EP PerMed CONNECT: Innovation Meets Implementation

Ingrid combines an academic background in business management and communication with extensive experience in international business development, strategy, and innovation. Since 2016, she has been contributing to the development of LiCalab, a research group and living lab within Thomas More University of Applied Sciences. At LiCalab she supports and manages innovation projects in healthcare and social care. Her work focuses on facilitating collaboration between companies, healthcare organizations, knowledge institutions, and end users to translate innovative ideas into real-world impact. She is passionate about leveraging living lab methodologies to ensure that healthcare innovations are inclusive, accessible, and aligned with the needs of citizens and care providers.

Wolfgang Ballensiefen is project manager and policy adviser for health research topics and related funding measures on the European level and nationally primarily on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). He coordinates the European Partnership for Personalised Medicine (EP PerMed). He co-authored several strategic and policy-oriented publications in different areas of health research, such as the EP PerMed related Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda SRIA 2023, the STARS Common Strategy: Regulatory Support and Advice for Academia (2022), the Strategic Research Agenda for Cardiovascular Diseases (SRA-CVD, 2019) or the ICPerMed “Vision Paper”, 2019.

Antonella Cardone is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cancer Patients Europe (CPE), a pan-European and all-cancer types patient organisation. She is also a Patient Advocacy Expert and Advisor to the Board of Pancreatic Cancer Europe (PCE).

Sergio Cardoso is Technology Innovation Manager at Biogipuzkoa Health Research Institute. He holds a BSc in Biochemistry (2003) and a PhD in Life Sciences (2008) from the University of the Basque Country. He also holds an MBA from the CEF-UDIMA (2014). During his PhD, Dr. Cardoso did research stays at the Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology of the Université de Strasbourg and Spanish National DNA Bank at the Universidad de Salamanca.

He has over a decade of academic research at the University of the Basque Country, specializing in human genetic identification and biomedicine, co-authoring more than 50 scientific publications and a patent.

In 2013, he joined the Scientific Coordination team at BIOEF, where he managed collaborative R&D&I projects between the Basque Public Health System and the regional healthcare ecosystem. He actively participated in the deployment of strategic regional initiatives of the Basque Government, including the “Health Biosciences” priority of the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation Plan 2020 (PCTI 2020) and the “Personalized Health” priority of the PCTI 2030.

Transitioned in 2024 to the Innovation Support Unit of Biogipuzkoa, he remains devoted to boosting healthcare system innovation. Standing as a staunch believer in public-private collaboration, he acts as the nexus to bridge the gap between the public health system in Gipuzkoa and the business sector, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that health innovation has an impact on patients.

Irina Cleemput is Senior Health Economist and Scientific Director at the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE). She graduated as PhD in Health Economics at the KULeuven in 2003 and combined academic teaching with policy research at KCE for several years. Between 2009 and 2015 she was a Director of INAHTA (2009 – 2015) and co-editor of Health Policy. Her main areas of expertise are Health Technology Assessment, research on drug reimbursement decision making processes, patient and public involvement in health policy research. Irina was involved in several national and international studies on patient-centred decision-making in healthcare policy. She has been instrumental in the establishment of the NEED initiative (Needs Examination, Evaluation and Dissemination), that focusses on the identification and measurement of patient and societal unmet health-related needs, as one of the building blocks for a more needs-driven healthcare innovation and policy. Irina Cleemput represents KCE in the HTA Coordination Group, the Heads of HTA Agencies Group, and in the General Assembly of the International Horizon Scanning Initiative (IHSI) and Beneluxa. Finally, she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment (AIHTA).

tombarbier.com

Christina Franssen is an Investment Manager at WE Venture Life Sciences, where she supports innovative life sciences companies with strong growth potential (i.e.: Esobiotec, Stellaris, Pantera…). She brings more than 20 years of experience spanning academic research, entrepreneurship, team management and investment in innovation.

