Dental Asia September/October 2021

Dental Updates
Dr Christian Ullrich joins Straumann Group’s Executive Management Board
as the new group chief information officer
The Straumann Group has appointed Dr
Christian Ullrich as the new group chief
information officer and member of the
Executive Management Board (EMB). Digital
transformation is a key part of the Straumann
Group’s growth strategy, spanning all
businesses, geographies and facets of the
Group’s activities. This new executive role
will drive and lead the acceleration of the
company’s digital transformation. He will join
the group on 1 October 2021.
Guillaume Daniellot, chief executive
officer of Straumann Group,
commented: “Christian has
an impressive track record in
leading digital transformation of
large global companies. He has
successfully developed digital
strategy and go-to-market
models driven
by platform
approaches to
increase product sales performances and
create a positive experience for customers
and health consumers. He will play a key role
to further advance the digital strategy of the
Group connecting it closely to the business
strategy. Christian is also a personality with
outstanding leadership skills and will be a
great addition to the team, supporting our
cultural journey.”
Dr Ullrich joins Straumann from Bayer,
a life science company with core
competencies in the fields of
health care and agriculture, where
he was senior vice-president,
global chief information officer at
Bayer Consumer Health. He was
instrumental in shaping the digital
agenda of the Consumer Health
Division and accelerating
the business
transformation with
digital technology
and data analytics across the entire
value chain. He began his career at the
company in 2006 and rose through a series
of managerial positions with increasing
responsibility, including divisional head of
Accounting and Controlling, head of Post-
Merger Integration United States as well as
vice-president, global head of Marketing
and Sales IT. Prior to joining Bayer, Dr Ullrich
worked for Deloitte, a professional services
company providing consulting, audit,
advisory, and tax services.
Born in 1972, Dr Ullrich is a German citizen
and holds a master’s degree in Business
Administration and Mechanical Engineering
from the Technical University of Darmstadt,
Germany, and a PhD in Economics from the
University of Lüneburg, Germany. He joins the
company following the announcement of the
group to expand the role of chief information
officer and elevate it to the Executive
Management Board. ■
Keystone Bio advances a more complete explanation of Porphyromonas
gingivalis toxic virulence factors as major driver of sporadic Alzheimer’s
and chronic inflammation
Keystone Bio (KB), a biotechnology company
and frontrunner in developing precision
biologics to eliminate Porphyromonas
gingivalis (Pg), has presented a groundbreaking
data that shows bacterial toxic
proteins from Pg in the mouth are released
into the blood and cross the Blood Brain
Barrier (BBB) as the major driver of sporadic
Alzheimer’s and chronic inflammation.
This new data supports a “Peripheral” model
of Pg blood-transported toxic proteins
delivered into the blood and brain versus the
earlier literature in which human and animal
model studies support the “local gingipains”
Alzheimer’s Disease brain model. What this
means for Alzheimer’s patients and those at
early risk is that KB is developing a specific
diagnostic and treatment to eliminate Pg
and the flow of these toxic proteins to the
brain.
This data can now be integrated into a more
unifying “Concept” and explanation for the
“Infection Hypothesis” for Alzheimer’s Disease
(AD) and other Dementia-related disease(s).
A larger HagA Domain virulence factor is
found in many AD and some aged matched
control brain tissues. Its complex role in
local and systemic inflammatory diseases is
well understood and further demonstrates
systemic blood borne delivery for the
bacterial source of “gingipains” in the brain.
This ground-breaking data was presented in
three posters at the Alzheimer’s Association
International Conference 2021:
• Porphyromonas gingivalis Outer Membrane
Vesicles as the major drivers of and source
for the toxic insult and iron accumulation/
deposition in Alzheimer’s Disease
• Further Preclinical Development of a
Clinically Effective Bio-therapeutic Against
Porphyromonas gingivalis
• A Study on the Distribution of
Porphyromonas gingivalis Repeated
Epitope in Hemagglutinin/Adhesion and
HagA gingipains Domain Antigen and DNA
in Alzheimer brains
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DENTAL ASIA SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2021