Leadership
Peter de Keizer, PhDManaging Director
Peter de Keizer, PhD
Managing director
Peter de Keizer is the founder and managing director of Cleara Biotech B.V. He has 10+ years experience in valorization, intellectual property and preclinical research and development. He is and associate professor “Senescence in Cancer and Aging” at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands. Peter was trained as a molecular biologist at Utrecht University and Harvard Medical School / Mass General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA (2004). He performed is PhD in 2009 in the field of FOXO signaling, knowledge he employed during his postdoctoral work at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, CA, USA (2012) to develop the first compounds to eliminate senescent cells: FOXO4-based peptides. In 2017, he showed the translational power eliminating at least some types of senescent cells in mice, which resulted in a restoration of tissue homeostasis in models for aging and chemotoxicity (Cell, 2017; cited >700 times). In 2018, he joined the UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands, to investigate subtypes of senescence, where he became associate professor in 2020. Peter has been awarded several awards for his work on targeting senescence, including “talent extraordinary”(2013), ambassadorship of the Dutch Cancer Society (2017). He is a recurring guest in mainstream media on topics of aging and/or senescence and is regularly approached by policy markers for advice. He is an active member of the European Association for Cancer Research and the International Cell Senescence Association. Through Cleara Biotech B.V. he is dedicated to merge academic knowledge on senescence subtypes to develop new compounds and bring these to the clinic against late state cancer and chronic diseases.
Nick Sarlis, MD, PhDChief Medical Officer
Nick Sarlis, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Sarlis has (co-)managed the medical strategy prior and during the launch of 6 globally marketed products, helped progress 20 pipeline agents along their clinical development path, and has participated as a site investigator in 38 studies and 2 registries. He is an experienced clinician, senior medical researcher and recognized pharmaceutical and biotech industry leader. Until recently, Dr. Sarlis led the Medical Content function within Amplity Health. Prior to that, and in reverse succession, Dr. Sarlis served as CMO of The Lynx Group, a senior consultant for IPQ Analytics, as well as CMO of Sellas Life Sciences Group, Inc., where he led the clinical development of two peptide-based cancer vaccines. Before that, Dr. Sarlis served as Head of Medical Affairs at Incyte Corp. and held positions of increasing seniority at Sanofi, both in the US and France. Prior to his industry positions, he was a faculty member at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and the US National Institutes of Health. Dr. Sarlis obtained his Doctor of Medicine and DrMedSci degrees from the University of Athens, Greece, and a PhD from Imperial College, University of London. Dr. Sarlis is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (US), and is an elected Fellow of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Sarlis has published 135 articles and textbook chapters.
Michael Teifel, PhDHead of preclinical development
Michael Teifel, PhD
Head of preclinical development
Dr. Teifel is a leading industry executive with a career spanning over 20 years in various therapeutic areas, including endocrinology and oncology. He has deep experience in translating research into clinical development. Over the course of his career, he has gained particular expertise in the design and implementation of non-clinical development programs for small molecule drugs, peptides, targeted therapies, and biologics, as well as in the continued non-clinical evaluation of drug candidates for global registration.
Dr. Teifel held various positions in industry with increasing responsibilities in pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, toxicology and translational sciences. He began his career in industry at Roche Diagnostics in the area of delivery systems / non-viral gene therapy. In 1999, Dr. Teifel joined the biotech start-up, Munich Biotech in Martinsried, Germany as a co-founder. As head of pharmacology & toxicology, he was responsible for the evaluation and non-clinical development of a novel vascular targeting technology for the development of anti-tumor diagnostics and therapeutics. In 2004, Dr. Teifel started his first term at Aeterna Zentaris where he held several positions in the field of preclinical development and translational research. In his capacity he was, among others, responsible for preparation of the non-clinical dossier for registration of macimorelin in the U.S. and EU in the indication AGHD. In 2019, Dr. Teifel left Aeterna Zentaris to pursue his career in non-clinical research and development at Cleara Biotech in Utrecht, The Netherlands. As head of translational sciences at Cleara Biotech, he was responsible for translating research on anti-senescent drugs into pre-clinical development in age-related diseases and late-stage cancer and returned to Aeterna Zentaris in 2021 and has been a consultant to Cleara since then.
