Jasper Edgar Neggers

Jasper Edgar Neggers is the Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Promakhos Therapeutics. Jasper is an entrepreneurial, pioneering and innovative scientist with a background in microbiology, immunology, cell biology, target identification and validation, drug discovery and functional genomics. His commitment to entrepreneurship, scientific inquiry and translational research stems from his natural curiosity for biology and biotechnology, which manifested as he grew up in the Netherlands.

Jasper performed his Ph.D. studies at the Rega Institute for Medical Research at the KU Leuven, Belgium. He was among the first scientists to apply CRISPR/Cas to genetically engineer human cells. Jasper collaborated with Karyopharm Therapeutics to validate the mechanism of action of the now marketed anticancer drug Selinexor (XPOVIO®) and the clinical stage drug KPT-9274. In Belgium, Jasper also invented a CRISPR-based genetic screening approach for identification of the cellular target of new candidate drugs.

Jasper arrived in the USA as a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to spearhead a team of researchers to identify and validate new therapeutic targets for cancer. He quickly distinguished himself and was awarded a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation fellowship. As a fellow, Jasper developed an updated compendium of synthetic lethal interactions in cancer, helped identify new metabolic vulnerabilities in pancreatic cancer and continued developing new CRISPR/Cas applications. His work has nominated several new high-priority therapeutic targets for cancer and has led to the initiation of new drug discovery campaigns. As a rising scientific leader, Jasper was on his way to become an assistant professor after receiving the National Cancer Institute Pathway to Independence Award for Outstanding Early-Stage Postdoctoral Researchers. However, ultimately, Jasper wants his research to translate into patient impact and felt that an academic career would not provide the right environment to pursue his vision. So, he handed back his million-dollar grant money and joined Katerina to co-found Promakhos Therapeutics.