Axelyf ehf, a subsidiary of Axelyf, Inc. (Boston, MA), was founded in 2022 in Iceland to 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 innovate lipid nanotechnologies to develop safer and more effective RNA medicines.

In spring of 2025, we founded the Delaware C-corporation Axelyf, Inc. The Icelandic company Axelyf ehf remains a wholly owned subsidiary of the new corporation in the USA. With new financing in the summer of 2025, Axelyf has sharpened its focus on RNA-LNP and AXL technologies for new medicine development with partners and future pipeline.

Founders

  • Cofounder and 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.

  • Cofounder

    Born and raised in Iceland, Brynja is a supporter of progress and innovation in health sciences, in her former country as well as across the globe. As such, she has been an angel investor in Brynpharm LLC, an incubator company in Greater Boston, and sits on the owners’ steering committee for Axelyf, Inc. Mother of three, grandmother (‘Amma’) of two, the self-taught artist Brynja is active with her family and art in Brookline and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

  • Cofounder 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.

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.

  • 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.

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.

Partnering and collaboration

Axelyf is exploring partnership and collaboration on AXL lipid library and capabilities to deliver best-in-class RNA-LNP technology for medicines. Please get in touch with us at info@axelyf.com if you’d like to learn more about our technology.