggian (Oxford University and Verona University). He investigated the effects of a high-fat diet on adipose and mesenchymal cells. From 2014 to 2018 he was a post-doctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London, in Prof. Cesare M Terracciano’s laboratory, and part of the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine Centre. Here he learned various electrophysiology methods with a focus on multicellular preparations and became an expert in living myocardial slices preparation and utilisation for translational research. In 2019 he moved to Hannover Medical School (Germany) as a Group Leader “ex vivo technologies group” in Prof Thomas Thum’s laboratory where he continued to develop novel approaches to genetically modify cardiac tissue. In October 2020 he joined Prof Chuck Murry at Sana Biotechnology (Seattle) as a Principal Scientist – Integrative Cardiac Electrophysiologist to study engraftment arrhythmia and help move cardiac cell therapy to the clinic. In 2023 he moved back to the UK at King’s College London where he is focused on understanding the electrophysiology of proliferating cardiomyocytes. He is also working as a consultant for Heqet Therapeutic, managing pre-clinical projects in small and large animal studies and providing electrophysiology expertise.
Gang Li – Head of R&D
Dr Gang Li completed his PhD in Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London in 2020, under the supervision of Prof. Ijeoma Uchegbu and Prof. Andreas Schatzlein. Following this, he joined Dr. James Dixon’s group as a Research Fellow at the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, from 2021 to 2022, where he focused on developing innovative non-viral vector-based DNA vaccines. In December 2022, Gang joined the laboratory of Prof. Mauro Giacca at the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, King’s College London, aiming at developing lipid nanoparticle-based delivery system for inducing cardiac regeneration in patients with myocardial infarction and heart failure. Gang is also working as a consultant for Heqet Therapeutic, providing expert advice on the development of non-coding RNA therapies utilizing LNPs for acute myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular diseases.
