Rafail Tasakis - Personal Website

About

Strategy & Business Development Professional

Blending Science and Business Management skills to enable ventures to push boundaries in health and (bio)tech.

Location: Antwerp, Belgium
Subject-matter Expertise: Data, Bioinformatics, Cancer Genetics
Advocacy: Equity & Inclusion

Email: [email protected]
Degree: PhD
Interests: Health/(Bio)Tech Innovation

With over eight years of experience in big data analytics in biomedical science across Europe and the United States, I have led and supported groundbreaking projects in healthcare and biotech. My journey began as a biologist and a self-taught programmer, evolving into a career shaped by the data demands of cancer genetics and RNA science. After my academic training, I was embraced by the unique entrepreneurial (bio)tech scene in New York City, where I honed my Strategy and Business Development skills and built a strong network with interdisciplinary professionals. Since 2025, I have been living in Belgium and I have brought back with me the edge and the passion for success NYC has taught me. In Europe, I am aspiring to make a difference by strengthening the global competitiveness of European entrepreneurs.

I’m passionate about merging technical expertise with business strategy to advance solutions that push boundaries in healthcare & (bio)tech. Additionally, I’m a strong advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, believing that diverse perspectives are key to unlocking talent and innovation.

My strengths: Establishing Partnerships, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Strategic Business Development, Agile Project Management, Building a Competitive Brand, Go-to-Market

Facts

I excel at analyzing and interpreting complex data from various resources to extract actionable insights that drive strategic decisions. I am passionate about transforming data patterns into compelling narratives, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and adherence to ethical standards. I firmly believe in the power of data visualization to simplify complexity and unlock valuable insights. My standards have been shaped thanks to the following experiences:

Publications in scientific journals, international conferences, and preprint servers. Check them out here!

Years Of Experience working in multicultural & diverse teams

Languages. Fluent in English & Greek, Conversational in German, Learning French & Dutch

Countries I have worked and lived in: Greece, France, Germany, the United States and recently relocated to Belgium!

Skills

Business Development

Corporate strategy
Competitive Branding
Technology transfer
Partnership development
Market analysis and go-to-market strategy
Marketing and sales operations
Fundraising and venture capital
Due diligence & negotiation
Investment policies
Deal flow management

Communication & Leadership

Strong networking skills
Transparent and Clear Communicator
Balance of a team player and thoughtful leader
Cross-functional team leadership
Eloquent public speaker and presenter

Project management

Agile project management (Asana, Monday) and CRM platforms (Hubspot, Salesforce)
Report generation through Hubspot, Tableau and custom methods

Programming & Technology

Expert in: R, R-Studio & Data Visualization
Advanced in: Cloud Computing, Bash/Shell, HPC
Code management with Git and VS Code
Understand and reproduce HTML, Python and SQL
Familiar with ML and Gen-AI methods and tools
Familiar with Digital Twins Simulations

Operating Systems & Software

Unix/Linux CLI, MacOS & Windows
High-end user of Google Workspace and MS office

Experimental expertise

Dataset generation, validation of data-driven predictions and proof-of-concept design
Methods/Techniques: Cell culture, DNA/RNA/protein handling, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, mRNA editing, Molecular cloning, Flow cytometry, HPLC-DAD

Resume

Professional Experience

Solvuu, Inc., New York, NY

Aug 2024 - Present

Head of Business Development

Leading strategic growth initiatives in the US and Europe
Establishing strategic relationships
Overseeing marketing and sales operations
Coordinating teams to enable product and service development.
Brand visibility & lead generation
Guidance on business decisions

Jul 2023 - Jul 2024

Bioinformatics Scientist

Bioinformatics consultant for biotech companies
Collaboration with bioinformaticians and software engineers
Cloud computing (AWS), HPC and Gen-AI deployment
Agile project management
Marketing, Sales & Business Development

The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY

Jan 2022 - Jul 2023

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Big data processing, analysis and visualization in Multiple Myeloma
Grant writing & student supervision

German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Aug 2017 - Dec 2021

Doctoral Researcher

Data analyses from patients and biological models to study genetics & epitranscriptomics alterations in various cancers
Data modeling study about the evolution of coronavirus variants early on in COVID-19 pandemic
Scientific writing & publishing
Key data analyst and study design consultant in 5 international collaborations
Presentations in iternational conferences
Student supervision & mentoring

European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany

Sep 2016 - Aug 2017

Visiting Scientist

Applied algorithms for disease modeling in personalized medicine of resistant bacterial infections
Trained under the supervision of executives at Bayer Pharma for effective leadership and communications. See Otto Bayer Fellowship award.

Honors, Awards & Highlights

1st CAROTS Startup School

2021

Chosen as one of the top 10 applicants by the program "CAROTS" (DESY, Hamburg, Germany); attended their inaugural startup school. During the 6-month program, training was undergone to translate scientific ideas into products and to gain practical knowledge in business development and management.

'Fotis Kafatos' Greek National Award for Excellence in Science

2018

Award finalist and invitation to speak at the University of Athens, Greece. Nominated by a third-party institute within my field of research.

Otto Bayer Fellowship

2016

Recipient of the Otto-Bayer Fellowship by the Bayer Foundations, Germany (25 awards, 500 international applicants), which funded my research at EMBL-Heidelberg, Germany (2016-2017).

Education

MBA Essentials

Nov 2024 - Feb 2025

The London School of Economics & Political Science, London, UK

10-week rigorous certificate course building foundational skills across key areas of business administration. The course spanned strategic leadership, economics, competitive and corporate strategy, finance, and organizational behavior.

Grade: 93.54%

Doctorate of Natural Sciences & Mathematics

Aug 2017 - Nov 2021

University of Heidelberg, Germany

Thesis: Collateral genomic damage due to aberrant RNA editing activity in cancer

Distinction: Magna Cum Laude

Bachelor of Sciences

Oct 2012 - Sep 2016

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Major: Molecular Biology, Genetics & Biotechnology

Minor courses: Mathematics & Statistics, Economy

Thesis: Identification of bacteriocins upon qualitative and quantitative amino-acid composition analyses with HPLC and Bioinformatics

Internships at CNRS-Montpellier, France (2014), EMBL-Heidelberg, Germany (2015), CERTH-Thessaloniki, Greece (2016)

First-Class Honors

Professional Certificates

Google Data Analytics Certificate

Oct - Dec 2022

Skills: Data Aggregation, Data Analytics, Data Calculations, Data Cleaning, Data Ethics, Data Visualization, Presentations, Problem Solving, R, Spreadsheets, SQL, Structured Thinking

Data Security & HIPAA training

Nov 2022

CITI Program

Skills: Data management and best practices for security of Private Health Information (PHI)

Volunteer work

Student & Graduate Mentoring

2017-Today

Pro bono mentor to students and young science graduates from underrepresented groups. Activity in Germany, the United States and Greece.

Code It Like a Girl

2015-2016

Community manager of femtech NGO ‘Code It Like a Girl’. Represented the organization with a team of 15 other volunteers at TEDx Thessaloniki, Greece in 2016.

Bio AUTh Team (BAT)

2014-2016

Co-founder and communications manager of student group ‘Bio AUTh Team’ (45 active members) in Thessaloniki, Greece. Co-organized awareness events about HIV prevention, climate change & women in STEM.