Gerd Hummel, PhDPreclinical research and peptides
Gerd Hummel, PhD
Gerd has over 20 years of experience in the pharma- and biotech industry (R&D), including 11 years at Jerini AG (Berlin), directing medicinal chemistry and preclinical research activities, and 6 years at Oryzon Genomics (Barcelona) leading drug development in the field of epigenetic-based therapeutics. He has supported the discovery and development of several medicinal products from early research up to late stage clinical. He has broad experience in R&D of small molecules, peptides and peptidomimetics for a wide range of therapeutic areas. Additionally, he was leading several pharma collaborations and consulting for international biotech companies. He received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Konstanz with R. R. Schmidt on the total synthesis of complex carbohydrates, awarded with the “Byk-Preis”, and performed his postdoctoral studies at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla and the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He has over 40 scientific publications and patent applications.
Laurens van Pinxteren, PhD, MBAHead of Technical Operations
Laurens van Pinxteren, PhD, MBA
Laurens van Pinxteren, PhD, MBA has more than 20 years of experience as CMC/program management in the biotech industry including small entrepreneurial start-ups. He has strong experience in chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) in relation to scale up, tech transfer (process/methods), CDMO oversight, clinical supply chain, and quality regulatory affairs.
Laurens started his career, following an academic period and his MBA, as a consultant at the pharma/biotech consultancy firm Xendo (now ProPharma Group) followed by a program management position at CDMO OctoPlus. In 2010, he joined ProFibrix as Director Manufacturing & Supply and continued after the 2013 acquisition by The Medicines Company up to early 2016. At Profibrix, he was instrumental in obtaining MAA/BLA approvals for Raplixa in 2015. In early 2016, he moved to InteRNA Technologies as VP CMC & Regulatory Affairs and later became the COO. In 2014, he also started his own consultancy company (CMC Biotech Consultancy) and has since supported several (small) biotech companies in their CMC/RA activities for a wide range of drug substances and products.
Laurens received a Masters degree from the Wageningen University, NL, a PhD in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and a MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University, NL.’
Edo BrinksmaProject control and finance
Edo Brinksma
Project control and Finance
Edo Brinksma has over 20 years of experience in finance and (project) control. Edo started his career at the Big-4 audit firm Deloitte. Edo has been working as a freelance (finance) consultant since the beginning of 2007. As a freelance consultant Edo was engaged in (senior) financial positions of public and private entitiessuch as UMC Utrecht, Princess Maxima Center, the municipality of Zwolle, Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE, Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands) etc
Clementine NichollsExecutive Assistant
Clementine Nicholls
Clementine Nicholls-Dohmen is the Cleara Biotech Executive Assistant with a very broad experience in many areas. Clementine studied at the Higher Institute for Interpreters and Translators in Brussels, Belgium and is consequently perfectly bilingual (Dutch, English) and can express herself in Spanish, French and German.
Furthermore Clementine gathered a lot of experience by assisting executive and sales officers in different international companies such as, Koninklijke Nederlandse Papierfabrieken, Conticommodity Services, Protein Technologies, Watt Global Media and Ariëns Schoonderbeek Advocaten, as well as management of the family firm as an independent entrepreneur. This makes Clementine a very efficient multitasker, well organized, able to meet deadlines and work well under pressure, show leadership in getting the job done and working successfully as a team player.
Research
Tobias Madl, PhD (Prof.)Head of structural biology, scientific co-founder
Tobias Madl, PhD (Prof.)
