Dr. Alexander Zahiri
Executive Vice President at LGC, General Manager for Axolabs
About Us
ABOUT AXOLABS
An industry-leading CRDMO
We have spent the past two decades in helping to pioneer the nucleic acid therapeutics landscape. With a legacy rooted in groundbreaking work from Ribopharma, Alnylam, and Roche.
Our expertise spans discovery to large-scale production, ensuring excellence at every step and through a validated pathway. Our people are our backbone of success, and our commitment to science is second to none.
ABOUT AXOLABS
The history of Axolabs
Our expert team has 20+ years of experience in the development of RNA and oligonucleotide. We are world renowned, from big-pharma and biotech to academia and venture capital, for our profound knowledge, high quality standards and excellent research.
2000
2003
2007
2011
2017
2000
Milestone
2000
Dr Roland Kreutzer and Dr Stefan Limmer founded Ribopharma AG, the first company in the world to focus on RNAi therapeutics.
2003
Milestone
2003
Ribopharma AG merged with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. to create the leading RNAi therapeutics company.
2007
Milestone
2007
As a spin-off from Alnylam Europe AG – Roche Kulmbach GmbH was established as Roche's Center of Excellence for RNA Therapeutics, which focused on the discovery of novel therapeutics based on oligonucleotides.
2011
Milestone
2011
Axolabs GmbH established through management buy out of assets from Roche Kulmbach GmbH
2017
Milestone
2017
Axolabs GmbH was acquired by the LGC Group.
Leadership
Meet the people guiding our mission.
At Axolabs, leadership is about enabling teams to do their best work. Our leaders work alongside experts across the organisation to advance the future of nucleic acid therapeutics.
leadership
Dr. Alexander Zahiri
Executive Vice President at LGC, General Manager for Axolabs
Alex joined LGC as Executive Vice President & General Manager for Axolabs in August 2024.
Alex most recently served as Vice President (VP) & Global Business Unit Head, Innovator Products & Solutions at Johnson Matthey (a CDMO business). Prior to this role, he held a range of senior commercial leadership roles at Lonza AG, VWR (part of Avantor) and Sigma-Aldrich. Alex started his career working as a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry. With a HBSc and MSc from the University of Toronto, Alex also has a doctorate in molecular biology from the International Max-Planck Research School at the University of Marburg, Germany.
leadership
Dr. Philipp Hadwiger
Vice President, Head of Research & Development
Philipp studied Chemistry at the Technical University of Graz, Austria. After earning his doctoral degree, he started his industry career in 2000 at Ribopharma AG and held positions of increasing responsibility at Alnylam Europe AG. After Roche’s acquisition of Alnylam’s European site, Philipp served as Director of Chemistry at Roche’s Centre of Excellence for RNA Therapeutics and was promoted to Senior Director of Chemistry at Axolabs. Philipp has published 40 peer-reviewed articles and is a named inventor on more than 20 patents.
leadership
Dr Ingo Röhl
Vice President, Head of Operations CRO
Ingo started his career as Research Associate at the Riedel de Haën AG. He then studied Chemistry and, after completion of his Ph.D. at the University of Oldenburg, worked as Scientist at the Noxxon Pharma AG.
Ingo joined Alnyam Europe AG in 2003 where he served as Head of Analytics and built up the analytical department. He held a position as Associate Director at the Roche Kulmbach GmbH and as Senior Director Analytics and Bioanalytics at the Axolabs Kulmbach GmbH.
Ingo has more than 20 years of experience in the field of RNA drug development and (bio-) analytics. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and is inventor on more than 10 patent applications.
leadership
Peter Rose
Vice President, Head of Operations CDMO
Peter joined Axolabs as Vice President, CDMO Operations in January 2025.
Peter most recently served as Vice President Manufacturing at CureVac, where he helped transform the company from a research and clinical-stage organisation into a commercial mRNA manufacturer. During his time at CureVac, he led and executed a €160 million greenfield project to establish a new commercial manufacturing facility. Prior to this, Peter held a range of senior operations and manufacturing leadership roles at Roche and Vetter Pharma (a CDMO business), gaining extensive experience in large-scale pharmaceutical drug substance and drug product manufacturing environments.
