Meet the people behind CHDR

Anouk de Jong is the Chief Financial Officer of CHDR. Anouk is an accomplished executive leader with a proven track record spanning public, private, and professional services sectors in the Netherlands and New Zealand. She earned a Master of Science degree in Health Policy and Management at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1997. Later she obtained an Executive Master of Business Administration from the Institute for Finance Management of the University of Bern (Switzerland) and the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration (US) in 2005.

She started her career working in the healthcare sector and joined PWC as a Management Consultant in 2001 where she was responsible for the Strategy Consultants in the Healthcare group.  

In 2007, she relocated to New Zealand where she continued her consulting journey with PWC, later transitioning to roles such as Deputy CEO for various Ministries and General Manager Strategy at Trade and Enterprise facilitating businesses global expansion. During her tenure in New Zealand, Anouk also embarked on a governance journey, serving on multiple Boards and Committees.

In 2024, she returned to the Netherlands to assume the role of CFO/Executive Board member at CHDR. 

Geert Jan Groeneveld (1971) is the Chief Executive 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.

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.

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 holds the position of Research Director Infectious Diseases where she focuses on fast-track vaccine development and Controlled Human Infection Models. 

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).

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. Currently, Naomi holds a position as Research Director Internal Medicine at CHDR. Her research is primarily focused on early drug development in systemic auto-immune diseases and metabolic/endocrine disorders.

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 was a member of the educational and executive board of the Dutch Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmacy (2012-2023). In 2015, he was appointed Associate Professor at the Leiden University Medical Center. He has published over 80 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

Christine van Andel (1979) obtained a master’s degree in International Business at the University of Maastricht in 2002. She was included on the Dean’s Honor List of Fairfield University (Connecticut, USA) for distinguished academic achievement during her study semester there. She started her career with a Management Traineeship at Ormit and joined Accenture as a Consultant in Human Performance afterwards. She continued her career in Human Resources and has held different HR Management positions at several companies, such as Sanofi and ADP.

In 2018, she started her own company in female leadership coaching. Next to 1:1 coaching and training, she also developed a 6-month female leadership program for female managers and executives to strengthen their (female) leadership and increase their impact.

After years of successful entrepreneurship, she felt the desire to become part of an organization again and joined CHDR as HR Director in November 2023. In this role, she combines her broad HR and business experience with her leadership and coaching skills. She is part of CHDR’s Management Team. 

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.

Jacobus (Koos) Burggraaf (1959) is the Dean of the CHDR Academy and Professor of Translational Drug Development at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research and Leiden University Medical Center. 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.

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 including serving as its CEO from 2018-2024.

Burggraaf’s main interest is in innovation in early drug development and (post-graduate) education. He has published over 250 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and was/is the supervisor of 50 PhD-students.

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. 

Maurits Vissers (1987) was trained as a pharmacist at the University of Groningen. During this time he spent six months as a visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA. He held several positions within the industry in the fields of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing & Technology (Astellas), Pharmaceutical Compounding (Fagron) and Medical Affairs (AbbVie). He completed a Global Management Traineeship (Fagron) and High Performing Leadership Program (AbbVie). In 2018 he completed a post-graduate program on Clinical Development with the Paul Janssen Future Lab (Leiden). This program sparked an enthusiasm for Clinical Development and in 2018 Maurits joined CHDR as a Clinical Scientist to pursue a PhD in early phase clinical pharmacology studies with disease-modifying drugs for neurodegenerative disorders. In 2021, Maurits transitioned to the position of Experienced Clinical Scientist and in 2022 he completed training and registered as a Clinical Pharmacologist. Since 1 January 2023, Maurits has held the position of Head of Operations and has joined CHDR’s Management Team.

Rob Zuiker (born in 1968) studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam and worked as a physician in the Royal Dutch Navy until 2000. He then pursued further education and obtained a master's in Business Administration from Nyenrode University in Breukelen. This led to a position as a medical advisor for Eli Lilly Netherlands. In 2007, Rob joined CHDR as a clinical research physician and has been involved in various projects since. He has been registered as a clinical pharmacologist since 2012 and completed his doctoral degree with a thesis titled "Development and Use of Biomarkers in clinical development of new therapies for chronic airway disease" in 2016. He has been a principal investigator for several studies. Rob currently holds the position of Director Regulatory & Clinical Services.

Marieke Niesters (1984) studied Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands. She obtained her PhD in the field of chronic pain on endogenous pain modulatory mechanisms at the Leiden University in 2014, after which she was trained as an anesthesiologist-pain specialist. Starting in 2018 she holds a position in the LUMC as staff member at the department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and from 2020 onwards she is head of the LUMC pain clinic. At CHDR, Marieke works as associate Research Director pain. Her research focusses on drug development for the treatment of pain and effective methods to assess analgesic drug effect in both healthy volunteers and chronic pain patients. 

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.

Annika de Goede (1989) graduated in Technical Medicine (Master Medical Sensing & Stimulation) from the University of Twente in 2014. She subsequently began her PhD at the Clinical Neurophysiology department at the University of Twente. Annika’s PhD focused on finding biomarkers for epilepsy using a multimodal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) approach. After obtaining her PhD in 2019, she continued working as a postdoc at the University of Twente in collaboration with CHDR. The aim of this collaboration was implementing TMS in combination with electromyography and electroencephalography at CHDR as a biomarker for pharmacological effects on cortical excitability. Annika joined CHDR in 2020 as a Clinical Research Engineer in the Biomarker Engineering and Analytics group. As of April 2023, Annika holds the position of Senior Clinical Research Engineer.

Eva Thijssen (1990) completed a Master’s in Medical Biology at the Radboud University in 2014. After her graduation, she performed fundamental research at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Science. She then transitioned to a CRO, where she contributed to monitoring phase 3 clinical trials. In 2018, Eva joined CHDR as a Clinical Scientist in the Neurology group and began her PhD, focusing on early-phase clinical pharmacology studies investigating novel drugs and formulations for Parkinson’s disease. In 2024, she successfully defended her PhD thesis and completed her training to become a board-certified Clinical Pharmacologist. Eva is currently a Senior Clinical Scientist in the Neurology research group, where she contributes to advancing early-phase clinical trials for neurodegenerative diseases.

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.

Linda Aulin graduated from Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2016 with a degree in Pharmacy. She then pursued a PhD in pharmacometrics at Leiden University, where her research focused on quantitative pharmacology of antimicrobials using in vitro bacterial infection models and advanced mathematical modeling approaches. Linda obtained her PhD with highest distinction in 2022. In 2021, she started working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Clinical Pharmacy group at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, where she worked on translational modeling of innovative antimicrobial strategies. Linda joined CHDR in January 2024 as Senior Pharmacometrician.

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