Our Team

Dirk Biskup, PhD, is co-founder and (interim) managing director of cecava, actively driving the company’s strategic development. He has also founded and continues to lead several diagnostic testing companies.

In 2009, he co-founded the human diagnostics company CeGaT GmbH with his wife, Saskia Biskup (MD, PhD). CeGaT was among the first companies worldwide to leverage high-throughput sequencing to comprehensively identify genetic mutations causative for various diseases, including cancer. For this pioneering work, CeGaT received several awards, including the German Founders Award in the category of Best StartUp (2011) and the EU Innovation Award (2014). In 2013, Dirk and Saskia Biskup were honored as Germany’s Best Entrepreneurs by Ernst & Young. Today, CeGaT is fully owned by the founder family and ranks among the largest sequencing and genetic diagnostics labs in Europe.

Dirk also founded Cenata GmbH, a leader in non-invasive prenatal testing in Germany, and CAG GmbH (now Generatio GmbH), one of the country’s largest animal genetic testing laboratories. He currently also serves as managing director of the MVZ Tübingen GmbH, an outpatient clinic specializing in oncology and gastroenterology care.

Previously, Dirk held senior leadership roles at Bertelsmann AG, serving as Senior Director in the M&A department, where he contributed to numerous company acquisitions. He also served as CFO at Berryville Graphics, Bertelsmann’s largest U.S. printing facility, and as European CFO of AEG Electric Tools, overseeing its European subsidiaries and holding companies as managing director.

He holds a Master’s degree and a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Hamburg and the University of Bielefeld, respectively.

Dieter Götte, MD, joined cecava in April 2023 and serves as Chief Medical Officer. He brings over 30 years of broad experience in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning clinical development, medical affairs, and business unit management. Dr. Götte supports the development with strategic and operational leadership for cecava`s clinical development, safety and regulatory functions, both internally and with external stakeholders.

Prior to joining cecava, he held leading positions as German and European Medical Director, Chief Medical Officer, and Global Head of Medical Affairs at Aventis, Novartis, Basilea, NPS Pharma, Amicus, and Vifor Fresenius. In these roles, Dr. Götte supported clinical development and interactions with regulatory authorities in Europe and the United States for anti-infectives and cardio-vascular products as well as indications like neurology and rheumatology.

Dirk Hadaschik, PhD, joined cecava as Chief Scientific Officer in 2018. He supports clinical development in all scientific and regulatory aspects. As leader of the bioinformatics team, he drives the advancement of cecava’s AI-based in silico pipeline for neoepitope identification and prioritization. He is also responsible for the qualification of suppliers and the GMP-compliant manufacturing of neoepitope peptide vaccines for cecava’s clinical trials.

Previously, Dirk served as Head of Clinical Trials at the Center for Human Genetics Tübingen, where he played a key role in developing and implementing the personalized neoepitope vaccine technology. He co-invented the proprietary neoepitope selection algorithm, which led to several patent applications. He also developed and implemented the workflow for peptide vaccine manufacture and discussed clinical trial strategies with regulatory authorities and clinical centers in the EU and US.

Earlier roles include Head of R&D and Head of Validation at CeGaT and Group Leader at the R&D department of Qiagen, where he contributed to developing numerous products for the life technology and in vitro diagnostic market, including regulated NGS-based cancer diagnostics.

Dirk holds a Master’s degree and PhD in biology from the University of Cologne.

Dr. Andreas Penk is a trained physician with +30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry across global roles. He has been leading large, complex businesses in Europe and Asia with a focus on China and Japan, Australia, and Africa/Middle East. In 2021, he retired as the President of Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group China.

He held and holds multiple senior positions in societies and federations, as well as board and advisor roles. With more than 15 years of experience in oncology and experience managing pharmaceutical core functions, from clinical development to manufacturing and commercialization to access and reimbursement, he is a renowned expert in the biopharma field.

Eike Pertuch, MSc Bioinformatics, joined cecava as a bioinformatician in September 2022. At cecava, one of his main tasks is to further develop the core technology of the company, the AI-based in silico pipeline for neoepitope identification and prioritization. Additionally, he performs statistical analyses and visualizations of immunogenicity and clinical data from cancer patients.

He studied bioinformatics at the University of Tübingen for both the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. In his Master’s degree program, he was particularly interested in the topics of data science & visualization as well as immunology. Building on this experience, he carried out a research project and his Master’s thesis in which data from patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) were analyzed and visualized.