Arovella Therapeutics Ltd. announced that Dr. Nicole van der Weerden has been appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer, commencing 4 January 2023. Dr. van der Weerden brings over 15 years of strong leadership experience in the biotechnology industry, driving business objectives including pre-clinical discovery, proof-of-concept, manufacturing, and clinical development. Dr. van der Weerden holds a PhD in biochemistry from La Trobe University and an MBA from Melbourne Business School and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dr. van der Weerden is taking up the newly created COO role as Arovella enters a pivotal stage of development for its iNKT cell therapy platform, progressing towards first-in-human clinical trials. Before this appointment, Dr. van der Weerden was Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director at Hexima Limited. Dr. van der Weerden led the strategic pivot of Hexima from an agricultural biotechnology company to a human therapeutics company.

She led the financing and development strategy, pre-clinical and clinical programs, manufacturing, and worldwide patent strategy, for Hexima's lead asset, pezadeftide.