Tobias Madl is Full Professor for Integrative Structural Biology and Metabolomics at Medical University of Graz and has more than 15 years experience in structural biology and more than 140 publications in this field, including high-ranking journals. He works at the interface between structural biology, biophysics, cell biology and medicine. NMR spectroscopy and biophysical methods are the most important tools in his laboratory. In Graz, Tobias is Head of the inter-University Integrative Metabolism Research Center and Speaker of the International PhD program Biomolecular Structures and Interaction (BioMolStruct). Prior to joining Medical University of Graz in 2015, he was Research Group Leader at Technical University and Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany, and PostDoc at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and Technical University Munich. Tobias obtained his PhD degree with distinction in Chemistry from the University of Graz, and conducted his PostDoc research focusing on Integrative Structural Biology of RNA-binding proteins at Technical University Munich. His research has been honored with several awards and fellowships. Tobias research passion is to reveal the mechanisms of how disordered proteins mediate signal transfer via an intricate network of protein interactions and post-translational modifications and to discover and develop novel strategies to target these interactions in ageing and age-related diseases.
Marjolein Baar, PhDResearch Management
Marjolein Baar, PhD
Marjolein Baar is a senior scientist at Cleara Biotech with 10+ years of experience in cellular senescence in cancer and aging. Her main interest is to study cellular processes that underlie organismal aging and she aims to provide starting points for the development of potential treatments. At Cleara she focuses on translation of Cleara’s lead compounds, employing both cell and in vivo models. She plans projects and oversees experiments regarding compound screening, efficacy in multiple model systems, and pharmacokinetics. Before joining Cleara, Marjolein obtained her Ph.D. degree at the Erasmus University medical center in Rotterdam. Here, she drove multiple projects all aimed to unravel the mechanisms and functions of age-related DNA damage responses. A major part of this research focused on characterizing senescent cells and their effect on tissue homeostasis during aging and cancer. Her work resulted in a publication in Cell and aided in the foundation of Cleara.
Esmée Bouma, BScLaboratory management
Esmée Bouma, BSc
Esmée Bouma is a fully certified in vivo research technician with 10+ years experience in cell biology, translational models and laboratory management. She maintains the professional laboratory environment where Cleara Biotech executes its Utrecht-based experiments. She graduated from the “Life Sciences” program of the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. Prior to joining Cleara in 2019, Esmée developed herself as an experienced technician at Imperial College London and the University Medical Center Utrecht. Now she is a key player in management of the lab: maintaining laboratory supplies, equipment and proper storage and shipment of samples. With her broad practical experience in the lab, she is also responsible for conducting peptide efficacy studies, inventory, logistics and quality control experiments.
Diana Putavet, MScResearch and innovation
Diana Putavet, MSc
Diana has over 7+ of research experience into senescence and its role in aging and cancer. She is an expert on in vitro drugs screens, (mutant) p53 signaling and advanced in vivo cancer models. She has extensive experience with molecular and cellular techniques and translational research. She is co-inventor on two patents. Following her undergraduate work on how tumor-derived inflammatory factors affect chemotherapy response, she pursued a Ph.D. on the role of anti-senescence therapy in cancer and aging. As she moves forward in her career within Cleara, she wants to pursue meaningful research which can impact human health directly.
Marco Demaria, PhDBiomarkers of senescence,
Scientific co-founder
Marco Demaria, PhD
Marco Demaria is an Associate Professor of Cellular Aging at the Medical Faculty of the University of Groningen, Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in Molecular Medicine at the University of Torino, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Valeria Poli. He joined the laboratory of prof. Judith Campisi at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, California USA, in the summer of 2010 to navigate through the complex phenotypes of senescent cells. He also started to be interested in therapeutic approaches to target the negative aspect of senescent cells. He moved to the University of Groningen and the European Research Institute for the Biology of Aging (ERIBA) in September 2015 as Group leader of the laboratory “Cellular Senescence and Age-related Pathologies”. His research is focused towards understanding the cell non-autonomous functions of senescent cells, including their roles in tissue repair, cancer and aging. The goal of his group is to dissect positive and negative functions of cellular senescence in different physiological and pathological contexts, and to develop therapies aimed at modulating senescence-associated phenotypes. His laboratory is funded by several intramural and extramural agencies. Dr Demaria also serves as Editor in Chief for npj Aging and since January 2022 he is the President of the International Cell Senescence Association.