Team

Team

The Cergentis team is built up of highly-skilled scientific experts and management professionals, dedicated to deliver innovative solutions to guarantee the genetic quality of future therapies worldwide. 

Leadership Team
Erik Splinter, PhD
General Manager
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General Manager

Erik Splinter has, both at the Erasmus MC and the Hubrecht Institute,  worked extensively on the development and optimisation of technologies for the analysis of 3D structures of human genomes. He has co-authored peer-reviewed publications in, among others, Genes & Development, Molecular Cell, and Nature Genetics.

 

At Cergentis, Erik is primarily responsible for the further development of the TLA technology and its various applications.

 

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Judith Bergboer, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
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Chief Operating Officer

 

Judith Bergboer received her PhD in human genetics and molecular biology from the Radboud University Nijmegen. She performed her post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School, where she generated and studied several transgenic and mutant zebrafish lines. She has co-authored in, among others, PLoS Genetics and Nature Genetics.

 

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Maaike van der Weij, MSc
Director of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs
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Director of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs

 

After receiving her Masters degree in Biomolecular Science from Utrecht University, Maaike worked for over 10 years in Quality roles within various biotech companies, mainly in the pharmaceutical industry. Her focus is on process performance & improvement and creating a solid Quality Management System. 

 

At Cergentis, Maaike is responsible for the design, maintenance and performance of the Quality Management System.

 

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Georgios Georgiou, PhD
Head of Bioinformatics & Software Development
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Head of Bioinformatics & Software Development

 

George has a background in Computing Science, Bioinformatics, and Computational Systems Biology. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental and Computational biology at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, where he studied chromatin and gene regulatory networks dynamics during early embryonic development. After his Ph.D., George worked in a CRO as a bioinformatician. Later he managed the departments of IT, Computerized Systems Validation, and Bioinformatics. He has co-authored peer-reviewed publications in, among others, Nature, Nature Communications, and Genome Biology.

 

George joined Cergentis in 2020 as the Head of Bioinformatics and Software development. He is responsible for the development of bioinformatics pipelines and software used within Cergentis and by customers and clinical collaboration partners.

Nicole Hendriks, BSc
Sales Director
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Sales Director

 

Nicole pursued a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Medical Laboratory Sciences at University of Applied Science Leiden, where she specialized in animal research. During her studies she had the chance to gain experience interning at the Oxford University in molecular biology, and interning at the Institute for Functional Genomics Montpellier in animal research.

 

As Sales Director at Cergentis, Nicole leads the sales team, oversees business development and establishes long-term partnerships with key customers.

 

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Robin Hartholt, PhD
Program Manager
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Program Manager

 

Robin has been working in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry for close to 15 years. Before pursuing his PhD on the topic of inhibitor formation during hemophilia A treatment, he was part of a method development team at Galápagos. He continued in the field of method development at Janssen Vaccines, in both scientific and managerial roles, followed by a brief tenure at uniQure. In 2024, Robin joined Cergentis as Program Manager and Leadership Team Member.

 

His focus is on the management of long-term, strategic projects, of which the implementation of a GMP-compliant environment is his current priority. 

Ellen Stelloo, PhD
Head of Assay & Product Development
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Head of Assay & Product Development

 

Ellen Stelloo obtained her PhD at Leiden University. Her PhD focused on molecular classification of endometrial cancer to guide adjuvant treatment decisions. She performed her post-doctoral studies at University Medical Center Utrecht, where she generated patient-derived ovarian cancer organoids to study drug responses and used single-cell sequencing to capture the genomic consequence of chromatin errors during mitosis.

 

As Head of Assay & Product Development, Ellen leads the PD team, ensuring continuous improvements to Cergentis TLA technology and overseeing the design, development and execution of both custom-based projects and analytical methods to broaden Cergentis’ product portfolio.

