ABOUT US
Molecular glues and protein–protein interaction stabilizers have produced some of the most important therapies in oncology and immunology. They work by inducing proximity: holding two proteins in a productive embrace. Outside of biologics, nearly every example has been found by accident or through derivatization of natural products. The bottleneck isn’t biology or clinical translation — it’s the inability to intentionally screen for glues at scale.
At Delphini, we use the DELSTAR™ platform and utilize the power of DNA encoded libraries and proximity induced technology to permanently encode a binding event between two targets into the DNA … to find molecules that induce proximity between the targets.
Dennis Gillingham is a Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Basel. His research expertise encompass DNA-encoded libraries, targeted proteins degradation and bioconjugation. He Co-Founded Delphini Therapeutics AG to commercialise DELSTAR, the technology he invented as a project for a PhD student in his lab. He is currently the acting chairman.
Lukas Schneider joined Dennis academic Group in 2019 as a PhD candidate and spearheaded both the synthesis of a DNA encoded library as well as the experiments to get DELSTAR up and running. He co-founded Delphini Therapeutics AG and works here since February 2026 as the scientist.
Basilius Sauter joined Dennis academic group in 2016 as a PhD candidate and stayed as a postdoc. He helped establishing DNA encoded libraries as a core technology inside the group and since then is mainly responsible for DEL data analysis and Next Generation Sequencing. He co-founded Delphini Therapeutics and works together with the company as part of a research collaboration.