BESE & Entrepreneurship Center Lecture present:
From Cell to Cellestia: Building a Successful BioTech Startup
By Dr. Rajwinder Lehal, co-founder Cellestia Biotech

Sunday, April 29
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Lecture hall between Ibn Al-Haytham and Ibn Sina buildings (bldgs. 2 and 3), Level 0
Lunch will be provided from 11:30 a.m.

Launching a biotech startup and bringing a new drug to market is a complex and daunting endeavor. In this lecture, Dr. Rajwinder Lehal will relate his experience of transforming basic research into translational research and his journey into entrepreneurship. Dr. Lehal is a cancer researcher who successfully co-founded Cellestia Biotech, a biopharmaceutical startup with a focus on anti-cancer drugs. Founded in 2014 as a spin-off from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the company has raised over 8.2 million USD. Cellestia’s focus is on developing an oral treatment for cancers related to specific kinds of genetic lesions, including various types of leukemia and lymphoma, and solid tumors.
Register here.

Hosted by BESE & I&ED

About the speaker

Dr. Rajwinder Lehal co-founded Cellestia Biotech AG in 2014 and serves as its Chief Scientific Officer. Mr. Lehal has more than 13 years of experience in cancer research. Since 2007, Dr. Lehal has been working at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research-EPFL, where he established a drug discovery platform to discover and develop novel anti- cancer therapeutics. Dr. Lehal is the recipient of several academic awards including the Canadian Genetic Disease Network, the American Association for Cancer Research-Scholar in Training award, University of Toronto fellowship, Frank Fletcher Memorial scholarship for cancer research and Al and Hannah Peryl Graduate student scholarship. Based on his drug discovery research, he was awarded INNOGRANT and ENABLE grant by the Vice Presidency for Innovation and Technology Transfer at EPFL