Before joining WE Venture Life Sciences in 2019, Christina held several leadership positions at GIGA Institute, the biomedical research institute of the University of Liège, including Business Development Manager and Director of Technology Platforms. Starting her career as a research scientist, she later co-founded a life sciences spin-off, guiding its development from inception to the exit.

Christina holds a Master’s degree in Biology and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Liège. Her experience across research, entrepreneurship, and investment provides her with a unique perspective on translating scientific excellence into impactful innovation.

Bart Geers obtained a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from Ghent University in 2013 and began his career in the pharmaceutical industry and afterwards took various roles in research management and spin-out creation at Ghent University.

Currently, Bart works as an investment manager for KULeuven Research & Development (LRD) where he coaches start-up projects in health- and biotechnology. Within that role he manages the spin-out, investment process and operational execution of high-tech spin-offs and represents the Gemma Frisius Fund (KU Leuven’s seed fund) as well. In addition, he supports business development within KU Leuven R&D, the largest TTO in Europe. Bart also holds board positions in various KU Leuven spin-offs.

Liesbet Geris is professor in Biomechanics and Computational Tissue Engineering at the University of Liège and KU Leuven in Belgium, and a member of the Royal Belgian Academie for Sciences and Arts.  Her research focusses on the development of enabling technologies (in silico & in vitro) for skeletal tissue engineering processes. Liesbet is scientific coordinator of Prometheus, a musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering platform. Her scientific accolades include having received three prestigious European Research Council grants and an honorary doctorate of the University of Amsterdam. She is executive director of the Virtual Physiological Human Society, an international non-profit organization advocating the use of in silico modeling in healthcare through engagement with the clinical community, policy makers, regulatory agencies and patients. She coordinated the ecosystem building and writing of the roadmap for the Virtual Human Twin initiative. Besides her research work, she is often invited to give public lectures on the challenges of interdisciplinarity in research, women in academia and digital healthcare.

Jasmine Gratton is the topic lead for pharmacogenomics at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), where she contributes to key scientific and regulatory initiatives and represents the Agency at external workshops and international meetings. She holds a PhD in genetic epidemiology from University College London and has authored multiple scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, including work addressing the integration of genomics and personalised approaches within medicines development and healthcare.

Tamara Hussong Milagre is a leading advocate for hereditary cancer, known for empowering patients and influencing healthcare policy in Europe. She founded and presides over “EVITA Association – Hereditary Cancer”, supporting Portuguese families since 2011. She serves as an ePAG representative at ERN GENTURIS, contributing to the HBOC/Prostate group and taskforces on care, education and registries. Her training includes the ESO Master Class, the EUPATI Patient Expert program and the EURORDIS Leadership School. Tamara collaborates with Infarmed and is part of the EFPIA Oncology Platform Sounding Board. She co-founded the Hereditary Cancer Syndromes group of the Portuguese Society of Oncology and contributes to PT_MedGen, the Portuguese Cancer Mission Hub and the Institute of Evidence-Based Health. Internationally, she engages in working groups on metastatic breast cancer and genomic medicine. In 2020, she received the Medal of Scientific Merit.

Dr. Ander Izeta is a cell biologist and tissue engineer. He has been the Principal Investigator of a consolidated Group at the BioGipuzkoa Health Research Institute since 2010 and Head of the Advanced Therapies and Personalized Medicine Area since 2024. In addition, he is the section Head of the Advanced Therapies Unit at OSI Donostialdea, where he coordinates the technical aspects of the application of CAR-T cell therapies in Osakidetza, the Basque Health Service. He is a recognized expert in stem cells, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, with >20 years of experience applied primarily to skin and muscle.

www.foto-grafija.lt

Giedrė Kvedaravičienė is the Director of the Lithuanian Population and Rare Disorders Biobank at the Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine. She is also a Board Member of the national BBMRI-LT node, as well as a health economist and experienced C-level executive.

