Our Team

Citryll’s team consists of seasoned scientists and pharmaceutical professionals experienced in the discovery and development of first in class medicines with a new mechanism of action like CIT-013

Eduardo Bravo

CEO

Eduardo Bravo

CEO

Eduardo has over 25 years of senior management and board experience in the biopharmaceutical sector, having held the position of CEO at Nordic Nanovector, TiGenix and Cellerix. As CEO at TiGenix, he oversaw several financing rounds, the company’s IPO on NASDAQ, and its eventual acquisition by Takeda. Most recently, Eduardo was the CEO of EBAC, an EQT backed SPAC that successfully merged with the clinical stage Swiss biotech Oculis in March 2023.

Earlier in his career, Eduardo held several senior management positions at Sanofi-Aventis and SmithKline Beecham.

He is currently Chairman of the Board at Vivet Therapeutics, Engitix and Ariceum Therapeutics. Eduardo was President of the European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises Board of Directors between 2016 and 2018, and was also member of the Executive Committee of Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. He holds a degree in Business Administration and an MBA from INSEAD.

View Profile

Eric Meldrum, Ph.D.

CSO

Eric Meldrum, Ph.D.

CSO

Eric Meldrum has 12 years of drug discovery experience at GSK in Switzerland and the UK. Until 2005 he was head of the Asthma and Rhinitis Disease Biology Department responsible for drug development up to Phase 2 proof of concept. Since then, Eric has been active as CSO in several biotech companies and brings Citryll a depth of experience in translational approaches to prioritise therapeutic opportunities and the strategic considerations behind successfully enhancing asset value and progression to clinical proof of concept. He was most recently CSO at ENYO Pharma, a French biotech currently in Phase 2 in Chronic Hepatitis B and NASH. Eric is responsible for the overall preclinical and clinical scientific and therapeutic strategy and to develop partnerships with pharma.

View Profile

Maarten Kraan

CMO

Maarten Kraan

CMO

Maarten Kraan is a rheumatologist and holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in Immunology from Leiden University. Dr. Kraan has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical experience. Most recently, he was CMO at AM-Pharma. At Pierre Fabre S.A., he acted as the head of Research & Development and was responsible for their R&D strategy.

Previously, Maarten was head of R&D at Stallergenes Greer Ltd. and CMO at Therachon, which was later acquired by Pfizer. Dr. Kraan also held the positions of Senior Vice President and Head of Innovative Medicines Respiratory and Inflammation at AstraZeneca, as well as the Vice President and Head of Clinical Research and Experimental Development Inflammation at Hoffmann-La Roche. Before this, Dr. Kraan was the Vice President of Immunosciences at Bristol Myers-Squibb and was the Senior Global Director at Schering-Plough, which is now part of MSD (trademark of Merck & Co., Inc., USA). Notably, Dr. Kraan was also involved in the development of Orencia (abatacept), Remicade (infliximab), Humira (adalimumab) and fostamatinib for rheumatoid arthritis.

View Profile

Renato Chirivi, Ph.D.

CTO

Renato Chirivi, Ph.D.

CTO

Renato Chirivi is co-founder of Citryll and previously CSO. He has been central, with CEO Helmuth van Es in bringing Citryll to its current clinical develpment status. He is the co-inventor of therapeutic anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (tACPA), antagonists of NET biology, and an expert on antibody discovery, engineering, production, and protein citrullination. He has numerous years of experience in cancer, neurobiology and molecular immunology which he gained at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Italy, The Scripps research institute in California, USA, the Nijmegen Center for Molecular Life Sciences, and ModiQuest BV, the Netherlands.  Renato is responsible for technology development, MoA programme of Citryll's NET antagonist, intellectual property and specific therapeutic areas.

View Profile

Sjoerd van Gorp

COO

Sjoerd van Gorp

Sjoerd van Gorp has 12 years of experience in the life sciences and healthcare sector in various roles within translational academic research, investment banking and venture capital. Most recently Sjoerd was Senior Investment Manager at BOM Brabant Ventures where he was instrumental in fundraising and strategic support of numerous early-stage life sciences companies. Prior to joining BOM, Sjoerd gained experience as an equity analyst at Kempen & Co, a life sciences investment bank in the Netherlands, where he covered public European biotech and medtech companies and was involved in capital market transactions.

In addition, he has worked on translational academic research projects at the Image Sciences Institute at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands and Yale University, USA. Sjoerd will bring a complementary set of skills to the management team that will enable Citryll to assess additional strategic options to unlock the full potential of CIT-013 and enable treatment for a growing list of diseases that are associated with Neutrophil Extracellular Trap (NET) biology.

View Profile

Tim Schenk, Ph.D.

CBO

Tim Schenk, Ph.D.

