Chief Executive Officer

Wigard has a strong track record as cancer genomics researcher. He has been a research groupleader at the University Medical Center Utrecht. He founded Cyclomics as a spin-off during these years. Following his academic career, he became CSO of Frame Therapeutics, a biotech startup focusing on cancer antigen discovery. Following the acquisition of Frame by CureVac, Wigard served for 2 years as managing director of CureVac Netherlands.

Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Ronald has been a cancer researcher for many decades. He was director of the Hubrecht Insitute and was key founder Frame Therapeutics, a startup dedicated to development of cancer immunotherapy based on frame-shift neoantigens. The company was sold within 3 years time to CureVac, where the technology forms the basis for CureVac’s oncology strategy.

Chief Technology Officer

Michiel studied biomedical engineering in Enschede and founded Fetch in September 2023. The company developed a proprietary technology to capture circulating tumor cells from patients’ blood. Following the acquisition of Fetch, Michiel joined Tzu’s leadership team as Chief Technology Officer.

Chief Operating Officer

Noëlle has been involved with Tzu from day one, responsible for establishing and improving all operational processes. She is a driven young professional with a background in Global Business & Sustainability and known for her curiosity, structured approach, and enthusiasm for new challenges.

Chief Financial Officer Andre is providing financial support to the Tzu team. He has a long track record in biotech and served in various financial roles at Pharming, Isotis and ProQR.

Bioinformatician

Bioinformatician

Senior Scientist

Scientist Single Cell Technology

Medical Associate

Research Associate

Intern Bioinformatics

Intern Bioinformatics

Intern Lab

Founder

René Beukema was General Counsel at Crucell and instrumental to the deal with Johnson&Johnson. His experience was also essential for the IPO of major biotech companies Galapagos and ProQR and he led the acquisition deal of Frame Therapeutics with CureVac. René has a background in law and has very broad network in the venture capital and investment banking space.

Founder

Ronald Plasterk has been a cancer researcher for many decades. He was director of the Hubrecht Insitute and made seminal research contributions to RNA biology and microRNAs. Ronald Plasterk was key founder Frame Therapeutics, a startup dedicated to development of cancer immunotherapy based on frame-shift neoantigens. The company was sold within 3 years time to CureVac, where the technology forms the basis for CureVac’s oncology strategy.

Founder

Ronald Brus has been CEO of Crucell, a biotechnology company specializing in vaccines, which was sold to Johnson&Johnson (€3.5B). Ronald Brus has a strong passion for the biopharmaceutical industry. He served as co-founder and CEO of myTomorrows, a company that provides patients with access to drugs developed by pharmaceutical companies. Ronald is also the co-founder and CBO of Leyden Labs, a company developing nasal sprays to combat viral infections.

Prof. Dr. Leon Terstappen is a Dutch scientist and a leading expert in cancer diagnostics and single-cell analysis. Following his medical degree from the University of Groningen and PhD in Biophysics at the University of Twente, he worked at Becton Dickinson in various roles and later at Immunicon, where he served as Chief Scientific Officer. He was instrumental in developing the CellSearch system, the first FDA-cleared technology for detecting circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in cancer patients. Until recently, he served as Chair of the Department of Medical Cell BioPhysics at the University of Twente, where he headed a research group in CTCs.

Prof. Dr. Nikolas Stoecklein is currently appointed as Professor for Experimental Surgical Oncology at the Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf. He studied medicine at the University of Hamburg and the University of California Davis. His major research interests are minimal residual cancer and early systemic disease in gastrointestinal cancers. Currently, his work focuses on CTCs and establishing workflows to analyse these rare cells comprehensively at single cell level. Prior to joining the HHU, Nikolas Stoecklein obtained post-doctoral training at the Institute of Immunology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany, in the group of Christoph Klein.

Prof. Dr. John Haanen is renowned for his work on tumour immunology and immunotherapy. After his studies in chemistry and medicine, he performed a PhD in immunology at Leiden University Medical Center. Prof. Dr. Haanen was trained as an internist and work for many years at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, both as research group leader, professor in translational immunotherapy of cancer, and as head of the Division of Medical Oncology. Internationally, has held several roles in oncology at the European Society of Medical Oncology.

Prof. Dr. Bob Löwenberg is a hematologist and emeritus professor at the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, where he headed the department of hematology for many years. Prof Löwenberg has won numerous awards in recognition for his major scientific and clinical achievements. He has also served as the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Blood. He was one of the co-founders of IntroGene, which later became Crucell and was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. Furthermore, he also co-founded Frame Cancer Therapeutics, which was acquired by CureVac in 2022.

Prof. Dr. Peter Kuhn is a cancer scientist and University Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where he serves as the founding director of the USC Michelson Convergent Science Institute in Cancer. He trained as a physicist and has held faculty positions at Stanford University and Scripps Research focusing on structure based drug development and cancer diagnostics. For the past decade at USC, his research has discovered novel biological mechanisms of cancer development in the circulatory system and he has built breakthrough technologies for early cancer detection using biological insights accelerated by deep learning models. He has published over 300 peer reviewed papers and patents. Throughout his career he has translated his discoveries into meaningful products through licensing technologies, co-founding and advising diagnostic and therapeutic companies, and building public-private partnerships.