The people behind OVAITY
A focused founding team, deep technical craft, and advisors who have scaled companies, institutions, and scientific communication — building the Intelligent Research Environment life science R&D deserves.
Founders
MSc Roberto Honegger
Founder
Product / Systems / Vision
University of Zurich
Roberto is the Founder and CEO of OVAITY, where he leads the company's vision, strategy, product, and execution. He is responsible for defining the long-term direction of the platform, building the team and partnerships, and establishing OVAITY as the intelligent operating layer for life-science research and development.
Combining expertise in Human-Centered AI, computer science, and psychology, Roberto is passionate about how humans and AI can work together to accelerate scientific discovery. His focus is building infrastructure that transforms fragmented experiments, data, and decisions into a connected, continuously evolving scientific intelligence—enabling researchers and their AI agents to work from shared knowledge instead of starting from scratch.
Ph.D, Asma Mechakra
Co-Founder
Biology / Methodology / Science
ETH Zurich
Asma is the Scientific Co-Founder of OVAITY, where she shapes the scientific direction of the platform and ensures that its development remains grounded in the realities of life-science research. She translates biological complexity and researchers’ needs into practical product requirements, validates scientific workflows, and helps define how OVAITY should support research teams across projects, experiments, data, and analyses.
With expertise in biology, multi-omics, and translational research, Asma bridges the gap between science and technology. Her focus is ensuring that OVAITY reflects how scientists actually work while strengthening scientific rigor, reproducibility, collaboration, and the responsible use of AI in research.
Team
Orestis Bollano
AI Engineer (Agent Systems)
University of Zurich
Orestis Bollano is a Data Science Master’s student at the University of Zurich, specializing in agent-based systems and large language models. With a background in engineering and data-driven problem solving, he focuses on building intelligent, context-aware systems that enable advanced data analysis and automation.
Advisory Board
Renate Hahn
Advisor
Pharma Industry Expertise
Renate is a pharmaceutical and life sciences executive with extensive experience driving innovation, strategic growth, and digital transformation across the healthcare industry. As a trusted advisor to OVAITY, she serves as a key bridge into the pharmaceutical ecosystem, helping connect scientific innovation with industry partnerships, opportunities, and real-world impact.
Prof. Jess G. Snedeker
Advisor
Industry Expertise
ETH Zurich
Jess guides the venture with deep industry experience, helping shape OVAITY's strategic direction and growth. His insights from years in the field bring invaluable perspective to the team as they navigate the intersection of technology and life sciences.
Ph.D. Mirko Bischofberger
Advisor
Science Communication
EPFL · ETH Zurich · University of Basel · University of Zurich
Mirko is a molecular biologist and science communication expert with more than 20 years of experience across research, journalism, policy and higher education. He specialised in computational biology during his PhD and today lectures at EPFL, ETH Zurich, the University of Basel and the University of Zurich. His career has included roles at the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Swiss Parliament, the Swiss National Science Foundation and EPFL. Mirko has received numerous communication grants and awards and contributes his expertise to funding organisations including the ERC, SNSF and FWF. At OVAITY, he helps translate complex scientific and technological ideas into clear, credible narratives for researchers, partners and the wider life-science ecosystem.
Jodok Betschart
Advisor
Entrepreneurship & Venture Scaling
Cloover · evenito · 14Peaks Capital
Jodok is a seasoned technology entrepreneur, investor and two-time founder with extensive experience building and scaling software companies across Europe. He co-founded evenito, an event-management SaaS platform that he grew internationally and to profitability. Today, he is Co-Founder and CEO of Cloover, an AI-powered platform combining software, energy and finance to accelerate access to renewable energy. He also supports early-stage founders as a Venture Partner at 14Peaks Capital. At OVAITY, Jodok brings hands-on expertise in venture building, go-to-market strategy, fundraising and organisational growth—helping transform an ambitious scientific vision into a focused, scalable and globally relevant company.
Mario Jenni
Advisor
Life Sciences & Biotech Ecosystem
Bio-Technopark Schlieren
Mario is Co-Founder and CEO of the Bio-Technopark Schlieren and has extensive experience across biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, entrepreneurship, and the Swiss life-science ecosystem. Over the years, he has supported the growth of numerous life-science startups and helped connect emerging companies with research institutions, infrastructure providers, industry partners, and the broader biotech ecosystem.
At OVAITY, Mario brings deep knowledge of how life-science ventures grow from research into companies, together with a strong network across Switzerland’s biotech landscape. He helps us strengthen our connection to the life-science ecosystem, build meaningful industry partnerships, and ensure that OVAITY develops in close alignment with the needs of researchers, biotech companies, and the infrastructure surrounding them.