Meet NextImmune co-founder Rajesh Jayachandran and find out how he advances the development of novel immunosuppressants

24.09.2021 07:15, Isabelle Mitchell

Venture Leader Biotech NextImmune focuses on researching and developing a novel class of immunosuppressive therapies for autoimmune-inflammatory diseases and organ transplantation. NextImmune’s co-founder and Chief Science Officer, Rajesh Jayachandran, told us about his expectations for the Venture Leaders Biotech experience and what Bollywood gets all wrong about entrepreneurship.

Switzerland boasts one of the world’s most renowned and innovative biotech industries. To do justice to this powerful position, Swiss biotech startups now have their own Venture Leaders program: During their roadshow, the Venture Leaders Biotech will meet international investors and industry leaders and access industry-specific expertise and networks to grow their companies. For the next few weeks, we shine the spotlight on the 10 Venture Leaders Biotech 2021 and introduce you to the inaugural graduates of the program. To learn more about the startups, we asked each entrepreneur to complete a short profile and choose at least six questions from a questionnaire about their personal and professional life.

Name: Rajesh Jayachandran 
Location: Basel
Nationality: Indian 
Graduated from: from Govt. Kilpauk Medical College, India, with an MBBS (MD equivalent) (2001), and from the Indian Institute of Science with a PhD (2005) 
Your job title: Co-founder and CSO of NextImmune
Number of employees: 3 (as of 07/2021)
Money raised: CHF 1 million
First touchpoint with Venturelab: In 2021, through Innosuisse 
 
“NextImmune develops novel immunosuppressants for autoimmunity and organ transplantation that cause no side effects or predisposition to opportunistic infections and cancer.” 
 
How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
My passion has always been centered around applied biological research. The idea for the startup came up when we realized that we had identified a highly potent novel class of immunosuppressants that had excellent safety and efficacy in multiple preclinical disease models. This gave us the needed confidence for founding the spin-off from the University of Basel. 
 
What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
Venture Leaders will provide an excellent opportunity to put NextImmune in the limelight to connect with relevant experts and potential investors and provide the crucial impetus to push clinical development. I look forward to getting acquainted with passionate and like-minded people in various phases and streams of entrepreneurial activity and introspect those strategies needed to realize one’s dream in this volatile and demanding field. My vision is to address unmet medical needs in the field of immunology by creating a niche that enables NextImmune to become a self-sustained biotech enterprise with solid long-term success. 
 
What is one thing not many people know about you?  
Behind the soft-spoken and tolerant personality hides utmost determination and resilience to accomplish what I firmly believe in.  
  
What is the one talent you wish you had?  
I have come across people who have such amazing capacity to remember names of people with whom they would have spoken briefly, years ago. I really envy them! I do remember facts, figures, and complex study protocols, but with names, I have often felt miserable talking to a “familiar face” with “no name tag” attached to it in my memory.   
 
What is your favorite book?  
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. As a teen, I had read many different books, but none has made such an indelible mark in my memory that I could still recollect the emotional turmoil of the lead character, Howard Roark, as he struggles to attain his due recognition from the higher echelons by being unconventional to the contemporary architecture. 
 
What is always in your fridge?  
Chocolate ice cream! 
 
What are you most proud of?  
My family—that one big huge extended family, near and far! It is their support and sacrifice that have made me accomplish what I have until this very moment.  
 
What advice would you give your teenage self?  
To have been a bit less self-critical and more daring in what I wanted to explore. 
 
How did you come up with the name of your startup?  
We had a couple of discussions amongst the founders. The idea was to somehow merge the concept of “Next-generation” technologies in the context of “Immunology.” Ultimately this resulted in christening the startup NextImmune. 
 
Where and when are you most productive?  
I am most productive working in the lab during the early hours or weekends, as I have minimal disturbance and can remain fully focussed on my experiments for an extended time. Likewise, when it comes to interpreting complex data, those short “wakeup moments” at night are when I come out with creative means to interpret the complex data and make follow-up plans for validation.

What are your three favorite apps?  
Windy: I am big fan of hurricane and monsoon tracking, and I would have been a weather forecaster if not for where I am now. 
WhatsApp: It helps me stay connected with my family and friends. 
YouTube: The app gives me access to worldwide music and documentaries.  
  
How and where do you clear your mind?  
I regularly meditate and work out to clear and rejuvenate my mind. Usually, I do this in the early morning hours, at home. 
  
What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder?  
The most rewarding aspect of being a founder is the liberty to steer and shape your project the way you envisage. And if it succeeds, the satisfaction of having accomplished something that benefits someone could be an emotion that cannot be described with words.
 
What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder?  
Contrary to what is shown in Bollywood movies, which are notoriously known for painting a rosy picture, where a founder will transform his ideas into a corporate juggernaut within the span of a three-minute song, it is a tedious job. The most challenging aspect of being a founder is the realization that success is not something given. There will be numerous setbacks, challenges, unexpected bottlenecks—including failure—and you must be prepared to face and sometimes even accept them. I strongly believe that these lessons lay the foundation for ultimate success, and one gets them “exclusively” by being a founder. 
 
What is something you wish you had known about being a founder?  
How I wish I had known this quote by Piet Hein earlier: 

T. T. T.   
“Put up in a place where it’s easy to see 
the cryptic admonishment T. T. T. 
When you feel how depressingly slowly you climb,  
it’s well to remember that Things Take Time.” 
 
Nowhere else does the quote fit as much as with a biotech startup. 
 
What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?  
If you believe in your science, be prepared to fight tooth and nail and don’t give up. 
 
What is the best advice you have ever received?  
From my father: Don’t serve two masters, and don’t try to be a master of two worlds. 

Last but not least, could you show us your workspace? 



For more information and updates on NextImmune and the Venture Leaders Biotech, follow the Venture Leaders Biotech 2021 team with #VLeadersBiotech on social media or subscribe to our newsletter. 

Venture Leaders Biotech 2021 is co-organized by Venturelab and Swissnex and supported by EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, VISCHER, and the Canton of Zurich.