Roel Sterken Email & Phone Number

Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands

Brussels Area, Belgium

RS2B bvba is a consulting firm focussed on business strategy and entrepreneurship, with a specialty in life science industry.

The Flanders Future Techfund will invest in technology platforms, stemming from research conducted at Flanders strategic research centers (imec, VIB, Vito, Flanders Make), universities (KULeuven, UGent, VUB, UAntwerpen, UHasselt) or spearhead clusters (Catalisti, SIM, VIL, Flanders Food, Blauwe cluster, Flux 50), with a view to a broad commercial valorisation. The fund will start with €75m, which can be extended with €300m in shareholder loans.

Brussels Area, Belgium

Space Refinery designs and implements workspace interiors for companies that want to boost their business. We design workspaces following two core beliefs:1 – Reflect your company brand, culture and vision to inspire your team and clients.2 – Apply scientific design principles to optimize team collaboration, wellbeing and productivity.

Ghent, Flemish Region, Belgium

Biogazelle is a CRO specialised in molecular biomarker services to accelerate and improve (pre-)clinical pharmaceutical drug development. Driven by science, quality and service, we are proud partners to a global portfolio of biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Our analytical services are built on deep expertise in qPCR, ddPCR and sequencing based platforms, and we excel in the fields of anti-sense oligonucleotides, recombinant cell and gene therapy, (immuno-) oncology, viral diagnostics and genotyping and overall RNA-expression based solutions.

Ghent Metropolitan Area

Chef d'orchestre for all matters Covid-19 PCR testing at Biogazelle.

Ghent

Biogazelle is a specialty CRO service company, with unique expertise in discovery, development and validation of RNA-biomarkers, genome wide expression profiling, lncRNA and adoptive cell therapy product development.

Greater Boston Area

Consulted and provided operational support for internal and external strategic positioning of JHMI, evaluation of commercial partnership or investment opportunities, product development strategy, microbiome landscaping, talent hiring and organisational structure of the group. Reported directly to the Global Head of the Microbiome.

Madrid Area, Spain

DROIA is a hands-on investment firm focused on breakthrough oncology therapeutics.Leading a team of PhDs and drug development professionals to evaluate new potential investments and execute the due diligence. To date this has resulted in investments in five companies across three continents. Acquired extensive expertise in evaluating all aspects of life science start-ups including scientific data, CMC, toxicology, IP, regulatory briefing documents (EMA and FDA), clinical development, business strategy and financial planning. Built a global network of clinical, scientific and business leaders to provide market and competitive analysis, scout for new leads and guide investment opportunities.

Brussels Area, Belgium

Brussels Area, Belgium

Metaptys is a DROIA portfolio company developing drugs to target cancer cell metabolism.- Managed the scientific development of the pre-clinical program of a new investigational drug for a phase-1 clinical trial, including scientific program design, protocol writing, establishing CRO and CMO partnerships, negotiate contracts and analyze scientific results. - Developed the scientific advisory board and built collaborative relationships with key opinion leaders for the clinical development. - Together with the CEO developed the strategic plan, managed the (semi-virtual) team of life science professionals, and reported back to the investor board.

Brussels - Melbourne

PX Biosolutions is a DROIA portfolio biotech company developing a nanoparticle based vaccine platform. - Conducted market research and analysis to identify opportunities for developing veterinary applications of the lead vaccine technology platform. Built relationships with leading pharmaceutical companies and industry experts. Prepared and delivered companies pitch, negotiated partnerships, and successfully established a collaborative research agreement with a top-three veterinary vaccine developer. - Setup an office in Melbourne, Australia, including procurement and contract negotiations, administration, managing budget and establishing payment procedures. - Lead the transition of a team of 5 researchers from an academic research lab into expected industry standards. Established new communication and reporting procedures related to research and intellectual property protection.

New York City

- Lead scientist in research projects on HIV-associated nephropathy disease.- Developed computer program algorithms (R, Perl) for quantitative and statistical analysis of microarray gene expression data (eQTL), genome wide copy-number variant (CNV) data and next-generation sequencing. Developed and applied statistical linear regression models to identify disease causal genes from multi-layered genomic datasets. - Developed and conducted molecular biology experiments (Western blot, microscopy, Immunohistochemistry, microarrays, siRNA gene silencing, transgenic mouse models). - Trained and educated undergraduate interns- Successfully transitioned from graduate plant research to post-graduate medical research, readily acknowledged by 4 awards, 1 research grant and 7 peer-reviewed publications in 3 years.

Within VIB, collaborated on a pilot project for the start-up of Biolign Ltd, a VIB spin-out.- Developed a computational platform to design microarray probes capable of hybridizing indel marker alleles in bio-fuel producing yeast strains for dynamic mapping of QTLs. - Developed and validated the “proof of principal” pilot study, which led directly to continued capital funding.

Master Of Business Administration (Mba), Summa Cum Laude

Executive Master Of Science In Technology Management, Knowledge Management And Emerging Technologies

Phd In Molecular Biology, Plant Genetics

- Set up a high-throughput platform for phenotypical characterization of growth traits in collaboration with CropDesign biotech company..

Pre-Doctoral Internship, Population Genomics

- Used statistical and molecular genetic approaches to identify functional and ecologically important gene variation in a plant model.

Bs, Ms, Biology, Biotechnology, Cum Laude

Activities and Societies: President of the University sport committee Student representative in the University Science Faculty Assembly.