Years of research by world class scientists

Nora is a mathematician with a PhD in Molecular Evolution and Bioinformatics. Nora’s research has focused primarily on protein evolution and comparative genomics.

Some of Nora’s publications have been placed in a library of the top 2% of published articles in the fields of biology and medicine.

Throughout her career, Nora’s ambition has been to disrupt the status quo in areas that have been void of technology by introducing new ways of thinking, big data, and new algorithms.

Previous to Nuritas™, Nora was the first scientist to show gene transfer between multi-cellular species. This groundbreaking find put into question many of the phylogenetic methods currently in use today.

Nora has developed a multitude of innovative software throughout her research career that are used to this day by research institutes and companies in over 70 countries. Nora has led international research teams around the world, in both academic and industrial settings, and has a proven record in new health-benefiting molecule discovery and commercialisation.

Over the next few years, Nora plans to lead the Nuritas™ team in their goal of reaching billions of people with their life-changing ingredients.

Neil has 20 years of experience across a wide range of commercial functions in the food, nutrition and consumer health industries. He has been responsible for a number of global-first-to-market launches, including novel health-promoting ingredients via some of the world’s largest food manufacturers and consumer health CPGs; but also branded D2C products both through eCommerce and traditional bricks-and-mortar retail. Combining a degree in Nutritional Science with a business education from world renown Henley Business School, Neil’s fascination is the intersection of technology, food and genomics and how these will converge to disrupt the traditional (and failing) healthcare model.

Dr Sanja Trajkovic has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry, Masters in Physical Chemist and is a licenced toxicological chemist. With over 14 years in working in academic research and almost 10 years in industry, Sanja brings a wealth of experience to her role in Nuritas.
Prior to her PhD, Sanja worked in the National Centre for Poisoning Control in Serbia. She moved to the USA for her PhD in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Kentucky (UK). There Sanja applied molecular biology techniques for biomarker assay development. She also worked on a pipeline for qualitative and quantitative proteomics where she developed an array of novel strategies to apply state of the art bottom-up proteomic and mass spectrometry approaches to the PTM identification.
Sanja moved to Ireland in 2015 joining Alltech, where she built, from the ground-up, a new lab for mycotoxin testing and received ISO 17025 accreditation. She joined Nuritas in 2017 as Head of Proteomics and Analytical Science.

Alessandro has a wealth of experience in software development and machine learning. He started his career as a computer engineer in Sicily and moved to Dublin to get a PhD in Bioinformatics from UCD. His focus was on machine learning and predictive models for protein structure and function. He was one of the early employees in Nuritas, joining in its early stages in 2014. Alessandro has been instrumental in the development of the deep learning models for prediction of peptide bioactivities and properties. He has also been a key member in the development of the Nuritas software platform designed to follow the life-cycle of peptides from in-silico prediction to the market.

Ian has a PhD in immunology. With over 15 years’ experience in drug discovery and development, he has a wide range of therapeutic experience including transplantation and oncology. Brian’s post-doctoral work on proteins as potnential auto-immune therapeutics in Trinity College Dublin and this services as a basis for Opsona Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Dr Aoife Doherty has a PhD in Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution. She brings over 10
years of experience in scientific research. Before joining Nuritas, Aoife was a EMBO Long
Term Fellow in the Integrative Genomics of Ageing Group in the University of Liverpool.
There, she was the lead on an international collaboration between Liverpool and Duke
University that identified novel single nucleotide polymorphisms that differentially affect
mortality in cancer patients with age. This research is key in the development of age-
specific prognostic biomarkers and personalized therapies. She has also authored other
research on the role of gene expression changes, gene duplication patterns and a new
approach for interpreting random forest models.
Aoife joined Nuritas in 2017 and has been key in conceiving, developing and leading the
maintenance of a large, complex database of curated biological data. During her tenure, she
has overseen the amount of experimental information available to our proprietary
predictive platform to increase by >1000%.

A fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, Owen has 20+ years experience in FMCG with extensive fund-raising and M&A experience.

Owen joined Nuritas in 2020, having spent the previous 5 years as CFO of a Global eCommerce and AI Technology start-up. Prior to that, he was CFO of an international FMCG business with customers such as Tesco, M&S, Aldi and Lidl. He also served time as the Finance Director of an IT multinational services company with major global customers such as Dell, Intel and Apple.
Owen has an MBA from Dublin City University and also completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business Strategic Leadership for CFO's programme.
Owen has negotiated Long Term Agreements with some of the largest Technology and Retail Companies in the world and has extensive M&A and fundraising experience to fund global growth.

Dr. Mark Gaffney has a PhD in Biotechnology and a tailored MBA from UCD Smurfit. He
brings over 17 years’ experience in R&D and industrial biotechnology. Mark’s previous
research has focused on the development and characterisation of novel ingredients for
the crop and agrifeed sectors. This largely revolved around the use of microbial-derived
components and peptide chelated minerals to deliver innovative solutions to the
marketplace, while enhancing the quality and nutritional value of foodstuffs. Prior to
joining Nuritas, Mark was in Alltech, where he held several positions, the last of which
was as Platform Lead for the Crop Science Research Programme.