CBO

Tim brings over 20 years of industry experience in early-stage startups, mid-size biotech and pharma in business development, commercial and as general manager. During his PhD work, Tim was instrumental for the successful startup of biotech company Screentec, which later became Kiadis Pharma. Subsequently, he held positions in Crucell, first as business development director and later became responsible for the Travel Vaccines Business Unit, being based in Switzerland. After the acquisition of Crucell by Johnson & Johnson, Tim was asked to lead the full vaccine business globally in J&J. In 2014 Tim accepted the challenge to take the responsibility for the oncology business of Jansen Germany. Before joining Citryll, Tim was based in the Nordics (Stockholm) where he held the commercial responsibility for the full product portfolio of Janssen and was general manager of Janssen Finland.

Tim holds a masters’ degree in bio-pharmaceutical science, a PhD in analytical chemistry (both from the University of Leiden) and a MBA from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

View Profile

Leonie M. Middelink, M.Sc.  

Head of Clinical Operations

Leonie M. Middelink, M.Sc.

Head of Clinical Operations

Since 2013 Leonie is working as an independent Clinical Research Executive for (academic) hospitals (Amsterdam UMC, Dutch Cancer Institute, UMC Utrecht, Radboud University) and biopharmaceutical companies (Roche, Enceladus, Arthrogen, Audion). Before being self-employed she headed the Clinical Operations Department at Roche Pharmaceuticals.  She has > 20 years experience in biopharmaceutical research covering phase I-IV trials (industry and academically driven), in a wide variety of disease categories.

Leonie was board member of the Dutch Association of Pharmaceutical Medicine from 2012-2018 and member of several task forces within the Dutch Clinical Research Foundation.

View Profile

Peter van Zandvoort

Director Bioanalytics

Peter van Zandvoort

Associate Director Bioanalytics

Peter has over twenty years’ experience in working in the R&D of the international pharmaceutical companies MSD/Organon, Khondrion and Aduro Biotech Europe, The Netherlands. At Aduro, a company advancing novel antibody therapies for immune-oncology Peter served as the Bioanalytical Lead and contributed extensively in the development of two clinical and one pre-clinical stage antibodies APRIL (BION-1301), CTLA-4 (ADU-1604) and SIRP (ADU-1805), respectively.

Peter’s contribution at Khondrion in the development of unique live-cell imaging patient derived bioassays led to the selection of clinical candidate KH176 (Sonlicromanol), which was granted an orphan drug designation by EMA/FDA and entered Phase IIb KHENERGYZE study to treat a range of mitochondrial diseases. At MSD/Organon, where he headed the cell-based bioanalytical group, he gained a lot of expertise in the performance of bioanalysis of samples from (pre)clinical trials up to Phase III with investigational biological pharmaceuticals in compliance to GLP, which resulted in the launch of Elonva®.

Prior to joining MSD/Organon, Peter worked at the Wageningen University Research Centre and at the Department of Human Genetics at the Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen, respectively. At Nijmegen he contributed substantially to the founding of the Nijmegen DNA diagnostic services.

View Profile

Catarina Antunes, M.Sc.

Operations Manager

Catarina Antunes

Operations Manager, M.Sc.

Catarina Antunes completed her BSc in Bioengineering from the University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro, in 2018. Through several internships, she gained first-hand work experience in diverse fields as Sustainable Biotechnology, Biomaterials and Molecular Medicine. In 2020, Catarina obtained her MSc in Medicine and Molecular Oncology from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, where she developed her thesis and specialized in cancer biology and drug resistance. Motivated by her curiosity for the biotechnology sector, she joined Stemmatters in May 2021, as a Manufacturing Assistant. Her role was primarily focused on the manufacturing processes of biopharmaceutical products and cell therapies.

In this period, her enthusiasm for product development and project management within the pharmaceutical industry was further amplified, leading her to join Citryll, in July 2023, where she assumes the role of Operations Manager.

View Profile

Maarten van der Linden, Ph.D.

Sr. Scientist NETosis Biology

Maarten van der Linden, Ph.D.

Scientist NETosis Biology

Maarten performed his Ph.D. research at the University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands), Laboratory of Translational Immunology under supervision of Professor Linde Meyaard, working on immune regulation in autoimmune diseases with the focus on inhibitory receptors and NETosis.

Maarten is responsible for further unravelling the mechanism of action (MoA) of Citryll’s antibody drug candidate, the incorporation of new MoA insight into the drug development plan and identifying new therapeutic applications for tACPA.

View Profile

Sangeeta Kumari, Ph.D.

Sr. Scientist Innate Immunity

Sangeeta Kumari, Ph.D.

