Toxys provides innovative in vitro toxicity screening solutions to rapidly identify hazardous and potential carcinogenic properties of novel compounds during the early phases of product and drug development. Toxys exclusively offers the ToxTracker assay, a high throughput stem cell-based reporter assay for carcinogenicity hazard identification.

OcellO provides drug discovery screening services to the biotech and pharmaceutical industry using its proprietary high throughput 3D cell culture-based screening platform. The drug discovery industry still relies on in vitro monolayer cell cultures, which are poor simulations of human tissue and are poorly predictive of drug efficacy. OcellO’s platform uses human cells cultured in a 3D matrix, which form multi-cellular micro-tissues. These bear a striking similarity to cells in vivo in appearance, metabolism, gene expression and tissue function. Tissues cultured in 3D therefore provide more relevant data for predicting the in vivo responses of human tissues to therapies. The increased complexity of 3D tissues is fully exploited using high content 3D imaging to profile the effects of compounds. OcellO screens for both disease-specific and target-specific compounds. OcellO’s high throughput methodology, which automates all stages of the process, allows thousands of tests to be performed per assay cycle. The result is cost-effective screening that provides rich information at an early phase of the drug discovery process.

My tasks included the marketing and promotion of the Utrecht Science Park and aquisition of companies for the Park. I was the account manager for the various companies at the science park. Projects I was involved in included the new Life Sciences Incubator (which includes grant application), the roll-out of the new corporate ID of Utrecht Science Park in the website, brochure and organizing various events to stimulate the networkfunction.

As a Liaison Officer I was responsible for the technology transfer process within the LACDR. All facets of technology transfer were included in my job such as: Contracting, opportunity scouting, marketing and licensing. I have also participated in the NGI Venture challenge, and written a granted STW valorisation grant together with teams of scientists. I was the central point of contact between scientists, third parties and LURIS (the technology transfer office of the University).

Organizing business education for Beta students was my major task. This includes setting up courses, mentoring the group and organizing all other aspects such as material, scheduling etc. Besides this we have conducted research into the growth of the Leiden Bioscience Park. This research has led to a presentation and publication on the Triple Helix Conference. I was involved in developing a database which can be used to store and retrieve data regarding Science Parks, and analysing data in preparation of an article regarding the Leiden Bioscience Park.