Meet the team

Krishna Polu, MD

CEO

Krishna brings 20 years of operating experience to the team with a track record of pipeline advancement and drug approvals across multiple therapeutics areas. Over that period, he served as a clinical development executive at numerous biopharma companies including Equillium, Raptor Pharmaceuticals, CytomX Therapeutics, Affymax, and Amgen. Most recently, Krishna served as a Principal at Red Tree Venture Capital, a life sciences focused venture capital firm, where he was part of the founding team. At Red Tree, he supported a number of the firm’s investments, including serving as a member of the board of directors of Bicara Therapeutics and Sardona Therapeutics and board observer for Magnus Medical. In addition, he has worked in varying capacities for leading venture capital firms, including Frazier Healthcare and Catalys Pacific, helping to found and finance companies.  More recently he served as a board member at Frazier Lifesciences Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company, which led a successful business combination with New Amsterdam Pharma. He has also served as an advisor to Catalys Pacific, a venture capital firm focused on new company creation, helping to found three clinical stage companies, Mineralys Therapeutics, Pathalys Pharma, and Renalys. Krishna currently also servs as an executive in residence at Bioqube Ventures.

He received his B.A. in human biology from Stanford University and an M.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Colorado followed by a fellowship in nephrology at Harvard Medical School at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Mikkel Wandahl Pedersen, PhD

CSO

Mikkel is an experienced human biologist with 20 years of expertise in biologic drug discovery and development. He holds a PhD in Cancer Biology from the University of Copenhagen and has a comprehensive background in antibody-based drug discovery and development within therapeutic areas such as oncology, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases. He has extensive knowledge of the entire drug discovery process, from target identification and lead selection through pre-clinical development and clinical evaluation. He has played pivotal roles in bringing more than 10 different therapeutic programs from ideation through to clinical development.


Mikkel has held senior leadership positions, most recently serving as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) for Nykode Therapeutics, and before that serving as CSO for Symphogen in Denmark. His strong national and international scientific network extends across academia and industry. Mikkel is also a co-author of over 40 peer-reviewed publications.

Dennis V. Pedersen, PhD

COO & Co-founder

Dennis has studied the relationship between structure and function of complement proteins for more than 10 years. Dennis has a PhD from Aarhus University in Denmark and has extensive experience within drug development and project management from academic collaborations and biotech industry. Prior to founding Commit, Dennis has worked with structure-based drug discovery at Muna Therapeutics.

Pascal Merchiers, PhD

CDO

Pascal has +30 years of experience in leading drug discovery and preclinical development programs including the follow up on the scientific, IP and BD aspects. Through the course of his career, Pascal has been working in functional genomics, gene therapy and protein drug delivery. He has extensive experience within antibody/nanobody development from his time at Ablynx and within I/O biology from Tusk Therapeutics (acquired by Roche in 2018) and Oncurious NV. Pascal earned his PhD in Biomedical Sciences from KU Leuven. 

Nick S. Laursen, PhD

Head of Discovery & Co-founder

Nick has extensive experience in antibody characterization and has worked within the field of complement research for more than 15 years. Prior to founding Commit, Nick worked as an Associate Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark where he, together with the other founders, developed the BiCE™ technology.

Mikael Winkler, PhD

Head of Platform Technology & Co-founder

Mikael has a PhD from Aarhus University in Denmark where he studied the structure and function of membrane proteins. He has extensive experience within structural biology, and his work on cholesterol and auxin transporters has been published in the high impact journals Nature and Cell. Following his PhD, Mikael worked together with the other founders on developing the BiCE™ technology.

Heidi Gytz Olesen, PhD

Head of Drug Screening & Co-founder

Heidi has a broad background within the field of molecular biology and obtained her PhD from Aarhus University, where she studied replication of RNA viruses. Heidi has led several industrial research collaborations studying the complement system, including projects for Complement Pharma, Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Argenx.

Kevin Hollevoet, PhD

Project manager

Kevin is a seasoned venture builder and operator, passionate about bringing transformative science to patients. After completing his PhD at Ghent University and a postdoc on antibody-drug conjugates at the US National Cancer Institute, Kevin built and directed a DNA-based antibody platform at KU Leuven. Since transitioning to industry in 2018, Kevin has collaborated with academic founders, investors, and biotech firms around the globe to unleash therapeutic innovations in various indications, leveraging both single assets and platform technologies.