Ruben Sebastian-perez

Senior Associate

2024 - Current

• Board Director at Adaptam Therapeutics: Led Seed round, company creation, strategic and operational setup, deal team, sourcing and due diligence • Board Observer at Aboleris Pharma: Led Series A financing, deal team, sourcing and due diligence • Led investments and due diligence on Aboleris Pharma (Gosselies, Belgium & Nantes, France), Adaptam Therapeutics (San Sebastian, Spain), and Tolerance Bio (Philadelphia, PA, USA) • Joined CBV in 2021 and have held roles of increasing responsibility since: Senior Associate (2024-present), previously Associate (2023) and Senior Analyst (2021-2022) Criteria Bio Ventures, formerly Caixa Capital Risc, is a leading life sciences venture fund investing in transformative companies to shape the future of healthcare. CBV partners with driven entrepreneurs and fellow investors to build global biotech companies developing disruptive therapies with the potential to transform patients' lives. Criteria Bio Ventures is part of the CriteriaCaixa group, Spain's largest investment holding, with nearly €30 billion in assets under management.

Associate

2023 - 2023

Investment Analyst

2021 - 2022

Investor, as a CBV investment

2024

• Co-led the $20.2M Seed round • Tolerance Bio is a biopharma company at the forefront of thymus-based therapies for immune-mediated diseases, developing an allogeneic, “off-the-shelf” thymus iPSC-based cell therapy platform and pharmacological therapies to preserve, restore, and manipulate the function of the thymus to treat diseases caused by abnormalities in immune tolerance

Board Director & Founding Member

2023

• Co-created the company and led the Seed round • Held an interim strategy, business development and operations role during the incubation/Seed phase • Adaptam Therapeutics is pioneering next-generation cancer immunotherapies by disrupting the immunosuppressive myeloid tumor microenvironment, particularly tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), through glyco-immune checkpoints to treat a wide range of solid tumors. Adaptam is advancing a pipeline of first-in-class antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and bispecific antibodies targeting unexplored glycan-binding proteins and Siglecs

Board Observer

2023

• Led the €31M Series A • Aboleris Pharma is a clinical-stage biotech company translating a fundamental discovery into novel pipeline-in-a-product immunotherapies designed to induce immune tolerance while preserving beneficial immune responses for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis

Board Member & Founder, Chair of YVC Barcelona

2023

• Board Member of YVC Collective • Founder and Chair of YVC Collective Barcelona, Spain

Advisor and Member of the International Expert Panel - Caixa Impulse Innovation

2022

• Invited member of the international evaluation committee for the final panel interviews. • Reviewed academic entrepreneurial projects in therapeutics, medtech, and digital health as part of the competitive annual call. • Delivered the “Venture Capital 101” training session to awardees of each edition since 2022.

Venture Advisor - Biopharma/Therapeutics

2020 - 2021

As an independent consultant, evaluated emerging early-stage biopharma and healthtech companies based in the US and Canada seeking funding with MBX Capital.

Technology & Business Development Fellow

2020 - 2021

• Assisted the Technology & Business Development Office (TBDO) in translating innovative discoveries and technologies developed at CRG and CNAG (National Center for Genomic Analysis) into commercially viable products • Advised entrepreneurs on defining R&D, intellectual property protection, and commercialization strategies across a wide range of modalities and areas, including oncology, immunology, synthetic biology, engineered cytokines, scRNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics, diagnostics, and computational biology • Assessed the scientific, clinical and business value of a variety of assets and entrepreneurial projects, including technical feasibility, market potential and competitive landscape, and recommended development strategies for life science technologies • Revised intellectual property documentation and collaborate with external international life science specialized IP law firms for patent filings • Engaged with key opinion leaders (KOLs) to gather feedback on the opportunity • Identified potential industry partners, business development alliances, investors and/or collaborators interested in developing the technology to the next stage • Prepared pitch decks and other internal documents for potential licensees, investors or collaborators

PhD Researcher

2017 - 2021

• During my PhD training, the core theme of my research has focused on studying genome organization and epigenetics in stem cells and during cellular reprogramming, and on exploiting stem cell-based approaches for regenerative medicine • Awarded FI-AGAUR fellowship for early-stage researchers, funded by Catalan Government and European Social Fund • Co-authored 7 peer-reviewed publications in multiple leading journals, including Molecular Cell, eLife and Nucleic Acids Research • Mentored undergraduate and master students, who are now working in academia and industry • Set up and led several international research collaborations with multidisciplinary teams in China (Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, GIBH and Beijing Genomics Institute, BGI), Israel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Spain • Participated in international collaborative projects with teams in the US (Harvard Medical School, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Wyss Institute) and Spain (Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, IBEC; Barraquer Ophthalmology Center; and Institute of Photonic Sciences, ICFO) • Led scientific projects, coordinated research partners, and wrote project reports and manuscripts for publication • Presented scientific results in oral and poster format at multiple national and international conferences (Boston, US; Guangzhou, CN; Kyrenia, CY; Prague, CZ; Barcelona, ES) • Revised manuscripts and grant proposals for scientific journals and international public and private funding agencies • Founded and chaired the Chromatin Club (monthly journal club) PhD Thesis: De novo heterochromatin establishment in 2C-like cells and early embryonic development. Reprogramming and Regeneration group | Gene Regulation, Stem Cells and Cancer Program

Research Scientist

2016 - 2017

Project: Development of single locus imaging technology for live and STORM microscopy exploiting the dCas9 system. Reprogramming and Regeneration group | Gene Regulation, Stem Cells and Cancer Program

External Collaborator

2018 - 2021

External collaborator with the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University. This academic collaboration led to a publication in Stem Cell Reports

External Collaborator

2018 - 2021

External collaborator with Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute. This academic collaboration led to a publication in Molecular Cell