Management
Team
Dr. Rachel Abbott
Chief Executive Officer
Rachel Abbott joined Pan Cancer T in January 2023 as Chief Scientific Officer, bringing a wealth of scientific and industrial expertise in TCR-T cell therapies.
She started her biotech career as a scientist at Adaptimmune and grew into managerial roles where she oversaw the discovery of novel TCRs through T cell cloning, pipeline testing of affinity-enhanced TCRs, and manufacturing large-scale T cells for use in preclinical packages. Rachel led the pipeline project for the development of a T cell therapy directed to PRAME and managed pre-IND safety and efficacy data packages for two next-generation NY-ESO targeting T cell products, all in partnership with GSK. Prior to joining Pan Cancer T, Rachel served as Senior Director, Head of TCR Pipeline and Dark Antigen Research at Enara Bio. In this role, she was responsible for strategic frameworks within research, focusing on the discovery and validation of dark antigens and the identification of dark antigen-specific TCRs.
Rachel holds a DPhil and an MBiochem in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, both from the University of Oxford. She was a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham for seven years.
She started her biotech career as a scientist at Adaptimmune and grew into managerial roles where she oversaw the discovery of novel TCRs through T cell cloning, pipeline testing of affinity-enhanced TCRs, and manufacturing large-scale T cells for use in preclinical packages. Rachel led the pipeline project for the development of a T cell therapy directed to PRAME and managed pre-IND safety and efficacy data packages for two next-generation NY-ESO targeting T cell products, all in partnership with GSK. Prior to joining Pan Cancer T, Rachel served as Senior Director, Head of TCR Pipeline and Dark Antigen Research at Enara Bio. In this role, she was responsible for strategic frameworks within research, focusing on the discovery and validation of dark antigens and the identification of dark antigen-specific TCRs.
Rachel holds a DPhil and an MBiochem in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, both from the University of Oxford. She was a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham for seven years.
Lars Ottevanger
Chief Financial Officer
Lars Ottevanger joined Pan Cancer T in December 2023 as CFO, bringing a wealth of experience in finance, venture capital and biotech management.
Lars has an MSc in both Biomedical Sciences and Science Based Business. He has previously founded and sold a MedTech business in the surgical oncology industry. He has served in (interim) CFO positions in start- and scale-ups in the MedTech- and BioTech industry, providing him with ample hands-on experience in fundraising and exits in Life Sciences. In fact, he has led many fundraising campaigns and has been involved in multiple financing rounds, covering more than €100M of funding over the last 18 months.
Lars has an MSc in both Biomedical Sciences and Science Based Business. He has previously founded and sold a MedTech business in the surgical oncology industry. He has served in (interim) CFO positions in start- and scale-ups in the MedTech- and BioTech industry, providing him with ample hands-on experience in fundraising and exits in Life Sciences. In fact, he has led many fundraising campaigns and has been involved in multiple financing rounds, covering more than €100M of funding over the last 18 months.
Dr. Tom Holdich
Chief Medical Officer
Dr Tom Holdich is a physician whose specialty is drug development. He has worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry for over 35 years, 18 years in Big Pharma and the last 17 years in Biotech. He has previously sat on the main Board of an AIM listed UK Biotech company for 6 years as R&D Director. His main area is Clinical Development, from Phase 1 through to Life Cycle Management in numerous therapeutic areas. For the last 10 years his focus has been oncology and especially T-cell therapy. From 2014 he was directly involved in the NY-ESO, MAGE-A10, MAGE-A4 and AFP clinical development programmes at Adaptimmune, running first-time-in-man studies and with a remit for late-stage Clinical Development and Medical Affairs. He has also been involved in TIL therapy and consulted on the development of other TCR T-cell therapies. He holds a degree in medicine from The University of London (1982) and has been a Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (1991).
Dr. Dora Hammerl
VP R&D, co-founder
Dr. Dora Hammerl is co-founder and VP Research and Development.
Dora brings 8 years of international experience in Immuno-oncology research. Prior to Pan Cancer T, Dora studied T cell evasive mechanisms in solid cancer as a research fellow at the department of Medical Oncology (Erasmus MC fellowship and NWO Veni).
Dora has a background in Molecular Biology (University of Vienna) and received her MSc in Biopharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University. She worked for 18 months at La Jolla Institute, San Diego, CA, in the field of tumor Immunology and joined the Debets Laboratory at Erasmus MC where she obtained her PhD in T cell immunity and TCR therapy for breast cancer.
Dora brings 8 years of international experience in Immuno-oncology research. Prior to Pan Cancer T, Dora studied T cell evasive mechanisms in solid cancer as a research fellow at the department of Medical Oncology (Erasmus MC fellowship and NWO Veni).
Dora has a background in Molecular Biology (University of Vienna) and received her MSc in Biopharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University. She worked for 18 months at La Jolla Institute, San Diego, CA, in the field of tumor Immunology and joined the Debets Laboratory at Erasmus MC where she obtained her PhD in T cell immunity and TCR therapy for breast cancer.
Dr. Reinout Hesselink
VP Process Development
Reinout is a seasoned professional in cell and gene therapies manufacturing with over 17 years of experience in CMC, regulatory, and quality assurance.
He has developed cell and gene therapies and production processes from early clinical development to commercial products. He has helped write and file IMPDs, INDs, and market applications. Besides his proven track record as a CMC/ Regulatory and Quality manager, Reinout was general manager. In leading companies such as BioNTech, PhamaCell, and CiMaas.
He has developed cell and gene therapies and production processes from early clinical development to commercial products. He has helped write and file IMPDs, INDs, and market applications. Besides his proven track record as a CMC/ Regulatory and Quality manager, Reinout was general manager. In leading companies such as BioNTech, PhamaCell, and CiMaas.