Meet the people behind CHDR

Geert Jan Groeneveld (1971) is the Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of CHDR. In addition to serving on CHDR’s board, he is a professor of Clinical Neuropharmacology at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), and also works as a neurologist in the pain outpatient clinic of the Department of Anaesthesiology at the LUMC, where he sees patients with neurological causes of chronic pain.

Groeneveld trained as a neurologist at the University Medical Center Utrecht, where he also obtained his PhD on the subject of new pharmacotherapeutic treatment strategies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. From 2007 to 2009 he worked at the biotechnology company Genzyme where he was responsible for several gene therapy programs for Parkinson’s disease and helped to register enzyme replacement therapy for late onset Pompe disease. From 2009 to 2017, he served as Research Director at CHDR and was responsible for research in the areas of neurology and pain. While working as a Research Director at CHDR, Groeneveld also held a position as staff member in the Department of Neurology at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.

Groeneveld’s primary scientific interest lies in early-phase drug development for the treatment of neurological diseases and pain. He has published over 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and is actively involved in the training of PhD students at CHDR. In addition, he is a board-certified clinical pharmacologist and serves on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical and Translational Science and Frontiers in Pain Research.

Koos (Jacobus) Burggraaf (1959) is the Chief Executive Officer of CHDR. In addition to serving on CHDR’s board, he is Professor of Translational Drug Development at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research and Leiden University Medical Center.

Burggraaf graduated in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences (MSc) and Medicine (MSc) from Leiden University with a specialisation in clinical pharmacology. He subsequently qualified cum laude as an MD at Leiden University, where he also obtained his PhD. Since 1990 he has held several positions at CHDR, and since 1997 he has completed clinical attachments at several hospitals, mainly in internal medicine.

Burggraaf’s main scientific interest is in early drug development (phase I/II). He has published over 250 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and was the supervisor of 30 PhD-students. In addition, he is a board-certified clinical pharmacologist, a member of the Leiden educational team for clinical pharmacologists, and full member of several (inter)national societies of clinical pharmacology.

Gabriël Jacobs (1977) was trained as a general adult psychiatrist and clinical pharmacologist at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) in Leiden. He obtained his PhD on the clinical pharmacology/neuroendocrinology of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis (HPA) from Leiden University in 2010, after which he completed his clinical residency in psychiatry. From 2013 to 2016, he held a position as consultant psychiatrist at the department of general hospital psychiatry at the VU Medical Center in Amsterdam. He currently holds the position of Research Director Psychiatry at CHDR and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Department of Psychiatry of the LUMC. In addition, he supervises an internship in Clinical Psychopharmacology for residents in psychiatry at CHDR, which is recognised by the Dutch national Training Programme.

Jacobus (Co) Bosch (1977) received his basic medical training at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and qualified as an MD in 2004. He obtained his PhD on T cell-based immunotherapy of uveal melanoma from Leiden University in 2012. During this time, he accomplished a pre-doctoral research fellowship in Ocular-Immunology (2000-2002) at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School and a post-doc in Tumour-Immunology (2005-2008) at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA. He served on the Associate Member Council of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) from 2007-2010. Subsequently, he completed his residency and clinical fellowship combined with research group leadership in cellular immunotherapy, and was board-certified (2018) in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology at the University Hospital Erlangen in Germany. Before joining CHDR, he worked at the Center for Clinical Trials of Hannover Medical School (MHH) in Germany, where he was the Senior Physician and Head of Clinical Operations clinically responsible for MHH’s Early Clinical Trial Unit within Hannover’s Clinical Research Center. He joined CHDR in 2022, and currently holds the position of Research Director Oncology. In his role, he will be responsible for early-phase drug development for oncologic diseases, with a special interest in immuno-oncology.

Joop van Gerven (1958) studied English and Medicine in Utrecht University. After obtaining his MD in 1984, he worked in the Department of Internal Medicine of Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). In 1990 he completed a PhD-thesis on aldose reductase inhibitor treatment in diabetes mellitus. He was trained as a neurologist in Dijkzigt University Hospital in Rotterdam from 1988 to 1994. During that period, he was also a consultant for Wyeth on diabetic complications. Since 1994 he is research director at the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) in Leiden, and is responsible for consultancy and research on central nervous system drugs and methods. He is also clinically active as a staff consultant neurologist at LUMC. Since 2004 he is Professor of Clinical Psychoneuropharmacology at Leiden University. His primary interest is in the prediction of pharmacological effects of CNS-active agents during early phases of drug development, and in neuropsychiatric challenge-tests. He has published roughly 150 peer reviewed articles and book chapters and is supervisor (‘promotor’) of about ten PhD-projects in these areas. Joop van Gerven is the clinical pharmacologist and chairman of the CCMO, the Dutch competent authority and central ethics committee for research in human subjects.

