About Delta Life Science

Meet The Team That’s Making A Difference.

The company Delta Life Science was founded in 2018 as a spin-off from TNO – The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research. It commercializes the patented biosensor technology that has been developed at the Optics department of TNO.

We believe that the availability of our rapid, sensitive and low-cost biosensors and instruments will lead to new discoveries in Life Sciences, and ultimately to novel diagnostics that rely on accurate concentration measurement of a panel of biomarkers within minutes.

Since its founding, the company has grown steadily towards the highly-experienced and well-balanced team this is currently involved. During this time, it has worked hard to perfect its biosensing technology and prepare for the launch of its first product.

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Bart De Boer, MSc - CTO

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Luc Schmitt, MSc - CFO

Supervisory Board

Leen Limbourg - Chair Person

Karel Kubias

Dr. Jan Groen

Joachim de Sterke

Marie-Louise Bots

Hans Boumans

Advisory Board

Marcel van Kasteel

Roche - Dr. Michael Schraeml

Genmab - Arnout Gerritsen

Jan Bergervoet

Dr. Jos Buijs

Partners.

That Support Delta Life Science’ Growth.

Co-Funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Union

Delta Life Science’ History

Through our historical narrative, we aim to inspire trust and collaboration among our partners in academia and the pharmaceutical industry, ensuring that we continue to make advanced research on biomolecular interactions accessible to all.

Foundation - March 2018

Foundation in march 2018 as a spin-off of TNO- The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research to bring a versatile biosensing platform to the market that has resulted from almost a decade of solid TNO research.

NWO Take-Off Grant - April 2018

In April 2018, Delta Life Science received an NWO grant to develop its business case (NWO Take-Off 1)

Rotterdam Science Tower - November 2018

In November 2018, Delta Life Science moved to the Erasmus MC incubator facilities in the Rotterdam Science Tower, with its offices and an ML2 laboratory. Delta Life Science has access to a state-of-the-art photonics lab at TNO for instrument assembly and alignment.

NWO Take-Off Loan - December 2018

In December 2018, Delta Life Science received an NWO take-off loan of 250.000 for developing its instrument for Biomolecular Interaction Analysis.

SME Instrument Phase 1 Granted - March 2019

In March 2019, Delta Life Science was granted the SME instrument phase 1 subsidy to further develop its business case focussing on diagnostics.

First Prototype Presentation - November 2019

In November 2019, Delta Life Science presents one of its early prototype analysers at the Teknowledgy – NWO Innovation Festival fare .

Selection Fastlane Project - January 2020

In January 2020, Delta Life Science was one of 15 high-potential companies selected by The Netherlands Enterprise Agency RVO for its RVO Fastlane project. As part of this project, Delta Life Science receives support in the form of specialized advice from RVO in various strategic areas.

Investment Uniiq - January 2020

In January 2020, proof-of-concept fund Uniiq invests 200.000 in Delta Life Science enabling its further technology validation in preparation for a Series-A investment round.

First prototype delivered - May 2021

In April 2021, Delta Life Science delivered its first prototype R&D instrument to the NanoBio Research Group of Saxion Hogeschool. The instrument is, a.o., used in projects aimed to detect SARS-CoV-2 antigens and residues of several types of antibiotics in milk in the RAAK-MKB project PhoBioSens. Since then, several prototypes have been delivered to various partners.

MIT R&D Grant - February 2022

In February 2022, Delta Life Science and project partner SensUR Health obtained an MIT R&D grant from the Provincie Zuid-Holland to develop a Multiplexed Chronic Kidney Disease assay. This development will rely on a combination of the photonic biosensor technology of Delta Life Science and the Chronic Kidney Disease assays of SensUR Health to ultimately improve kidney patient care.