Bernard Keogh has over 25 years’ experience in the technology and communications industries.

Prior to joining Nuritas, Bernard was a senior adviser at Granahan McCourt, a private investment firm focused on connecting people to innovation in technologically underserved areas of the world. He served as General Counsel of enet, the leading wholesale communications provider in Ireland, and sat on the boards of several other entities in which Granahan McCourt held investments.

Previously, Bernard held leadership roles with global communications firms Level 3 and Global Crossing. He was General Counsel at ComReg, regulator of the communications and postal sectors in Ireland, and held various roles at William Fry, a leading international law firm.

Martin is an internationally experienced principal investigator, research manager and publisher with transdisciplinary and multicultural sensitivity. He has accomplished a dual corporate/academic career at the private/public interface. As a translational scientist, Martin has experience in nutrition, pharma, biotechnology, and start-up. He is an internationally reputed, multi-lingual author, editor, and presenter.
In 2020, Martin was Senior Scientist at Vydiant, a health data company that gathers and analyses individual and public domain data to provide evidence-based health recommendations to individuals and their communities. In 2019, Martin was Editorial Director at Frontiers Media, a world-leading open access scientific publisher. From 2016-2018, Martin held a position as Full Professor of “Systems Biology in Nutrition and Health” at the Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland, New Zealand. His team worked on infant microbiome and health; maternal nutrition, breast milk and infant health; and nutritional effects on early-life epigenetics. Martin was furthermore the Scientific Director of New Zealand’s “National Science Challenge” on “High-Value Nutrition” targeting nutritional innovation for Asian consumers.
In February 2011, Martin joined the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences on the campus of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, as Head of the “Molecular Biomarkers Core”, which he built from scratch. This core facility and program covered proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, micronutrient analysis and diagnostics, with a strong focus on clinical applications in cognitive, metabolic, and intestinal health.
From 2009 to 2019, Martin was Honorary Professor for Nutritional Science at the Faculty of Science, Aarhus University, Denmark. From 2012 to 2016, he was Lecturer at the Faculty of Life Sciences, EPFL. From 2003 to 2011, Martin led the Functional Genomics Group at the Nestlé Research Centre, Lausanne, and was responsible for nutri(epi)genomics.

Dr. Barbara Davis has a PhD in Nutrition Sciences from the University of Florida, with a focus on nutrient-gene interactions. She began her career in academia, establishing the grant-funded Molecular Nutrition Laboratory at Virginia Tech. Fueled by a passion for developing practical solutions to support health, she began a career in industry, connecting science to consumer needs.
Her expertise includes designing clinical trials to evaluate dietary ingredient health benefits, incorporating nutrition into business strategy, and developing scientific regulatory dossiers for the US, EU and Asia. Barbara has a record of translating science into competitive product positioning opportunities internationally.

Matthieu has over 25 years of experience in investment management with a concentration on Asian regions. Matthieu’s investment experience has been centred primarily on thematic investing where he has successfully identified specific themes and designed strategies to profit from them. In mid-2012, Matthieu started to explore the imbalance created by China in the world market of animal protein. He quickly became convinced that it was the tipping point of a multi-decade investment opportunity. In late 2013-early 2014, Matthieu decided to concentrate solely on this and founded New Protein Capital (NPC). The scope of investment of NPC has since been expanded to include the multiple challenges of the food and feed production processes.

Prior to founding NPC in 2014, Matthieu was with Everest Capital, a large independent investment firm with offices in the US and in Singapore, for over 16 years. At Everest Capital, he was a Senior Managing Director and the Director of Research as well as a member of the Executive and Investment committees. Prior to Everest, Matthieu was with Banque Paribas, in Hong Kong, New York, Taipei and Paris.

Matthieu has a postgraduate degree in Corporate Finance from Université Paris Dauphine and has a graduate degree from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

Nick Rosa is Co-founder and Managing Director of Sandbox Industries and Managing Director of Cultivian Sandbox. Nick serves as a Director or advisor to several companies, such as the Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Fund, Healthbox Global Partners, Oncology Analytics, Nuritas, TechStars Chicago and The Chicago Innovation Awards.
Prior to forming Sandbox, Nick led the buyout and served as CEO of The NutraSweet Company. As a senior executive at Monsanto, he led the Nutrition and Consumer Products division, overseeing NutraSweet, the consumer Lawn and Garden Business, and Kelco food ingredients business. Nick also served as a Senior Vice President and Advisor to the Board of Directors at Monsanto.
Previously, Nick held senior executive positions at Searle and has experience with Masonite Corporation and Baxter. He has lived and worked in several countries, including Kuwait, Switzerland and France. Nick has also been involved with numerous civic and commercial organizations. Nick holds a B.S. in Political Science from Northern Illinois University and an MBA from DePaul University.