Matthijs Moerland studied Biomedical Sciences and Molecular Sciences, and was trained at the department of Cell Biology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He obtained his PhD investigating lipoprotein metabolism and atherogenesis in humanised animal models. He joined CHDR in 2007 as a Senior Clinical Scientist, and obtained his registration as clinical pharmacologist. Since 2014, Matthijs holds a positions as Research Director. He is leading CHDR’s in-house R&D lab, utilizing cell-based assays for monitoring of drug activity in clinical studies, and in mechanistic ex vivo studies on primary human cells. In addition, Matthijs is heading CHDR’s clinical immuno-cardiovascular research group, with as primary focus the development and application of in vivo immune challenge models (e.g. intravenous and intradermal endotoxin challenges, neoantigen vaccination, topical immune challenges).

Philip Kremer (1984) trained as a neurologist at Amsterdam UMC, where he also did a PhD in bacterial genetics and bioinformatics. During this time, he worked at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK for one year (2015). He joined CHDR in 2020, and currently holds the position of Research Director Neurology. He was also trained as a pharmacist at Utrecht University. He holds a staff position at the Department of Neurology at Leiden University Medical Center. In his role, he will focus on early phase drug development for neurological diseases, with a primary interest for neurodegenerative diseases.

Robert Rissmann (1977) studied pharmacy at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. He obtained the license to practise as a pharmacist in 2004 and subsequently began a PhD project in drug delivery at the Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research (Leiden University), focusing on translational dermatology. Robert successfully defended his PhD thesis on skin pharmacology in 2009. From 2010 to 2017, he was Director of Education at CHDR with an emphasis on clinical pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutics. His research interests concern translational models in both immunology and dermatology for drug development in early-phase clinical research. He is a member of the board of the Dutch Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy and board member of the Education Committee of the British Pharmacological Society. In 2015, he was appointed Associate Professor at the Leiden University Medical Center. He has published over 55 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and is actively involved in the supervision and training of PhD students. Since 2017 he has held the position of Research Director in Dermatology, and heads the Skin Pharmacology research group at CHDR. In 2020 he was appointed Professor of Translational Dermatology at Leiden University.

Bart Mooy MSc RA (1971) graduated as a Chartered Accountant in 2003. His career began in 1991 at Deloitte and continued later at BDO. During that period, he gained broad experience in auditing, financial reporting and internal control. His clients were medium-sized enterprises, both profit and non-profit. Bart was involved in a variety of advisory engagements for his clients, including CHDR, involving budgeting, forecasting, cash flow, and management accounting. He joined CHDR as Financial Director in July 2013.

Bart van der Kroef Msc (1965) graduated in telematics in 1999 from the Middlesex University while working as network engineer at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. After 10 years and growth into a management role, he moved to Nokia networks, leading a team that managed the Ben (now T-Mobile) network. The following move to Centocor (now Janssen Biologics) was an introduction into IT in the biopharma environment on a production site (GxP, 21 CFR Part 11/GAMP). That also included drug development, regulatory and clinical affairs. After three years at Centocor Bart was asked to lead the EMEA Infrastructure team for J&J at Janssen Pharmaceutica in Beerse, Belgium. In 2014 Bart moved to T-Systems to lead a 100+ FTE team delivering cloud solutions to Shell, Heineken and Philips. Before CHDR, Bart worked as Head of Infrastructure Europe at Vistra, a financial company. Bart joined CHDR as Technology Director in March 2020.

Jeroen van Smeden (1984) graduated in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University in 2008. He obtained his PhD in 2013 at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (Leiden University) on skin lipids in eczema. He continued there as an Assistant Professor, focusing on skin metabolism. In addition, he was involved in several large education projects that emerged between 2014–2017 at the Faculty of Science. He was awarded “Teacher of the Year” of the Faculty of Science in 2015. Jeroen has over 30 peer-reviewed publications and currently holds the position of Education Director at CHDR. He coordinates education for PhD students at CHDR, as well as educational activities for undergraduate and postgraduate students that CHDR offers in collaboration with external parties.

Margreet Rienstra (1969) joined the operational team of CHDR in 1998 following a nursing career during which she worked as a registered general nurse (1992) and an ICU nurse (1997). In 2001, she completed the post-vocational education programme for Clinical Research Coordinators in Rotterdam. From 2004 to 2006, she worked as Clinical Research Coordinator at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and Leiden University Medical Center. In 2006, Margreet returned to CHDR to take up the position of Quality Assurance Manager, becoming head of the QA team. Since then, she has been involved in all audits and inspections performed at CHDR and has been responsible for CHDR’s quality management system. In 2019, she was appointed Compliance Director and joined CHDR’s Management Team. 

Naomi Klarenbeek (1981) studied medicine at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. After that, she did a PhD in rheumatoid arthritis at the Rheumatology department of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). She was subsequently trained as an internist at the LUMC. She joined CHDR in 2017 during her clinical pharmacology training. Since June 2021, Naomi holds a position as Medical Director at CHDR. 