 

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Service Team
Irina Sergeeva, PhD
Scientific Account Manager
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Scientific Account Manager

Irina Sergeeva received her Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of Amsterdam, where she studied the mechanisms of cardiac hypertrophy and repair. She generated several transgenic mouse reporter lines for in vitro and in vivo analysis, and used 4C-seq technology to study gene regulation in the heart.

 

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Andrea Conidi, PhD
Project Scientist
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Project Scientist

 

Andrea received his PhD in Molecular Medicine from the KU Leuven (Belgium) and afterwards moved to the Department of Cell Biology of the Erasmus MC, Rotterdam. During his post-doc he focused on chromatin architecture dynamics during neuronal differentiation and identification of molecular targets in neurodevelopmental disorders mimicking rare diseases in vitro using human iPSCs.

 

At Cergentis, Andrea is part of the Service Team performing data analysis for our customers.

 

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Andrea Oneglia, PhD
Project Scientist
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Project Scientist

 

Andrea studied Biotechnology and conducted his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK) focusing on rare genetic and epigenetic syndromes. During his research period, he applied genetic engineering approaches (CRISPR-Cas9) to research needs in the generation of animal and cell models. He concluded his postdoc experience in Montreal (Canada) where he gave his contribution in the characterization of cardiovascular diseases.

 

At Cergentis, Andrea is part of the Service Projects Team performing data analysis for our customers.

Melinda Aprelia, BSc
Operational Lab Manager
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Operational Lab Manager

 

Melinda Aprelia received her Bachelor degree in Life Sciences from HAN University of Applied Sciences in Nijmegen. She worked previously as a research technician at the UMC Utrecht and the Netherlands Cancer Institute, where she worked on several projects to understand the molecular mechanism of cell division in response to DNA damage.

 

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Maurijn Kessels, PhD
Quality Lab Manager
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Quality Lab Manager

Maurijn received his PhD in the field of developmental biology studying vertebrate skeletogenesis at Wageningen University. He previously worked at the University of Liège where he studied pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma through the development of zebrafish models.

 

At Cergentis, Maurijn works as part of the service projects team performing TLA.

 

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Beatriz Almeida, MSc
Facility Manager
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Service Team Technician

 

Beatriz studied Biology at Oporto University and got her master’s degree in Microbiology from University of Aveiro in Portugal. After her studies, she worked in different research projects in areas ranging from environmental health to malaria research. In 2021, Beatriz worked as a lab technician in a COVID-19 detection lab in the Netherlands. 

 

She joined Cergentis in January 2022, and as a Service Team Technician she performs the TLA lab work. 

 

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Cheryl Dambrot, PhD
Scientific Account Manager
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Scientific Account Manager

 

Cheryl Dambrot received her PhD from Leiden University with research in the field of stem cell biology, focusing on generating induced pluripotent stem cells to model cardiac disease. She performed her post-doctoral study at the Yale Stem Cell Center, where she investigated the mechanism behind mouse and human cellular reprogramming. 

 

At Cergentis, Cheryl works as part of the service projects team performing TLA and data analysis for our customers.

 

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Petra Klous, MSc
Customer Success Manager
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Operational & Customer Contact Manager

 

Petra has many years of practical experience working as a research technician at the Erasmus MC and as a lab manager at the Hubrecht Institute. She has worked on different research projects on the 3D organisation of the genome and contributed to the development and optimisation of new techniques. She joined Cergentis after receiving a Masters degree in Cancer Genomics and Developmental Biology from Utrecht University.

 

At Cergentis, Petra is responsible for our lab operations, customer service and technical support.

 

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Elaine Wong, PhD
Senior Project Scientist
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Senior Project Scientist

 

Elaine Wong studied Biomedical Sciences at Utrecht University. She received a PhD in molecular biology at the University of Amsterdam, where she studied the transcriptional pathways in the development of the heart. She developed and optimized technologies for the identification of whole-genome protein-DNA binding profiles.

 

At Cergentis, Elaine works as part of the service projects team performing TLA and data analysis for our customers.