Suraj Kumar Lachmandas is the Founder & CEO of MiMIAT Health and a patient advocate. His experience living with ulcerative colitis since the age of 19 shaped MiMIAT’s patient-led approach to improving continuity across fragmented care. MiMIAT has developed patient- and clinician-facing platforms and is engaging with public health institutions, hospitals and academic partners across Europe. Its work has received recognition from PRECISEU, AstraZeneca ACCIÓN, Google for Startups for Sustainable Development and NVIDIA Inception. Suraj’s current work explores how patient co-creation and longitudinal health data can support personalised medicine and patient-to-therapy pathways.

Dr. Léo LAOUBI is a researcher in immuno-oncology with >10 years’ experience in academic and biotech/pharmaceutical research groups. Dr. Laoubi co-authored several peer-reviewed original articles and reviews in immunology. His current research centers on unraveling the immune response associated to cancer treatments. His primary focus lies in predicting treatment responses and deciphering resistance mechanisms to develop targeted interventions.

© Detlef Eden 2025

Carmen Laplaza Santos works for the European Commission where she is currently the Head of the Health Innovations and Ecosystems Unit within the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, prior to this she was the Deputy Head of the Innovative and Personalised Medicine Unit within the same Directorate-General. Carmen has also worked for the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology where she was Deputy Head of the E-Health, Wellbeing and Ageing Unit and she was also responsible for the budget sector dealing mainly with the financial implementation of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and the Horizon 2020 research framework programmes. Before joining the European Commission in 2008 she held senior roles in financial and strategic departments of different sectors, such as retail, advertising and banking. Carmen studied at the University of Navarra, Spain and in 1994 she obtained a degree in economics.

©Joost Joossen

Robrecht Lembrechts, PhD, is a Biomedical Research Funding & Strategy Expert at Kom op tegen Kanker, the Belgian Cancer Society. He leads initiatives at the intersection of patient-centered cancer research funding, international collaboration and research valorisation, with a strong focus on translating scientific innovation into tangible benefits for patients. Through Kom op tegen Kanker’s involvement in FORCE, a Horizon Europe Cancer Mission project, he contributes to shaping the scientific scope, patient-centered approach and future funding of a European clinical cancer research programme.

Raul Lopez Blasco is a nurse with a Master’s degree in Nursing Research and postgraduate training in Public Health, currently working as a Research Support Technician at the Biocomputing Unit of the Aragon Health Sciences Institute (IACS). His work focuses on clinical data management, medical coding, and terminology mapping using SNOMED CT and Orphanet. He is the manager of the Rare Diseases Registry of Aragon and has extensive experience in clinical research.

Alba Medina is a registered nurse with a clinical background in oncology, and she currently works as a researcher on the European 4D PICTURE project. This research focuses on shared decision-making in oncology, with a particular interest in improving communication between patients and healthcare professionals and promoting more patient-centred care.

NeuroSight is a multidisciplinary, pan-European team that won the EP PerMed Hackathon in Ostend — a two-day event gathering over 100 participants from 17 countries — and secured a wildcard for the Venture Creator Programme. The team is led by researchers from Hasselt University, Prof. Dirk Valkenborg and Axel-Jan Rousseau, together with Chrysoula Zalamitsou (Sweden), Chrysa Bourtzinakou (Greece) and Christopher Patzanovsky (Germany), combining data science, machine learning, biomarker research and clinical translation. The team has recently been strengthened by Patrick De Boever (VITO / Hasselt University), whose pioneering work on retinal scanning and diabetic retinopathy led to the VITO spin-off Mona and Prof. Dr. Bart Van Wijmeersch, head of neurology at Noorderhart Hospital.

NeuroSight addresses a persistent gap in Multiple Sclerosis care: brain MRI, the current standard for monitoring, frequently fails to detect the silent neurodegeneration that continues between relapses. By using the eye as an accessible window onto brain health, and coupling non-invasive ocular biomarkers with advanced data-driven models, NeuroSight aims to provide objective, repeatable and patient-friendly monitoring of disease activity — helping clinicians act earlier and personalise treatment, and bringing personalised medicine for MS closer to routine practice.

