iThera Medical

iThera Medical GmbH was founded in 2010 as a spin-off from Helmholtz Center Munich for Environmental Health (HMGU), to commercialise MSOT and to translate it to the clinic. iThera is the leading supplier of optoacoustic medical technology.

iThera develops and markets biomedical imaging systems based on a novel biophotonics technology, Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT). iThera Medical holds exclusive license rights to all MSOT-related IP developed by the Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging (IBMI) at HMGU.

Since 2010, iThera Medical has been selling successfully worldwide into the pre-clinical research imaging market. iThera Medical has established a global distribution network for its pre-clinical systems. EUPHORIA is a key enabling step for iThera to enter the clinical imaging market.

ITM has a highly experienced team of currently 34 employees with expertise covering all aspects of optoacoustic technology, e.g., laser physics and fiberoptic light guides, data acquisition electronics, ultrasound detector design, and general electronic, electrical and mechanical capabilities.

Dr. Philipp Bell joined the ITM team in 2011 as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) responsible for Finance and Operations. Before joining the Company, Philipp led the Finance and Business Development activities of several high-tech startups in the US, besides co-founding 3 companies and serving as advisor for several others. Before his startup activities he was a consultant for McKinsey & Co. Philipp holds an MBA from WHU and a Ph.D. in Business from the Technical University at Aachen in Germany. He is the project manager for EUPHORIA.

Dr. Patricia Smole joined ITM in March 2018 and works on advanced image improvement algorithms. Patricia holds a PhD in Science and a Master in Physics from the University of Ljubljana. In her previous position as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany she focused on signal processing, simulations and image analysis.

Jin He is an experienced medical device project manager and has been with ITM since March 2016. Before starting with ITM, Jin worked for ten years for Philips Medical Systems and GE Healthcare in China and Germany in various Verification and Validation roles. Jin holds an MBA from Munich Business School in Germany as well as a Master of Science from the University of Exeter in the UK. Jin will lead the Verification and Validation activities in the EUPHORIA project.

Dr Nina Dahlhaus joined ITM in April 2015 from McKinsey & Co. and is currently leading Business Development activities at iThera, which includes strategies for clinical studies and reimbursement. During her time at McKinsey, she led and executed multiple strategy projects in health care and med-tech industries. Nina has a background in biophysics with an MSc from Ruprecht-Karls-University in Heidelberg, Germany and a PhD from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg where she also gained experience in time-resolved fluorescent imaging, cell biology, surface chemistry, image processing and computer simulations. She will head the commercialization activities and be involved in clinical trial management.

Christian Wiest ITM’s CEO, has substantial experience in general management, specifically related to the High Tech and Healthcare markets. Before co-founding ITM, he spent 4 years with GE Healthcare, where he was responsible for strategy and organizational development, as well as project and key account sales of medical devices in Central Europe. Before joining GE Healthcare in 2006, Christian worked for 7 years at McKinsey & Co. Christian holds a mechanical engineering degree and an MBA in Entrepreneurial Sciences. He will head the exploitation and dissemination activities.

Dr Amy Lin has been part of ITM’s R&D team since 2018 and is responsible for improving image quality through hardware and software-based approaches. Amy has several years of experience in biomedical imaging, which she gained during her doctorate at the Technical University of Munich and as a postdoc at the Helmholtz Center in Munich. She has a Masters in Physics from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, with a focus on nonlinear femtosecond optics.

Deborah-Ann Schuster, M.Sc. joined ITM in January in 2020 as a Clinical Trial Manager and is currently leading iThera sponsored clinical investigations. Deborah-Ann holds an MSc. in Clinical Research from the University of Liverpool. She gained thorough knowledge in clinical investigations for medical devices and studies phases II to IV for drugs, vaccines and advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) according to ISO 14155, ICH-GCP, and applicable regulations in Europe and the US. Furthermore, she has extensive experience in project management, sponsor oversight activities, quality management, audits and training for multi-national, multi-site clinical studies. She heads the clinical investigation activities and supports quality management.

Claudia Jendrewski, M.Sc. joined ITM in October in 2021 as a Clinical Trial Manager and is leading iThera sponsored clinical investigations. Claudia holds an MSc. in Medical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich. Before joining ITM, Claudia worked at Brainlab AG for five years coordinating, planning, and overseeing clinical studies and validation activities with medical devices.