 

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Clara Esteban, PhD
Project Scientist
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Project Scientist

 

Clara studied Biology and received her Ph.D. from the University of Barcelona analyzing Next Generation Sequencing data to identify variants in familial cancer patients. She started working at LUMC to learn cell culture and genetic engineering techniques (e.g., cloning, CRISPR/Cas9 and site directed mutagenesis), to assess the function of variants found in DNA repair genes.

 

At Cergentis, Clara is part of the Service Projects Team performing data analysis for our customers.

Commercial Team
Emily Caulfield, MSc
Business Development Analyst
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Business Development Analyst

 

Emily Caulfield received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne before attaining her Master of Science degree in Biology & Business Studies at Leiden University. During her studies, she completed early-stage research at Leiden University Medical Centre and gained business experience at a clinical-stage RNA therapy company.

 

As Business Development Analyst, Emily is responsible for defining markets, identifying key companies and leads, and monitoring market developments.

 

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Allan La, MSc
Scientific Content Marketeer
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Scientific Content Marketeer

With a MSc in Science and Business Management from Utrecht University, Allan initially joined as an International Sales Manager to help tap into the Cell & Gene Therapy market. After a successful performance, he then headed customer acquisitions within our entire Genetic Engineering portfolio. 

 

In February 2021, Allan joined the Marketing team to help create strategic marketing plans, write scientific contents, and perform post-campaign analysis.

Maya Wright Clark, PhD
Sales & Account Manager
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Sales & Account Manager

 

Maya studied Biotechnology at the University of Barcelona and went on to get her Master's degree in Regenerative Medicine and Technology at the University of Utrecht. Afterwards, Maya did her PhD at the Hubrecht Institute in Eva van Rooij's lab where she focused on unraveling the molecular mechanisms underlying Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). 

 

Maya joined Cergentis as International Sales Manager for Cell Line Development in January 2022. 

 

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Neringa Stasiukonyte, MSc
Sales & Account Manager
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Sales & Account Manager

 

Neringa received her master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Groningen. Previously, she worked for 4 years at Charles River Laboratories as a Scientist focusing on early-stage drug discovery projects.

 

Neringa joined Cergentis as Sales & Account Manager for Cell Line Development.

 

Juan J. F. Palacio, MSc
Business Developer
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Business Developer

 

Juan Jose pursued a bachelor’s degree in Business at London Metropolitan University. After getting his MSc in Finance and Trading at Regents University he gained business and commercial experience in UK, Spain and Mexico.

 

As a Business Developer he is responsible of monitoring the market in order to establish new commercial relationships

Bioinformatics Team
Vera Boersma, PhD
Bioinformatics Scientist
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Bioinformatics Scientist

 

After receiving her Masters degree in cancer genomics and developmental biology from the Utrecht University, Vera attended a PhD program at the NKI. During her PhD she focused on the role of DNA repair mechanisms in telomere dysfuncion. She identified a new factor involved in DNA repair of double strand breaks which led to a publication in Nature.

 

At Cergentis Vera is working as a product developer on the optimisation of the TLA technology for oncogenetic applications.

Nikos Pappas, MSc
Jr. Software Developer & Bioinformatician
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Jr. Software Developer & Bioinformatician

 

Nikos obtained his Masters degree in Bioinformatics from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He has provided Bioinformatics support for Next-Generation Seqencing data analyses, data management and teaching support in various research and academic settings. He also has (co-)authored several peer-reviewed publications in the field of metagenomics, which was his main focus.

 

Nikos joined Cergentis in 2022 as a Junior Software Developer/Bionformatician. He is working on the software development of various applications around the TLA technology platform.

Dirk Kruit, MSc
Bioinformatician
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Bioinformatician

 

During his Bachelor in Nanobiology (TU Delft and Erasmus MC Rotterdam) Dirk became familiar with biological and medical research. He obtained his Master's degree in Computational Science (UvA and VU Amsterdam) where he focused on bioinformatics and machine learning, as he applied deep learning to large datasets with genetic data.