The team behind the company

Kiran Dellimore

Ayse Nur Polat

Gyllion Loozen

Nicolas Garcia

Naveen Shenoy

Pietro Trevisan

Paul Motreuil

Nima Nodehi

Vivian Nguyen

Arnoud Marquart

Amirhossein Eghbalmanesh

Alexander Heemels

Joël Van der Vegt

Bart de Boer

Chief Technology Officer

Bart de Boer obtained his masters in Electrical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He started his career as a Scientist at Philips Research where was involved in, among others, magneto-resistive biosensors. After 10 years at Philips, he joined the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research – TNO, where he was active as System Architect and Project Manager in the area of integrated optical biosensors. In 2018 he founded Delta Diagnostics to commercialize the biosensing technology he developed at TNO, together with Peter Harmsma. Bart has more than 15 years’ experience in the field of biosensing and biomedical sensor systems and hold over 40 patents.

Luc Schmitt

Chief Financial Officer

Luc Schmitt obtained his masters (Msc/LLM) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a seasoned finance professional with a background in corporate banking and solid track record in venture financing. His key expertise includes capital related topics such as fundraising, financial modelling. valuation and M&A. Currently, he is active as an acting CFO within the biotech sector.

Leen Limbourg

Chair Person

Leen Limbourg graduated as a doctor from KU Leuven, specialized in Public Health (KU Leuven), Health Economics (Stockholm School of Economics) and obtained an International MBA from Vlerick Management School. She has held various international positions in medico-marketing roles and is a co-founder of a HealthTech startup. Since 2021, she has been active as an investor in Life Sciences and serves as an independent director/Commissioner.

As the chair of the Board of Commissioners of Delta Diagnostics, Leen primarily wants to support the company in its (pre-)launch and international growth, with passion, a creative mindset, and respect for all stakeholders.

Karel Kubias

Board Member

Karel has 20+ years leadership experience from Life Science, Pharma and Diagnostics in multinational pharmaceutical-chemical companies. During 11 years in executive management and board positions as CEO of the Czech Merck subsidiary and later Head of EEMEA region in Merck Millipore division, Karel built up a broad international network of top level managers in Biotech, Pharma and Life Science industries.

Dr. Jan Groen

Board Member

Dr. Jan Groen is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Intravacc. He was previously the CEO of Novigenix (CH), a privately-owned immunotranscriptomic diagnostic company, and MDxHealth, a Public-listed genomic diagnostics company in the USA. His career spans many years in the global life science sector. He was the President and COO of Agendia (USA), co-founder of ViroClinics and DxOrange, and has held management and scientific positions at Focus Diagnostics (USA), the Erasmus Medical Center, the National Institute of Public Health, and Akzo-Nobel. Currently he is investment advisor at Oncode Institute, Chairman of the Board of Angle Plc. (UK), Board member of SPL Medical and Novigenix (CH). He has published over 125 papers in international scientific journals and holds a PhD in Medical Microbiology from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Joachim de Sterke

Board Member

Experienced executive with extensive experience across various disciplines and industries and has a proven track record of developing and growing a company from start up to a mid-size international company. Extensive finance, M&A, operations, analytics and business development experience in Deep Tech, SaaS and IaaS based environments driven by both direct- and indirect- sales. After he sequentially founded two venture backed international SaaS companies with US exits, Joachim de Sterke co-founded PhotonDelta, where he played a crucial role in expediting the development of the Dutch and EU integrated photonics markets. His impactful contributions include meticulously constructing a robust ecosystem and investment portfolio, and strategically cultivating individual partnerships and a global network to bolster the industry's growth.

Today Joachim is Partner and Co-founder of PhotonVentures. PhotonVentures historically emerged from PhotonDelta as a deep-tech venture capital firm, purely focused on the key enabling technology of Integrated Photonics. Within PhotonVentures he holds multiple expert panel, board and advisory positions.

Marie-Louise Bots

Board Member

A veteran global executive and dealmaker with broad commercial expertise and a record of strategic transformation in Fortune 500 companies, venture backed, financial, consumer- and healthcare companies.

Background in Executive and Non-Executive positions in family companies blending this experience with focus and understanding of the PE and Corporate and investment community.

She served on boards of multinationals like Aon Risk Solution, Reed Elsevier, and Royal Philips Electronics.

