ADVISORY board
Erik Hack, MD, PhD
Erik Hack (1952) studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and obtained an MD in 1978, and a PhD in medicine in 1984, also from the University of Amsterdam. After his thesis he held several positions in the former Central Laboratory of the Netherlands Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, now Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He was appointed as Professor in Immunology at the Free University Medical Center, Amsterdam, in 1994. In 2004 he left Sanquin to become head of the Protein Biologics Group of Crucell, Leiden, the Netherlands. In 2009 he accepted the position of Professor of Immunology at the University of Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and amongst others founded the Laboratory of Translational Immunology, now the Center of Translational Immunology, which harbours all immunology research of the University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, and initiated and supervised the strategic program on Infection and Immunity. He has assisted to found the Dutch patients association of hereditary and Quincke’s edema. In 2018, Erik Hack retired as professor in Immunology at the University of Utrecht.
Erik Hack has co-founded Prothix to develop monoclonal antibodies for coagulation and inflammatory disorders. Among the antibodies discovered by Erik Hack is ArgX-117, which is currently in clinical development by ArgenX. In addition, Erik Hack is a co-founder of Synerkine Pharma. Currently he holds the position of CSO at Prothix and at Numeric Biotech.
Erik Hack has co-authored over 500 peer-reviewed papers, which have been cited >46,000 times (H-index 111, Google Scholar, 23 February 2021). In addition, he is an inventor on >20 patents.
Floris Lafeber, phd
Floris Lafeber studied biology at the University of Nijmegen and his PhD in animal physiology in 1988, also from the University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands). During his PhD he was visiting scientist at the university of Ottawa (Canada). After his thesis, he held several postdoctoral positions at the University of Nijmegen and the Academic Hospital in Utrecht. In 1992 Floris became the Director of the Research laboratory of the department of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology of the Academic Hospital in Utrecht. In 2003 he was promoted to Associate Professor at the same department, where is since 2009 has the position of Full Professor.
Floris holds the positions of Manager of research and head of research laboratory of the department of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, University Medical Centre Utrecht, and of Manager of Research of the Division of Internal Medicine & Dermatology UMC Utrecht (The Netherlands).
Floris’ field of interest is in ‘Regenerative Medicine’ and ‘Immunology’, in particular in the control of cartilage damage, inflammation, and pain in osteoarthritis (OA), phenotyping of OA, and the efficacy of disease modifying treatments including joint distraction in OA. Several relevant animal models have been incorporated or personally developed (a.o. the canine (and rat) ‘Groove model’ of osteoarthritis and a canine model of blood induced joint damage).
Floris has co-authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers with a H-index of 45, of which at least half in the top 10% highest Impact Factor journals in the field. He supervised over 35 PhD students. In addition, he is an inventor on 5 patents.
niels eijkelkamp, phd
Niels Eijkelkamp studied Biomedical Sciences at the University of Utrecht (Utrecht, the Netherlands). He received his PhD in 2009 at the Utrecht University where he worked on GRKs in the regulation of pain, and inflammation. He then did his first postdoctoral training at a joint-position at the University Medical Center Utrecht and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he worked on intracellular signaling in sensory neurons. He continued as a PostDoctoral fellow at the University College London where he further worked on signaling and mechanotransduction in pain. In 2015 he was appointed Associate Professor at the Center for Translational Immunology at the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Niels Eijkelkamp’s current work focusses on elucidating the cellular and molecular basis of neuro-immune interactions in pain resolution and chronification. His work has identified intriguing roles of immune cells and cytokines that regulate sensory pathways in osteoarthritis and inflammation. Based on these novel insights his work has contributed to the identification of novel strategies to inhibit chronic pain by fusing anti-inflammatory cytokines.
Volker Herrmann, MD, MBA
Volker Herrmann joined Inzen Therapeutics in August 2020 as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Inzen, Volker was Chief Operating Officer and President at SQZ Biotechnologies, where he oversaw overall company strategy, Business development and operations. Previously, he was the Chief Commercial Officer at Viamet where he was responsible for preparing the organization for the launch of their first commercial product, all Partnering activities as well as streamlining the company’s pipeline.
Prior to that, Volker served more than 15 years at Pfizer where he held executive leadership roles at a country, regional and global level for a variety of therapeutic areas. Some of his past leadership roles include Regional Lead Pain/CNS for Europe/Canada, the startup of a new global service and solutions business unit, and serving as the Head of Global Strategy, Commercial Development and Marketing for Pfizer’s Vaccines Business unit.
Volker received his M.D. from the Albert Ludwigs Universitaet Freiburg. He also received an M.B.A. from the University of San Diego, Graduate School of Business.
Frank Huygen, MD, PhD
Frank Huygen is working as an anesthesiologist pain specialist in the University Hospital Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He is head of the center of pain medicine, a multidisciplinary pain clinic specialized in acute, chronic benign and oncologic pain and palliative care. In 2009 he was appointed as full Professor in Anesthesiology especially Pain Medicine. In 2020, he was also part-time appointed as full Professor in Pain Medicine at the University Medical Center Utrecht.
In 2007 he graduated as fellow of interventional pain practice (World Institute of Pain). He is especially interested in the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). In 2004, he received a PhD on writing a thesis entitled “Neuroimmune alterations in the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome”.
He is principal investigator in several research lines especially focusing on CRPS and neuromodulation. He is member of the Board of Directors of the International Research Consortium for CRPS (40 collaborating research sites worldwide).
He authored over more than 200 peer reviewed articles (H index 47) and chapters in books and journals. He is member of the editorial boards of the journal of Pain Practice and the journal of Neuromodulation.
Frank Huygen is member of the scientific advisory boards of the patient association in the Netherlands (Patiëntvereniging CRPS) and the United States (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association) and is the chair of the Education Committee of the European Pain Federation (EFIC) from 2020 till 2023.
In January 2013 he was appointed as member professional for Anesthesiology Pain medicine at the Dutch central disciplinary tribunal for healthcare in The Hague.
Mienke Rijsdijk, MD, PhD
Mienke Rijsdijk is an anesthesiologist-pain specialist and head of the Pain Clinic of the University Medical Center Utrecht. She combines her clinical work with translational and interdisciplinary research on several pain-related topics. She is currently studying sensory alterations and immunological changes during the chronification of pain in different patient groups. Her focus is on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CPRS), postherpetic neuralgia and chronic pain after surgery and IC admission.
During her PhD she performed preclinical studies on the safety and efficacy of intrathecal delivery of glucocorticoids at the University of California, San Diego, USA under supervision of prof. dr. T.L. Yaksh. In parallel, she completed her postgraduate master in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Utrecht, specializing in Pharmacoepidemiology.