Yvette Akkermans BSc BHa (1980) graduated from the Hotelschool The Hague and the Open University in 2003, and started her career in the management traineeship of ABN AMRO. At ABN AMRO she worked in various HR roles, and after the takeover of ABN AMRO by a consortium of banks in 2008, Yvette exchanged the financial sector for a family production company, Maars in Harderwijk. Here she was the international HR Manager for the branches in 6 countries, and a large production facility in the Netherlands. In 2011 she switched to MSD, where she was ultimately HR-responsible for the MSD location Haarlem (packaging and shipping of MSD vaccines, speciality products and blisters) until her switch to CHDR in 2019. The diversity of companies and different challenges have ensured that Yvette has a broad HR background and experience in all aspects of the HR field. Yvette joined CHDR as HR Director in July 2019.

Ingrid de Visser - Kamerling (1975) graduated in Medical Biology from Leiden University in 1998. She subsequently worked at CHDR as a project leader and PhD student. She obtained her PhD from Leiden University in 2003 and became a registered clinical pharmacologist in 2005. From 2004 to 2007, she worked as policy coordinator in the research department of the Dutch Heart Foundation. In 2007 she returned to CHDR as interim manager of education. From 2008 to 2019, she held the position of Senior Clinical Scientist. Currently, she is Associate Director in clinical trials, and her main research focus is on general internal/infectious diseases.

Jules Heuberger (1989) graduated in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University in 2013. He subsequently joined CHDR as a Clinical Scientist, focusing on clinical studies related to disorders of the central nervous system, with a special interest in neuromuscular disorders. During this period, he also performed research at CHDR into doping, conducting several studies that led to his PhD thesis The clinical pharmacology of performance enhancement and doping detection in sports (Leiden University, 2019). The same year, he became a board-certified clinical pharmacologist at the Dutch Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy. From 2018 onwards, he held the position of Senior Clinical Scientist in the neurology and pain research group at CHDR. As of January 2023 he is Associate Research Director Experimental Medicine.

Rob Zuiker (1968) studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam. He was employed as a physician in the Royal Dutch Navy until 2000. After obtaining a master's degree in Business Administration from the Nyenrode Business University in Breukelen, he worked as a medical adviser for Eli Lilly Netherlands. Rob joined CHDR in 2007 as a clinical research physician and has since worked on a wide range of projects and acted as principal investigator for various studies. His main field of expertise is biomarker development as a screening tool for early drug development in asthma and the central nervous system. He has been a registered clinical pharmacologist since 2012, and in 2016 he obtained his PhD with a thesis titled Development and use of biomarkers in clinical development of new therapies for chronic airway disease. He currently holds the position of Associate Director in the Central Nervous System research group. Alongside his work at CHDR, Rob is vice president and treasurer of the Association for Contract Research Organisations in the Netherlands (ACRON)

Robert-Jan Doll (1988) graduated in Electrical Engineering (Biomedical Signals and Systems) from the University of Twente in 2012. He obtained his PhD degree in 2016 from the University of Twente. Robert-Jan’s PhD research focused on developing psychophysical methods for observation of nociceptive processing using electrical intra-epidermal stimulation. He worked as a postdoc at the St. Antonius Hospital (2015), and as a contract researcher on volume conduction models and nerve activation models at the University of Twente (2016). Robert-Jan joined CHDR in 2016, where he now leads the Method Development group. His team develops novel technologies, applications, and algorithms to quantify the effects of healthcare interventions on neurophysiology, cognition, and behaviour.

Laura Borghans (1990) completed a Master’s in Neuropsychology at Maastricht University in 2014. She subsequently began her PhD at the Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology at Maastricht University. Laura’s PhD focused on pharmacological interventions to alter memory functioning in healthy volunteers. She successfully defended her PhD thesis in January 2019. Laura joined CHDR in 2018 as an Experienced Clinical Scientist in the Neurology and Pain research group. She is currently in training to become a board-certified clinical pharmacologist at the Dutch Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy. Since January 2020, Laura has held a position as Senior Clinical Scientist in the Psychiatry research group.

Manon Jansen (1990) graduated in Biomedical Sciences from Utrecht University in 2014. She then began her PhD in the department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at Utrecht University. Her PhD project focused on immune regulation in autoimmune diseases. She obtained her PhD in 2019 after successfully defending her PhD thesis Tuning Tolerance – Modulating adaptive immune responses for therapeutic purposes. In 2019 she also became a registered SMBWO Immunologist. Manon joined CHDR in January 2019 as an Experienced Clinical Scientist in both the Research & Development lab and the Dermatology department. She is currently in training to become a board-certified clinical pharmacologist at the Dutch Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy. As of January 2020, Manon holds a position as Senior Clinical Scientist in the Immuno-cardiovascular research group.

Tessa van der Kolk (1990) completed her medical training at the University of Amsterdam in 2015. She subsequently joined CHDR, conducting several studies in the field of inflammatory skin disease, which led to her PhD thesis entitled Investigations of skin inflammation with a novel dermatology toolbox for early phase clinical drug development (Leiden University, 2021). The same year, she became a board-certified clinical pharmacologist at the Dutch Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy. Tessa currently holds the position of Senior Clinical Scientist in the dermatology research group at CHDR