Product & Process Design
The goal of product & process design is to develop innovative products, processes, and/or installations that serve specific purposes in the life sciences, health and (bio)chemical industries. It's essential to develop and apply an independent attitude, a critical approach, creativity, and a focus for innovative applications.
Speakers
Amir R. Goudarzi - UCB
Rita Tavares - Cargill
I’m Rita Ferreira Tavares, a chemical engineer by education, a traveller by passion. I did my master’s degree in chemical engineering in Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon (PT) and a few months later I moved to the Netherlands to join the PDEng programme in Process and Equipment Design. Here I worked with big companies such as Shell and SABIC. Following the PDEng, I joined Cargill as a process modeler, where I am until today. In this role, I build models of the plants in order to find and propose optimization scenarios, namely for natural resources utilization.
About Cargill
Cargill is a large, successful, family-owned business with its roots in the pioneer farming lands of USA's Midwest. Its origins can be traced back over 155 years to a simple grain storage facility which sowed seeds. Today Cargill is one of the biggest players in the agriculture, food and nutrition businesses, present in 70 countries with 155,000 employees. Cargill’s business range from farmers, from whom Cargill buys crops and livestock, to customers in retail, foodservice, consumer packaged goods and industrial sectors.
Martijn Wapenaar - Janssen Pharmaceuticals
After finishing my MSc Degree in Biotechnology from Wageningen University and Professional Doctorate in BioProduct Design from the Technical University of Delft, I joined Janssen Biologics in Leiden. I started at the Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing Sciences (PDMS) department where I applied my knowledge to lead the upstream development of complex anti-body production processes for clinical supply, analyze data using MVDA tools like SIMCA and executing development studies in multi-departmental international projects. In 2019 I did a leadership rotation at Johnson & Johnson’s Global Talent Management department and since September 2020 I work as Technical Launch Integrator for Janssen Vaccines. In this last role I lead tech transfer activities towards commercial manufacturing of new vaccine products. An exciting and challenging role in which I get to learn the ins and outs of commercial manufacturing.
About Janssen
Janssen Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Beerse, Belgium, and owned by Johnson & Johnson. It was founded in 1953 by Dr. Paul Janssen. At Janssen, we believe challenging something is the best way to change it. That’s why, in over 150 countries, we bring together the most creative minds and cutting-edge technology to help treat, cure, stop, and prevent some of the most complex diseases of our time.
Data analysis & stewardship
The volume of information and data will only increase as more developments are made in life sciences, a clear indication of the importance of data analysis and stewardship for companies. The Helis Academy has chosen data analysis and stewardship as one of their domains and targeted four specific topics: omics data analysis, statistics, FAIR data stewardship, and machine learning.
Speakers
Uwe Thissen - BASF
Uwe Thissen holds a PhD in chemometrics (multivariate analysis and machine learning in chemistry) and has started his career as a data scientist at TNO Quality of Life in the fields of food, nutrition and health. Since 10 years he is working in the seed industry, being responsible for data science (bioinformatics, statistics and digital phenotyping / image analysis) and digital transformation within BASF Vegetable Seeds.
About BASF
BASF is focusing on creating chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The approximately 110,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions (including vegetable seeds).
Filip Pattyn - Ontoforce
Filip Pattyn combines a background in life sciences (bio-engineering, molecular biotechnology) and IT (knowledge management, bioinformatics). He has obtained this PhD in Medical Sciences at Ghent University while conducting research on human genetics and cancer genetics. He performed postdoctoral work at the same institution and at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. Currently, he is CSO at Ontoforce and a guest professor at Ghent University. Filip is specialized in strategic counselling and hands-on implementation of data science (linked data, semantic web technologies, graph technologies), data stewardship and FAIR data in life sciences and healthcare.
About ONTOFORCE
ONTOFORCE is a scale-up company with offices in Ghent, Belgium and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company develops solutions for knowledge management, data harmonization, data linking with a focus on the life sciences domain. The DISQOVER platform is their main product and combines an intelligent data ingestion and graph-based storage system with a data search, navigation and analytics application.