Charlotta Norgaard is CEO and Founder of Patient in Research, a global patient collaborative working across disease areas in clinical development, digital health, medtech and pharmaceutical research. She is a Senior Patient Strategist and Chairwoman of EUPATI Denmark, and a certified patient expert through EUPATI, EURORDIS and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Charlotta serves as consortium partner and as a member of steering groups, task forces and clinical protocol development committees, leading efforts to structurally embed patient engagement across research and development process. She works with pharmaceutical, biotech, medtech and digital health and academic organisations to embed patient insight across the research and development lifecycle, and mentors health and technology startups through EIT Health’s innovation programmes. She also serves as a grants evaluator for U.S. federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and Department of Health, and for European funding bodies.

Living with 37 chronic and rare conditions and having participated in eight clinical trials, Charlotta brings firsthand experience of the patient journey to her work in patient engagement and co-creation.

Karen is the Networks Manager at Global Heart Hub, where she works with patient organisations worldwide to strengthen and unite the voice of people living with or affected by cardiovascular disease. She brings extensive expertise in stakeholder engagement and programme coordination and helps translate evidence into advocacy action, advancing patient-centred cardiovascular care and supporting the development of practical, impactful solutions. She holds an International Executive Master in Patient Advocacy Management from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy. She’s originally from Guatemala and lives in Dublin.

Dr Peeter Padrik is an oncologist, scientist, and healthcare entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in clinical practice, research, leadership, and healthcare management. He has held several senior positions, including Head of the Haematology and Oncology Clinic and Director of the Cancer Centre at Tartu University Hospital, as well as Associate Professor of Oncology at the University of Tartu.

Dr Padrik is currently the CEO and oncologist at Antegenes, a health technology company and healthcare service provider pioneering personalised cancer prevention through polygenic risk score (PRS) technology. Under his leadership, Antegenes has driven the practical implementation of polygenic risk-based genetic testing into real-world healthcare settings, moving PRS technology from research into clinical use in personalised cancer prevention and screening programmes across Estonia and internationally.

Dr Padrik’s vision is to reduce cancer-related mortality by integrating genetics-based personalised prevention into the fight against common cancers, with a strong focus on translating scientific innovation into practical, accessible clinical services developed together with clinicians, patients, and healthcare systems.

Letizia Pontoriero is a Scientific Project Specialist and former researcher whose work sits at the intersection of science, healthcare innovation, and patient engagement. She earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences at the University of Florence, where her research focused on the characterization of proteins involved in human pathologies, antibiotic resistance, and viral diseases. This early career in the laboratory gave her a solid scientific foundation and a deep appreciation for the rigour and curiosity that good research demands.

In 2022 she chose to move from bench science towards a role closer to the people and communities that research ultimately aims to serve. Since then she has been working for a non-profit organisation, Fondazione Toscana Life Sciences, contributing to the coordination and implementation of national and European funded research projects in healthcare innovation, personalised medicine and clinical research. Her work supports translational research and promotes effective collaboration between researchers, clinicians, industry partners, and patient communities within multidisciplinary consortia.

Her professional activities focus on patient engagement, clinical research, and science dissemination and communication, with particular attention to regulatory strategy and the meaningful integration of patient perspectives into research design and health policy. This approach is also informed by her own lived experience with chronic pain, which has shaped a pragmatic, empathetic, and partnership-oriented view of what genuine patient involvement should look like.

Letizia is an EUPATI Fellow from Cohort 8 and a member of the Training Committee of the Patient Expert Training Programme, Cohort 9 (2025–2026). She actively participates in international and national patient advocacy and research networks, including the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), the European Pain Federation (EFIC) and the Global Alliance of Partners for Pain Advocacy (GAPPA).

