Axelyf was founded in 2022 in Iceland to design and develop medicines for inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. A large part of our interest is to harness the safety and long history of natural products to improve health and promote well-being. The initial focus is on novel prodrugs of astaxanthin, which is a natural lipid compound found in various food sources.

Our astaxanthin prodrug optimized for oral administration is entering clinical trials in 2025 as a drug candidate to treat inflammation. The team is based in Iceland, the UK, and the USA, working virtually on our programs with collaborators and distinguished advisors around the world. Our expanding global network is being brought to bear on additional programs that we are creating for the future, based on lipid technologies including lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for delivery of RNA therapeutics. Iceland is an ideal base for the company, and we are proud to call ourselves Icelandic innovators.

Founders

  • Co-founder

    Brynja Einarsdottir is a licensed esthetician and self-taught artist residing in Brookline, Massachusetts. Mother of three and grandmother (‘Amma’) of two boys, Brynja is active with her family and art, practicing in Brookline and on Cape Cod.

    Born and raised in Iceland, Brynja is a supporter of progress and innovation in health sciences, in her country of origin as well as across the globe. As such, she has been an angel investor in Brynpharm LLC, an incubator company in the Boston area, where she has lived for the past two decades. Brynja then helped to found Axelyf ehf and sits on the board of the new company. In 2024 she launched with her husband Örn a scholarship fund at the University of Iceland to support promising students who are interested in the intersection of health sciences and medical informatics fields.

  • Co-founder and Chairman

    Dr. John Lucas brings over 23 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. John is the former Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies based in the United Kingdom. John began his career in biopharma at Genset S.A. (Paris) and Genset Corporation (San Diego, California) where he served as Vice President, Worldwide Intellectual Property. He also held the position of Vice President, Intellectual Property at Transform Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Lexington Massachusetts, and at Metabasis Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in California.

    John holds a law degree (JD) from George Washington University and a PhD in molecular genetics from Ohio State University. He also holds a Master’s in microbiology and a Bachelor of Education from Ohio University.

    John moved to the United Kingdom at the end of 2007 as General Counsel and Vice President of Intellectual Property at Silence Therapeutics plc where he was responsible for a wide range of legal and business matters and played a key role in the corporate transaction with Intradigm Corporation. John then became Chief Executive Officer of Cizzle Biotechnology Limited, a company developing diagnostic tests for the detection of lung cancer. Other roles he has held include Head of Patents, Biosimilars, at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG.

  • CEO

    Dr. Örn Almarsson is an established innovator of formulation design and drug development across delivery platforms enabling pharmaceutical products. Prior to founding Axelyf, Örn made significant contributions in companies like Moderna, Lyndra, Alkermes, Transform Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Lexington Massachusetts, a company specializing in small molecule drug form and formulation, and Merck, where he started his industry career.

    Örn is co-author on more than 70 scientific publications, over 60 patents and 3 book chapters. He serves on the scientific advisory board of a new RNA biotechnology company in the Boston area and is a visiting fellow at the UNSW RNA center in Sydney, Australia. Örn holds a Ph.D. in bioorganic chemistry from the University of California, and a B.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Iceland. Before joining industry, he was a post-doctoral associate at MIT.

The Axelyf Team

  • Principal Scientist

    Dr. Arnar Sigurðsson is a biochemist who specializes in bioactive compounds/natural products as our Principal Scientist. He has a background in Systems biology and structural biology which complements Axelyfs ongoing R&D programs.

    Arnar recently completed his Ph.D in Biological Chemistry from the Technical University of Berlin in 2024 working in the field of Ribosomally synthesized and post-transitionally modified peptides. Arnar has published research from his studies as masters and Ph.D. candidate, including publications in Nature and Angewandte Chemie, and he is a versatile talent in biotech/pharmaceutical R&D and company building at Axelyf.

  • Chief Scientific Officer

    Dr. Valentino Parravicini holds a degree in medicinal chemistry and a professional habilitation in pharmaceutics. Over 30 years of experience in research, he spent his academic career working at the University of Milan, the National Institute of Health (USA) and the National Institute of Medical Research (at Mill Hill, now Francis Crick Institute), focusing on cells signaling and animal models of viral infection, inflammation, and autoimmunity. While at NIH he discovered a novel signaling pathway in mast cells. Valentino has been Visiting Scientist at Imperial College London and King’s College London.

    Through two decades in drug discovery and development, Valentino has lead research teams from early R&D to clinic, developing small molecules, peptides, and cell therapies in therapeutic areas of inflammation, auto-immunity, oncology, and pain. Prior to Axelyf, Valentino gained experience at Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, and GammaDelta Therapeutics (recently acquired by Takeda). Most recently, he was CSO of Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, where he has managed intramural and large external collaborative projects, contributed to three clinical assets, and led the development of a ready-for-clinic inhalation drug-device combination.

  • Informatics Engineering Associate

    Guðrún Hulda Ólafsdóttir specializes in data science and artificial intelligence as our Informatics Engineering Associate. Guðrún recently completed her M.Sc. in biomedical engineering in Paris, France, where her focus was on developing image processing algorithms through the use of neural networks.

    Before pursuing her master's degree abroad, Guðrún studied electrical and computer engineering at the University of Iceland and then worked as a research engineer at Nox Medical for two years. She is working on Axelyf technologies using her background and supporting the development of new models to create targeted therapeutics.

  • Head of Nanotechnology Formulations

    Dr. Yan Xia is Head of Nanotechnology Formulations, overseeing LNP programs for nucleic acid delivery. Prior to Axelyf, Yan served as Scientific Director of Platform Delivery at 76Bio, leading LNP discovery efforts for extrahepatic delivery of novel targeted protein degraders. Prior to this, she spent nearly seven years at Moderna and has made significant contributions to the development of biophysical tools for LNP characterization as well as fundamental understanding of LNP structure-activity relationship.

    Yan holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Connecticut, and B.E. in Light Chemical Engineering from Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

  • Head of Informatics

    Dr. Simon Klüpfel is leading Axelyf efforts in modeling, data science and artificial intelligence as Head of Informatics. He was previously working at Reykjavik Energy in the role of senior reservoir engineer.

    Simon completed his Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry at the University of Iceland in 2012. He then did postdoctoral work in modeling and speech recognition at Reykjavik University for three years prior to focusing his energy on geothermal reservoir modeling, data management and automation. Before pursuing his Ph.D. in Iceland, Simon studied chemistry at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg in his native country, Germany.

Core Values

Excellence

We want the best possible science and R&D to happen, and we are obsessed with learning. The science of pharmaceutical R&D is often complex, and we need to strive for excellent work that can be interpreted clearly for the best possible learning each time.

Integrity

We want to do the right thing, always, even when it is hard to do or when no one is looking. Our collaborators, clinical professionals, and patients in the future, deserve nothing less from us.

Transparency

Our team is small, and we are open with one another. We work closely on challenging tasks and programs, so we need to be clear about the issues and stay solutions focused, together.