Gijs Geleijnse - Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation (IKNL)
After graduating at Eindhoven University of Technology in Computer Science in 2004, Gijs Geleijnse joined Philips Research. At Philips, Gijs worked on AI algorithms in various topics, which led to a PhD at TU/e in 2008. He continued working as a scientist in various healthcare projects. In 2017, he joined IKNL as their first clinical data scientist and is currently leading a growing data science team. At IKNL, he focuses on innovations to turn data into insights that reduce the impact of cancer.
About Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation (IKNL)
The main goal of the Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation (IKNL) is to reduce the impact of cancer, from the personal to the societal level. With the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR) as its core activity, IKNL enables health care professionals, researchers, policy makers and others to reflect on cancer and on palliative care. Together with care professionals, researchers, patients, and policy makers we translate data into valuable insights to improve oncological and palliative care.
Business Development
Business development has a key role in organisations and impacts a variety of business areas such as negotiations, finance, IP, contracts, communication and company strategy.
Speakers
Tjeerd van Dijk - Intravacc
Tjeerd has obtained a MSc degree in Molecular Life Sciences from Radboud University Nijmegen and completed successfully several courses in pharmaceutical valuation and negotiation. Joining Intravacc in 2016 as a Market Analyst, he currently serves as Director Business Development. Tjeerd has a track record in science, business development and has been involved in numerous license and collaboration agreements. His scientific background, pragmatic approach combined with experience in all steps of the business transaction processes within the (global) biopharmaceutical industry ensure quick identification of the critical path as well as mutual beneficial partnership structures.
About Intravacc
Intravacc is a renowned translational vaccine R&D organization that can build on over 100 years of expertise in vaccines. We optimize vaccine concepts, vaccine processes and vaccine technologies. Our aim is to substantially reduce development risks and costs of new vaccines. We can build on a strong track record of proprietary (platform) vaccine technologies, which we offer to our clients. In our state-of-the-art facilities, our experienced vaccine R&D institute takes your vaccine concept up to Phase I/II clinical trials. Furthermore, Intravacc transfers its knowledge and technologies to public and private partners worldwide and works on collaborative vaccine R&D.
Alex Jones - Cristal Therapeutics
Alex is the Senior Manager of Business Development at Cristal Therapeutics, a company applying technologies in collaboration with partners to improve the therapeutic profile of biotherapeutics. Alex obtained his Bachelors in Biochemistry at the University of Leeds before getting his Masters in Science and Business Management at Utrecht University. Alex has been with Cristal Therapeutics since 2015 and been responsible for a number of research collaborations, and option and licensing deals on Cristal technologies and assets.
About Cristal Therapeutics
Cristal Therapeutics applies three distinct and interconnected technologies together with biological insight to improve the therapeutic profile of our partners’ programs in development. Based on over 10 years of real-world experience, Cristal’s CliCr®, CriPec® and CriVac® technologies provide superior conjugation, enhance target specificity and engender highly selective immune responses, thereby increasing efficacy and reducing toxicity. The company aims to be the partner of choice for overcoming challenges and enabling the full potential of ADCs, immuno-oncology treatments, vaccines, among a broad range of therapeutics, tuned to modality and indication.
Anita Ye – SkylineDx
Anita Ye has a MSc in Cancer, Stem Cells and Developmental Biology with a minor in Finance at Utrecht University. She joined SkylineDx in 2020 and is responsible for Global Business Development, including scouting of new opportunities and partnership with Industry Partners. Previously, she had worked at the National Investment Bank of the Netherlands (NIBC) as Equity Research Analyst Life Sciences where she was involved in biotech fundraising (IPOs, rights offering, etc.).
About SkylineDx
SkylineDx is a commercial-stage biotech company headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands with a commercial office and CAP/CLIA certified laboratory in San Diego, United States. The company uses the ability to bridge the gap between academically discovered gene expression signatures and commercially available diagnostic products with high clinical utility. With the focus on diagnostics, SkylineDx assists healthcare professionals in accurately determining the type or status of the disease or to predict a patient’s response to a specific, personalized treatment.