About Delta Diagnostics

Meet The Team That’s Making A Difference.

The company Delta Diagnostics 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.

Carolijn Hawinkels, MSc - CEO

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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 Diagnostics’ Growth.

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

Delta Diagnostics’ 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.

March 2018

Foundation as a TNO spin-off

November 2018

Relocation to Erasmus MC incubator facilities in Rotterdam Science Tower

December 2018

Received an NWO Take-Off Loan of €250,000

March 2019

SME Instrument Phase 1 subsidy awarded

November 2019

First prototype analyzer presented at Teknowledgy – NWO Innovation Festival.

January 2020

Selected for the RVO Fastlane project and received a €200,000 investment from Uniiq.

April 2021

First prototype R&D instrument delivered, marking the beginning of external validations.

February 2022

MIT R&D grant with SensUR Health for a Multiplexed Chronic Kidney Disease assay.

May 2023

Collaboration with Levels Diagnostics for early liver cancer detection, supported by an MIT R&D grant.

May 2023

Eurostars grant for developing a rapid-multiplex-detection platform for autoimmune diseases diagnosis.

September 2023

Secured €5.25 million in Series A funding

Today

5 distributors signed for DeltaOne

Carolijn Hawinkels

Chief Executive Officer

Fascinated by mechanics since childhood, I naturally pursued Mechanical Engineering and joined Unilever's Unox factory, eventually leading operational roles and part of the management for major reorganizations. My experience expanded to Unilever's headquarters, followed by a transition to consulting, where I embraced diverse challenges and navigated between operational and executive spheres effectively.

My approach is decisive and direct, prioritizing personal needs and drawing parallels between the care needed for machines and people. This blend of analytical and empathetic skills ensures impactful outcomes and satisfaction across various settings.

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.

Ronald Vos

Sr. Director Business Development

Ronald Vos has over 30 years of experience in life sciences and diagnostics. As an analytical chemist by training, he held many sales, sales management and business development positions at companies like Luminex, Millipore and Thermo Fisher. Later on in his career he supported start-ups like Mycartis and the Clinical Genomics group within SeraCare. Since 2019 he supports starting organizations in LSR and DX business development projects ranging from individual sales to distribution management to OEM projects. During the years he travelled intensively throughout Europe, US, the Middle East, Africa and India and with his multicultural knowledge can perfectly support territorial expansion.

Peter Harmsma, Ph.D.

Manager Product Develoment

Peter Harmsma has been lead Sr. Scientist on integrated optics at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research – TNO for over 10 years. He holds a PhD in integrated optics, and was co-founder of the start-up company ThreeFive Photonics (Delft, 2000). This company commercialized the integrated optics technology developed at the Delft University of Technology for telecom applications. Peter is specialized in the design of integrated photonics chips, and in test and measurement strategies. He has an extensive network in the European (integrated) optics community, and has played an important role in several integrated photonics-related European projects. Together with Bart, Peter developed the technology that Delta Diagnostics commercializes within the Optic department of TNO.

Ruben van Harmelen, MSc

Product Application Specialist

Ruben van Harmelen obtained his masters in Biomedical Engineering at the Univeristy of Groningen. As Product Application Specialist, he is able to combine his in-depth knowledge of biology, engineering and product development and manages the assembly and deployability of Delta Diagnostics’ instruments. Ruben also delivers technical support to our customers.

Corné van den Kieboom

Lead Assay Developer

Corné van den Kieboom has over 10 years of experience in assay development for molecular diagnostics. He obtained his PhD on novel diagnostic techniques and biomarker discovery at the Radboud University Medical Centre. After his PhD, he worked at Innosieve Diagnostics as lead assay developer and was responsible for test kit production scale-up. Currently, Corné focusses on bridging the gap between clinic and diagnostics developers. Early 2018, he founded The contract R&D and consultancy company “Inventin”. Over the years, Corné collaborated with many innovative players in the field of platform development, e.g. NXP Semiconductors, IMEC, Biocartis and BiosparQ.

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.