Thomas Herget

Thomas studied Biology in Germany, USA and UK. He became R&D Director with biotech start-up Axxima Pharmaceuticals AG (Munich, Ger) working on drug development in infectious diseases. Thomas joined Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in 2004 and lead large global R&D teams focusing on evaluating new business opportunities in the Life Science arena. In 2017 he accepted the offer to become corporate "Head of Silicon Valley Innovation Hub", Menlo Park, CA, to tap into the local and NA eco system.

Thomas is member of several boards of Merck KGaA incl the Innovation Steering Committee, MBAP (Merck Bioethics Advisory Panel) and chairing the SCROC (Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee). He is professor at the TU Darmstadt University teaching novel technologies in pharma research; he received several awards (e.g. Boehringer Ingelheim Research Award, MERCK Award, EMBL, ICRF and BIF Fellowships) and published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers and 25 patents. Focus of his expertise is signal transduction, novel modalities, cultured meat and biosensors.