Dr. Enrique Samper is the Chief Business and Scientific Officer at Life Length Laboratories. He holds a Ph.D. Cum Laude in Molecular Biology from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and was an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Buck Institute for Aging Research (USA). With over 20 years of experience in telomere biology, cellular senescence, and genomic stability, Dr. Samper has co-authored high-impact papers in Cell, Nature Genetics, and EMBO Journal (h-index 29, +11,000 citations). He was previously the co-founder and CEO of NIMGenetics for over a decade. He completed executive training at Harvard Business School, IESE, and ESADE, and serves on the board of directors of SEBIOT.

Fotograatsia

Neeme Tõnisson is a Professor of Clinical Genetics at the University of Tartu, Institute of Genomics (Estonia), and a Senior Clinical Geneticist at Tartu University Hospital. He also serves as President of the Estonian Medical Association

Dr. Jur. Vassilis Tsanidis is a lawyer, Innovation Procurement Programme Coordinator at the European Innovation Council (EIC), working within the Business Acceleration Services (BAS) of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) / European Commission. He leads the EIC Innovation Procurement Programme, fostering the mainstreaming of innovation procurement and supporting the uptake of breakthrough innovations by public and private buyers across Europe and globally.

With over a decade of experience at the European Commission, he specializes in innovation procurement policy and implementation. As a former Policy Officer at DG CNECT, he contributed to the design and rollout of EU initiatives and programmes aimed at accelerating the commercialization of innovative solutions through procurement.

Dr. Tsanidis has also worked extensively as a trainer, including with the European Institute of Public Administration, and as an expert in innovation procurement (including TAIEX initiatives). He has developed certified training programmes at national level for public officials and practitioners. His academic contributions include several publications in the fields of law and innovation procurement.

Prior to joining the European Commission, he held various roles in Greek governmental and regional authorities, serving as a Legal Advisor and expert in EU funds and public procurement. He holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in European Business Law, in addition to a Master’s degree in Social Sciences and bachelor’s degrees in Law and Social Sciences.

Jérôme Van Biervliet is Managing Director at VIB. He holds (former) board and advisory roles at Confo Therapeutics, Augustine Therapeutics, Exevir, and Oncurious and chairs Flanders’ Biotech Cluster Organisation, Flandersbio/Medvia. Actively engaged in the European VC market, he co-founded Biotope Ventures I & II and Avante Biocapital and serves as President of LPAC V-Bio Ventures. He also advises the Belgian government and European Commission on biotech matters.

Leading VIB’s Innovation & Business team of 60+ experts, he has driven the launch of 19 VC-backed startups, secured approximately €140M in partnering income, and established biotope by VIB, nominated by the Financial Times as leading accelerator.

Jérôme trained as a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine, is an ACVIM (American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine) diplomate, has a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from KU Leuven and trained at Vlerick Business School.

Marc Van den Bulcke obtained a PhD in sciences at the Laboratory of Genetics, University of Ghent (Belgium). He worked for about 7 years within the biotech industry at Plant Genetic Systems (now Bayer Crop Science) where he was involved in regulatory affairs and biotech product quality assurance. Since 2003, he works at the Scientific Institute of Public Health (Brussels, Belgium), now Sciensano, where he supported the establishment of the National Reference Laboratory on GMO detection. From 2009-2012, he worked as a contract agent at the ‘Institute of Health and Consumer Protection’ at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission where he coordinated policy-support research in molecular detection.

Since 2013, he heads the Cancer Centre, a unit dedicated at the monitoring and evaluation of the activities in cancer control in Belgium. In 2008 the Belgian national cancer plan was launched which evolved into a national cancer policy. A particular initiative is the introduction of ‘omics’ as tool in personalized medicine in oncology based on advances in translational research and public health. Other key activities of the Cancer Centre focus on models to support the socio-professional reintegration of cancer patients, on screening and early detection (expert focus on cervical cancer), on psycho-social and palliative care and on integrating opinions of patients, citizens and general practitioners in the policy support activities of the Cancer Centre. Also, various collaboration at EC level through several Joint Actions and several projects now within the EBCP has been a key interest of the Cancer Centre.