News & Media
March 28, 2025 - Örn Almarsson interviewed by Lucia Donajová from Synthace
In this interview, Örn shares his journey from organic chemistry to drug discovery, discussing challenges like improving RNA therapies and treating neurological diseases. He also highlights the importance of curiosity, networking, and innovation while working on groundbreaking drug delivery solutions at Axelyf.
Click here to read the full article.
February 3, 2025 - Örn Almarsson joins Charles Spence on ‘A Dose of Reality’ podcast
Örn Almarsson joins Charles Spence, host of A Dose of Reality – Hidden Truths of Clinical Leadership podcast and leader of biotech talent firm Discera Search, for a compelling conversation about his journey from humble beginnings in Iceland to becoming a leader in the biotech industry.
In this episode, Örn shares key moments from his career, reflecting on both the challenges and triumphs that ultimately led to the founding of Axelyf ehf. He also offers valuable insights on the power of mentorship, the importance of networking, and how passion drives career success.
You can listen here, or in Spotify via this link.
September 13, 2024 - Örn Almarsson presents at UNSW RNA Institute Symposium in Sydney, Australia
Our CEO Örn presented a keynote at a symposium of the RNA institute at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, on September 13th.
The presentation, entitled ‘Reflections on mRNA-LNP Systems for New Biologics’, was well received and a pdf version is available here.
Örn has been an advisor to the RNA institute at UNSW since 2020 and has a visiting fellow appointment in chemistry at UNSW.
August 17, 2024 - Axelyf turns two!
The Axelyf team celebrated the second anniversary of the company during team meeting this week.
CEO and co-founder Örn Almarsson reflected on the progress Axelyf has made:
“In less than two years we have studied and advanced a clinical candidate (BPH-555, for inflammation and autoimmune indications) while also building a technology suite of prodrugs and lipid nanoparticles for RNA delivery, which is a unique combination in our industry. I like our odds of evolving into an impactful company with clinical programs and partners who support and celebrate us, as we support them to develop important medicines.”
August, 2024 - Molecular Library Established via Combination of Acquired Assets and Internal Work
Axelyf completed acquisition of an exciting molecular library that accelerates and enables our efforts in LNP design for RNA medicines. The integrated lipid library, which includes our lead molecule and original molecules made before the acquisition the assets of 76bio, is rich in potent delivery compounds for mRNA. The medicinal and supramolecular chemistry approach is world-class and intellectual property is newly filed, placing Axelyf in a position to pursue best-in-class LNPs for applications in biomolecular delivery. We will utilize the library for our own product candidates and partner our technology for products of other companies in the future.
April 24, 2024 - Congratulations, Dr. Arnar
Last week Arnar Sigurðsson successfully defended his doctoral thesis in Biological Chemistry from the Technical University of Berlin. On April 15th he presented his work, on the first crystal structure of a novel Class-IV lanthipeptide synthetase as well as a newly elucidated Class-IV lanthipeptide. The team is glad to be able to refer to him as Dr. Arnar. We are very proud of his accomplishment, patience and perseverance. Cheers, Arnar!
April 16, 2024 - Welcome, Dr. Yan Xia!
Dr. Yan Xia joined Axelyf in April 2024 as 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. Welcome, Yan!
March 11, 2024 - SSPC Collaboration Formally Announced
Today we announced along with SSPC, the SFI Research Center for Pharmaceuticals in Ireland, a new collaboration with leading supramolecular chemistry team at Maynooth University (MU) near Dublin. The aim of the collaboration is to discover new biomolecular delivery chemistries for a new generation of pharmaceutical products. We are excited to be working with prof. Rob Elmes and team at MU and SSPC- looking forward to promoting exciting molecular design and supramolecular chemistry for nanoparticles in biomolecular delivery.
January 26, 2024 - Welcome, Valentino!
Valentino (´Vale´) Parravicini has joined Axelyf as CSO, starting January 1st. Vale has 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development. He is assuming overall responsibility for the science and technical project leadership for Axelyf. Most recently he served as CSO of Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, a UK-based biotechnology firm, where he has led the introduction of its first asset into clinical study. Previous to that role, Vale worked in R&D leading roles at Roche, GSK and GammaDelta Therapeutics, in immuno-inflammation and oncology. Born in Italy, Vale studied medicinal chemistry with a degree in molecular virology, before embarking on a post-doctoral assignment at the NIH and NIMR (now Crick Institute) in immunology. He moved to the United Kingdom in 2001 where he remains based. Welcome, Vale!
December 1, 2023 - Welcome, Simon!
Simon Klüpfel has joined Axelyf as Head of Informatics, leading our efforts in modeling, data science and artificial intelligence. He was previously working at Reykjavik Energy (Orkuveita Reykjavíkur) 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 in his native Germany. His Diploma is from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. Welcome, Simon!
September 6, 2023 - Welcome, Guðrún!
Guðrún Hulda Ólafsdóttir has joined Axelyf this week as an Informatics Engineering Associate, specializing in data science and artificial intelligence. She 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.
Guðrún was born and raised in Siglufjörður, Iceland. Welcome, Guðrún!
August 17, 2023 - Axelyf Celebrates 1st Year
Axelyf is 1 year old today! We established the company in Iceland on the 17th of August 2022. On the occasion, the team got together virtually, in multiple locations in three countries, to commemorate and wish the company many more years of innovation and progress.
Reykjavík, June 5, 2023
Axelyf has been awarded its first grant from the Icelandic Centre for Research to investigate anti-inflammatory effects of BPH-555, an astaxanthin prodrug. The grant enables Axelyf to broaden its work on its lead compound to additional indications. The grant, which is in the Sprout (Sproti) category, is the Company's first non-dilutive funding.
Reykjavík, May 6th, 2023
Örn Almarsson was interviewed in Iceland for The Iceland Monitor and discussed the founders' motivation and establishment of Axelyf, the future of the company, and collaboration with Algalíf Iceland - a biotechnology company specializing in the production of asthaxanthin from algae.
Córdoba, Argentina, & Reykjavík, April 4th, 2023
Today Axelyf ehf and CEPROCOR, a research center in Santa Maria de Punilla, Córdoba province Argentina, signed a Master Services Agreement to formalize a multi-year collaboration to pursue chemistry and bio-analytical work for Axelyf’s pipeline projects. The minister of science and technology in Córdoba province, Mr. Pablo De Chiara, and Örn signed the agreement for the parties, cementing a strong relationship and signaling a bright future for the contributions of the talented Argentinian team to support Axelyf.
Reykjavík, April 4th, 2023
Congratulations to our newest employee, Arnar Sigurðsson, on two high-impact publications in prestigious journals in the past week. The first, published in Nature Methods Primers on March 30th (link) is an in-depth review of the field of Peptidomics, which has great importance and growing interest in therapeutics with the success of metabolic drugs, such as GLP-1 agonists and dual GLP1/GCP agonists in recent years. The second publication, published online in Angewandte Chemie on April 4th (link), is entitled “Discovery of the lanthipeptide curvocidin and structural insights into its trifunctional synthetase CuvL”. We are very proud of Arnar’s success with publishing his work in these world-class journals!
January 30th, 2023 - Welcome, Arnar!
Arnar Sigurðsson has joined Axelyf as principal scientist and project manager. He is in the process of finalizing his Ph.D. thesis in structural biology from the Technical University in Berlin. Alongside thesis writing, Arnar has already become busy at Axelyf with grant writing and project work. Arnar is born and raised in Skagafjörður, Iceland. Before going for his Ph.D. in Germany, Arnar studied biochemistry at the University of Iceland. Welcome, Arnar, and best of luck completing your thesis defense this summer.