 

At Cergentis, Dirk works on the development of bioinformatics pipelines and software for various applications of the TLA technology platform.

Mario Cangiano, PhD
Bioinformatics Scientist
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Bioinformatics Scientist

 

Mario Cangiano received his Bachelor Degree in Biotechnology and a Master of Science in Genetics from the University of Sannio, Italy. He worked as a bioinformation at BioGeM and later as an R&D Scientist at GenomeScan, in Leiden. During his work he performed translational research for in-silico biomarker discovery and tumor classification and he has co-authored in a Nature Medicine publication.

 

At Cergentis, Mario is working on the development of bioinformatics pipelines and software for various applications of the TLA technology.

 

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Frans-Paul Ruzius, BSc
Bioinformatician & Full-Stack Developer
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Bioinformatician & Full-Stack Developer

 

Frans-Paul received a Bachelor's degree in Bioinformatics and started his career at the Hubrecht Institute as a Bioinformatician. After this, he joined the Software Development Team at GenDx for 8 years where he also became the System Administrator, managed the local network, email and storage while contributing to the development of commercial software.

 

At Cergentis, he is part of the Bioinformatics Team and is responsible for developing an analysis pipeline application. 

 

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R&D Team
Joost Swennenhuis, PhD
Senior Product Developer
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Senior Product Developer

 

Joost Swennenhuis received his PhD from the University of Twente with research in the field oncology and liquid biopsy, focusing on the isolation and molecular analysis of circulating tumor cells. Formerly Joost has developed products for Immunicon corp in Enschede and Kreatech biotechnology (Now Leica) in Amsterdam and has worked at Veterinary Pathology of the University of Utrecht.

 

At Cergentis, Joost is working as a product developer on the optimisation of the TLA technology for several applications.

Gabrielle Dijksteel, PhD
Scientist Assay Development
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Scientist Assay Development

 

Gabrielle received a MSc degree in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Leiden University and a PhD on the development and characterization of novel antimicrobial therapies from VU Amsterdam.

 

At Cergentis, Gabrielle is a Scientist Assay Developer and responsible for the development and validation of assays.

Bram Raaben, MSc
Assay & Product Development Technician
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Assay & Product Development Technician

 

Bram received his master’s degree in medical biology with a specialization in human biology at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. During his master internships, he investigated a patient mutation as a possible cause of renal cysts, and optimized a differentiation protocol of iPSCs to keratinocytes for applications in studying skin diseases. 

 

At Cergentis, Bram works as an Assay & Product Development Technician within the R&D team. 

 

Finance Team
Bianca Reek
Administrator
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Administrator

 

Bianca is an experienced professional in the field of administration. She started her career in 1986 at DAF Noord-Holland as a telephone operator whilst getting her Accounting Degree at the Association. Bianca has been part of Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable teams, Contracts and Stock Administrations in both large and smaller companies. 

 

At Cergentis, Bianca is not only part of the Accounts Department as Administrator but also our "Jack of all trades" taking care of many other tasks, to the delight of rest of the team. 

Quality Team
Kelly Krijgsman, BSc
Quality Assurance Manager
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Quality Assurance Manager

Kelly received her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. With over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she held several functions and brings specialized knowledge in quality control, product stability, product characterization and method development of both analytical and bioassays. In addition, Kelly is an experienced project manager for improvement projects.

 

At Cergentis, Kelly is a QA Manager. She ensures compliance of our QMS system with ISO and GMP guidelines as well as our own quality standards.

Sanne Vonk, MSc
Quality Assurance Manager
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Quality Assurance Manager

Sanne received her master's Degree in Life Science and Technology from Leiden University. She previously worked at Janssen Vaccines and Prevention as Associate Scientist Product Characterization, where she coordinated - among other things - the execution of characterization and forced degradation of the COVID-19 vaccine. Sanne has significant experience with the execution of experiments, sample management, data processing and interpreting study results of several biological and analytical assays.

 

At Cergentis, Sanne is a QA Manager and is responsible for further developing our QMS to GMP level.

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