Originally from Bad Friedrichshall, Germany, Peter is now based in Berlin, where he also serves as Site Lead for Axolabs’ new GMP oligonucleotide manufacturing facility.
leadership
Laurent Alexandre
Vice President, Head of Business Development
Laurent joined LGC in February 2025 as Vice President, Head of Global Commercial CDMO for Axolabs. Prior to this, he served as Chief Commercial Officer at Euroapi, a Sanofi spin-off. He also held senior commercial leadership positions at several notable organisations, including, Johnson Matthey Health (CDMO division) and Seqens. Laurent began his career as a Sales Manager in the excipients business. Laurent, who holds a master’s degree in both Business Administration and Biochemistry from Paris – Sorbonne University, brings with him a wealth of commercial leadership experience leading global commercial teams within the CDMO space.
Our Facilities
Axolabs’ facilities are built to support.
From discovery hubs to GMP-certified production sites, Axolabs’ facilities are built to support nucleic acid therapeutics development. Our global presence includes state-of-the-art sites in Kulmbach, Berlin, and Petaluma, with each site specialising in a specific phase of your journey.
Berlin, Germany
Kulmbach, Germany
Petaluma, USA
About Axolabs
Pioneering discovery
The two founders of Ribopharma AG, both former lecturers at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, Drs Roland Kreutzer and Stefan Limmer, discovered in 1999 that short, double-stranded RNA molecules can specifically inhibit gene expression in humans.
In 1998, Kreutzer and Limmer were inspired by Andrew Fire's and Craig Mello's groundbreaking publication (Nature 391, 806–811 (1998)) on RNA interference, work for which they won the Nobel Prize in 2006. Kreutzer and Limmer wanted to exploit this newly discovered biological principle to develop new medical agents. They were initially able to show that a certain cellular mRNA is reduced in a human in vitro transcription system if the corresponding double-stranded RNA is present. However, it was known that double-stranded RNA longer than about 30 base pairs leads to undesirable side reactions by stimulating the human innate immune system. Kreutzer and Limmer therefore tried to find ways to trigger RNA interference with shorter double strands that did not have this undesirable side effect. When studying the materials and methods section of the Fire and Mello publication in the journal Nature, Limmer noticed that the RNA strands used, which were several hundred nucleotides long, would not come together to form a homogeneous double strand under the annealing conditions applied. Rather, short double-stranded areas would arise, which would be interrupted by loops and bulges. From this, Kreutzer and Limmer concluded that complete double-strandedness could not have been a prerequisite for triggering RNA interference. The two scientists decided to experiment with short duplexes, in which the two 21 base pair single strands were linked by a non-nucleotide linker, which should therefore increase the stability of the double strand. The idea of using 21-mers came from theoretical considerations: With this RNA length, a stable molecule with two helix turns is formed, which is often required for the interaction with proteins. In addition, statistical reasons dictate that a specific mRNA in the human genome can be uniquely addressed with this length.
With these molecules, Kreutzer and Limmer obtained the first indications in experiments with human cell cultures that such short double strands can also trigger RNA interference in humans. Thus, they surmised that side effects of the long double strands should be avoidable. A big step was thereby taken towards the development of drugs based on short, double-stranded RNA. With this business idea, Ribopharma AG was founded in 2000 as the first company in the world that aimed to use RNA interference therapeutically.
It was not until more than a year later that Thomas Tuschl and his working group discovered siRNAs as the trigger of RNA interference (Genes Dev 15(2), 188-200 (2001)), which happen to be exactly the same length as the molecules previously used by Kreutzer and Limmer. This scientifically confirmed their previous observations.
The path from these first discoveries to mature drugs based on short, double-stranded RNA or siRNA was very long. In the meantime, however, the company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in particular has developed some approved siRNA drugs, some of which can be used to treat diseases that were previously considered untreatable.
Join us
See current opportunitiesJoin a global leader in oligonucleotide research and development. At Axolabs, you’ll work with state-of-the-art technologies, collaborate with world-class experts, and contribute to shaping the future of nucleic acid therapeutics. Explore career opportunities today.