Currently holds an executive board position in Turn Biotechnologies a startup venture in Silicon Valley.

Bots has a degree in Economics from Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and she has studied at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and Babson College in Boston. She is a native Dutch speaker, and is fluent in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.

Her personal talent lies in connecting people, building ’first in class’ teams, relevant networks and ecosystems.

"I'm excited and honored to apply my experience at Delta Diagnostics in their SVB , which embraces cutting edge and break- away innovation, to help it fulfill the unmet medical needs around the world."

Hans Boumans

Board Member

Hans Boumans is director technology transfer at TNO and as such responsible for some 40 TNO spin-off companies. In addition, he is a member of the supervisory board of 4 of these companies. He is also a board member of the pension fund of TNO and a board member of a European organization regarding technology transfer.

Hans has a scientific background, holds a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology.

Marcel van Kasteel

Chairman Advisory Board

Marcel van Kasteel has over 30 years of experience in the Diagnostics Market. He held senior management positions, advisory and business development roles in the Diagnostic Market. He is founder and owner of Van Kasteel Business Accelerator B.V. to support start-up and large IVD companies in growing businesses in Europe and USA. He was Vice- President Europe Middle East & Africa at Beckman Coulter , based in Switzerland and CEO of Philips Handheld Diagnostics in Eindhoven and responsible for the development and launch of the POCT MiniCare system in Europe.

Dr. Michael Schraeml

Advisory Board Member

Dr. Schraeml obtained his PhD in Biotechnology at the Martin Luther Universität, Halle-Wittenberg, after which he joined Scil Proteins GmbH in the position of Head of Affilin technology (development of artificial binding proteins). In 2007, he joined Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Penzberg, Germany, where started as Team Lead Biointeraction Analysis and currently holds the position of Director Antigen Design & Protein Expression Technologies. Dr. Schreaml has a vast experience in all facets of real time interaction measurement assays and label-free biosensing technologies, an area which he has been involved in since 1999.

Arnout Gerritsen

Advisory Board Member

Mr. A. Gerritsen (Sr Director, Global Head Bioanalytical Science at Genmab) obtained his BSc in Zoology & Histology at the University of applied science, Delft, The Netherlands. Since 1990 he has been involved in the field of immunology and antibodies. In 1997 he joined Medarex Europe, a subsidiary of Medarex Inc., starting up new laboratories for therapeutic antibody development. In 1999, he joined Genmab, where he held several managerial positions in the Discovery and Development of therapeutic antibodies. Currently, he holds the position of Sr Director, Global Head of Bioanalytical Science at Genmab. Throughout his career, he acquired a broad experience with assay technologies, including label-free sensing technologies to support antibody discovery and development. During 2012-2016 he served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Pall Biopharmaceuticals.

Jan Bergervoet

Advisory Board Member

Mr. Bergervoet joined Wageningen University & Research after his study and worked in the fields of seed health and development, flow cytometry and proteomics. From 2000 onwards he started working on bead based detection of plant pathogens and in 2011 he joined Prime Diagnostics a commercial project within Wageningen University & Research focusing on production and world wide sales of reagents for the detection of plant pathogens. Since 2016 he has the team lead on new product development, technology transfer of reagent production and method development for the detection of plant pathogens.

Dr. Jos Buijs

Advisory Board Member

Dr. Buijs has over 3 decades’ experience in biotechnology with a focus on interaction analysis. He attained his PhD in Wageningen, the Netherlands, studying antibody interactions and continued as Post Doc at the University of Utah and research group leader at Uppsala University. In 2007, he was appointed as adjunct Professor in Biotechnology. He has been developing interactions analysis technology at Biacore (Cytiva) and was leading the design of the Biacore T200 and 8K systems. In 2013, he started as CTO at Ridgeview Instruments that provides LigandTracer instruments for interaction analysis on live cells. Currently, Jos is CEO and board member of Ridgeview Instruments AB and has an adjunct professor position at Uppsala University.

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