Dirk Beher

Biography

Dirk Beher is the Chief Executive Officer, a Founder and member of the Board of Directors of Asceneuron SA. He has raised CHF 36 million from leading venture capital firms for Asceneuron besides obtaining grant funding. Since its inception he has strategically positioned the company as an emerging leader in the field of orally bioavailable drugs for treating tauopathies. Dirk led the initial spin-off proposal for Merck Serono's tauopathy and Alzheimer's disease pipeline and successfully raised the seed funding which materialized in the creation of Asceneuron SA in October 2012.  Dirk brings more than 23 years of experience in the field of Alzheimer's disease & Neurodegeneration and spent over 17 years in pharmaceutical drug discovery. Prior responsibilities include the management of the Alzheimer's disease team at Merck Serono in Geneva, Switzerland. He also managed the in vitro pharmacology team and oversaw a diverse CNS portfolio as management team member in the Neuroscience Department at Amgen Inc. in Thousands Oaks, California. Dirk started his career in pharmaceutical drug discovery at Merck Sharp & Dohme (Merck & Co.) in Harlow, United Kingdom in 1998. During that time he made key contributions to the clinical γ-secretase inhibitor MK-0752 and was finally responsible for all γ-secretase programs. Dirk holds a Ph.D. and a Diploma (M.S.) in Biology from the Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg, Germany. He is an inventor of seven patents and currently authors 49 peer-reviewed publications and reviews.

Research Interest

pharmaceutical drug discovery