Scientist Innate Immunity

Sangeeta got her PhD from NCCS, Pune (India) where she studied host pathogen interactions. She moved to Finland for her postdoc where she joined Prof. Sirpa Jalkanen lab in Turku University and studied the role of Stabilin-1 molecule in Acute myeloid leukemia. Continuing her research in the Netherlands, she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Jeanette Leusen at the UMC Utrecht, where she developed expertise in antibody related work. She has a keen interest to pursue her career in the development of therapeutic antibodies and joined the Citryll team in October 2019. She is part of the mechanism of action team (MoA) which is focused on unravelling the working mechanism of Citryll’s lead antibody drug candidate CIT-013 and identifying its new therapeutic strategies applications.

View Profile

Rezie te Poele

Sr. Research Associate Bioanalytics

Rezie te Poele

Senior Research Associate Bioanalytics

Rezie has  worked for >25 years in the pharmaceutical industry  (Organon, MSD, Aspen) and has a wide experience in protein purifications and different analytical techniques, including 10 years in ELISA assay development & troubleshooting.

At Citryll she joined the bioanalytics team responsible for the development and qualification of CMC, PK and biomarker assays that will support the clinical trials. 

View Profile

Annemarie Kip, M.Sc.

Sr. Research Associate

Annemarie Kip, M.Sc.

Sr. Research Associate

Annemarie has obtained her MSc degree in Biology from Wageningen University, after which she started working in biomedical research. She has gained experience in molecular biology, viral vector mediated gene therapy and developing conjugated antibodies for nuclear medicine.

Her great interest in antibody biology made her join Citryll in June 2021. Annemarie participates in both the mechanism of action (MoA) team and the bioanalytics team, studying the working mechanism of CIT-013 is and developing assays required to support the clinical trials.

View Profile

Stephanie van Dalen, Ph.D.

Scientist Immunology

Stephanie van Dalen, Ph.D. ​

Scientist Immunology

Stephanie obtained her Ph.D. degree at the department of Experimental Rheumatology, part of the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences of the Radboud university medical center in Nijmegen. She studied the inhibition of synovitis, the driving force of osteoarthritis, either via neutralization of single inflammatory mediators or via application of versatile adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) which broadly reduce synovial inflammation. She investigated the working mechanism of ASCs in experimental osteoarthritis, and clarified the close interaction of ASCs with neutrophils.

At Citryll, Stephanie focuses on elucidating the mechanism of action and the identification of new therapeutic applications for CIT-013.

View Profile

Tirza Bruurmijn

Research Associate

Tirza Bruurmijn

Research Associate

Tirza recently got her bachelor’s degree Biology and Medical Research at the Avans University. During a previously completed education clinical chemistry and hematology and various internships she has gained experience in molecular biology, protein chemistry, cell biology and assay development. Here at Citryll she is participating in both the mechanism of action (MoA) team where the working mechanism of CIT-013 is studied, and the bioanalytics team where assays are developed to support the clinical trials.

View Profile

Josephine Stein

Research Associate

Josephine Stein

Research Associate

Josephine is a junior research associate that recently got her bachelor’s degree of Biology and Medical Research at Avans University (The Netherlands). During several internships, she gained a lot of experience in organoid culturing, lenti-virus production, qPCR and flowcytometry. At Citryll it is her job to develop ELISA assays for the Bioanalytics team, run biomarker assays in serum, plasma, and synovial fluids for the stratification of patients, but also to support the Mechanism of Action (MoA) team.

View Profile

Kelsy Waaijenberg

Research Associate

Kelsy Waaijenberg

Research Associate

Kelsy has obtained her MSc degree in Biomedical Sciences with specialization in Inflammation and Pathophysiology from Maastricht University. During previous internships she has gained experience in molecular biology and cell biology. At Citryll, she works within the Mechanism of Action team to provide insight on the working mechanism of CIT-013.

View Profile

Annemieke Nijdam

Management support ad interim

Annemieke Nijdam

Management Support Ad Interim

Annemieke is originally a teacher and has a degree in (ortho)pedagogics. After a few years in school, she decided however to change direction. She started as an office manager at a pharmaceutical company and worked at several different companies since, from commercial companies to NGO’s. Now she has over 25 years of experience and from 2017 she started working as a freelancer, combining work with longer periods of travelling, doing her work remotely. At Citryll she is responsible for the support of the (management) team, structuring processes and organizing what needs to be organized.

View Profile

Eline Zwiers

Research Associate

Eline Zwiers

Research Associate

Eline has obtained her MSc degree in Biomedical Sciences form Radboud University in Nijmegen. During various internships she gained experience in cell biology and molecular biology of both the innate and adaptive immunity. Here at Citryll, she works within the Mechanism of Action (MoA) team to provide insight on the working mechanism of CIT-013 and to investigate potential new therapeutic areas.

View Profile