Ann Van Gysel is a Belgian scientist and CEO of MEDVIA, a healthcare cluster that supports innovation in Flanders, Belgium.
Ann obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Antwerp (Belgium), then went on to the University of Ghent where she did a Masters in Zoology and a PhD in Molecular Genetics in Professor Marc Van Montagu's laboratory. [1] [2] In 1998 she completed an additional degree in Marketing and Communication with a focus on biotech communications.
Ann started her career at the University of Ghent, where she ran a research group in the Department of Plant Genetics for 4 years. In 1997, she continued her career at the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) as Communications Manager. There she was responsible for the public outreach and educational programs as well as public relations and internal communications.
From 2008 to 2011, Ann was the managing director of FlandersBio, a life sciences cluster organization based in Flanders, Belgium.
In 2011 she left FlandersBio and started Turnstone Communications, offering communications and business development services to biotech and pharma industries. With Turnstone Ann also founded BioVox, a news platform featuring life science and innovation news from Belgium. Ann sold Turnstone and BioVox to QbD in 2023.
In 2022, Ann became CEO of MEDVIA, an industry-driven membership organization that supports health entrepreneurs by fostering innovation in healthcare. It was formed in a public-private partnership with Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO), and has around 150 members from industry, hospitals and academia.
Ann is also an independent member of the Board of Directors of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ).
Ghent University is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium.
VIB is a research institute located in Flanders, Belgium. It was founded by the Flemish government in 1995, and became a full-fledged institute on 1 January 1996. The main objective of VIB is to strengthen the excellence of Flemish life sciences research and to turn the results into new economic growth. VIB spends almost 80% of its budget on research activities, while almost 12% is spent on technology transfer activities and stimulating the creation of new businesses, in addition VIB spends approximately 2% on socio-economic activities. VIB is member of EU-LIFE, an alliance of leading life sciences research centres in Europe.
The Flemish Institute for Technological Research, is an independent Flemish research organisation that provides scientific advice and technological innovations that facilitate the transition to a sustainable society, and this in the areas of energy, chemistry, materials, health and land use.
Walter Fiers was a Belgian molecular biologist.
Jozef Stefaan "Jeff", Baron Schell was a Belgian molecular biologist.
Marc, Baron Van Montagu is a Belgian molecular biologist. He was full professor and director of the Laboratory of Genetics at the faculty of Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium) and scientific director of the genetics department of the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB). Together with Jozef Schell he founded the biotech company Plant Genetic Systems Inc. (Belgium) in 1982, of which he was scientific director and member of the board of directors. Van Montagu was also involved in founding the biotech company CropDesign, of which he was a board member from 1998 to 2004. He is president of the Public Research and Regulation Initiative (PRRI).
CropDesign is a biotech company located in Ghent, Belgium. The company develops a portfolio of agronomic traits for the global commercial seed markets. It has developed a technology platform to discover genetic traits for the improvement of corn, rice and other plants. Current managing director is Juergen Logemann.
Plant Genetic Systems (PGS), since 2002 part of Bayer CropScience, is a biotech company located in Ghent, Belgium. The focus of its activities is the genetic engineering of plants. The company is best known for its work in the development of insect-resistant transgenic plants.
Christine Van Broeckhoven is a Belgian molecular biologist and professor in Molecular genetics at the University of Antwerp. She is also leading the VIB Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Antwerp of the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB). Christine Van Broeckhoven does research on Alzheimer dementia, bipolar mental disorders and other neurological diseases. Since 1983 she has had her own laboratory for molecular genetics at the University of Antwerp, and since 2005 is focussing her research on neurodegenerative brain diseases. She is an associate editor of the scientific journal Genes, Brain and Behavior.
Rudy Dekeyser was until May 2012 the Managing Director of VIB. He was until May 2012 head of the technology transfer team of the institute. He obtained a PhD in molecular biology at the University of Ghent.
Erik Tambuyzer is a Belgian bio-engineer and businessman. He is Chairman of the Board of the Flemish Center for Medical Innovation (CMI).
Hugo Van Heuverswyn is a Belgian molecular biologist, biotech pioneer, entrepreneur and businessman. He has been the chairman of the VIB, Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, since its inception in 1995.
Marc Zabeau is a Belgian scientist and businessman.
Els Vanheusden is a Belgian physician, businesswoman and from 2004 until 31 May 2008, general manager of FlandersBio, the cluster of the Flemish biotech industry. She was succeeded by Ann Van Gysel on 1 June 2008.
Thierry Bogaert is a Belgian scientist and businessman. He founded the Belgian biotech company Devgen in 1997 and was its managing director and CEO from 1997 onwards, until he sold the Devgen to Syngenta in 2012 for 400m EUR. During this time he led the science and business strategy of the company and took Devgen public on Euronext in 2005. Building on genetics as its core scientific strength, He developed Devgen into a leading provider of new crop protection technologies to the Agro industry and an Asian seed company that fundamentally redesigned Hybrid Rice delivering a pipeline of high yielding products for Indian and South East Asian markets. Prior to its sale to Syngenta, Devgen seeds were produced on >8000 ha and sold in ~20,000 retail shops across India, Indonesia and Philippines.
Cristina Garmendia y Mendizábal is a Spanish biologist and businesswoman. With no previous political career, she was appointed as Minister of Science and Innovation in April 2008 by the President of the Government of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Genetics Institute, Inc. was a biotechnology research and development company founded by Thomas Maniatis and Mark Ptashne, two Harvard molecular biologists, in 1980 in Massachusetts. Originally operating out of Ptashne's house in Boston, the company found more spacious quarters first in Boston and then Cambridge before expanding further. Gabriel Schmergel joined soon afterwards as CEO.
Ryan Bethencourt is an American scientist, entrepreneur, and biohacker best known for his work as co-founder and CEO of Wild Earth, Partner at Babel Ventures and cofounder and former Program Director at IndieBio, a biology accelerator and early stage seed fund. Bethencourt was head of life sciences at the XPRIZE foundation, a co-founder and CEO of Berkeley Biolabs, a biotech accelerator, and Halpin Neurosciences, an ALS therapeutics-focused biotech company. Bethencourt co-founded Counter Culture Labs, a citizen science nonprofit, and Sudo Room, a hacker space based in downtown Oakland, California.
Henri A. Termeer was a Dutch biotechnology executive and entrepreneur who is considered a pioneer in corporate strategy in the biotechnology industry for his tenure as CEO at Genzyme. Termeer created a business model adopted by many others in the biotech industry by garnering steep prices— mainly from insurers and government payers— for therapies for rare genetic disorders known as orphan diseases that mainly affect children. Genzyme uses biological processes to manufacture drugs that are not easily copied by generic-drug makers. The drugs are also protected by orphan drug acts in various countries which provides extensive protection from competition and ensures coverage by publicly funded insurers. As CEO of Genzyme from 1981 to 2011, he developed corporate strategies for growth including optimizing institutional embeddedness nurturing vast networks of influential groups and clusters: doctors, private equity, patient-groups, insurance, healthcare umbrella organizations, state and local government, and alumni. Termeer was "connected to 311 board members in 17 different organizations across 20 different industries" He has the legacy of being the "longest-serving CEO in the biotechnology industry.
Kodimangalam S. Ravichandran is a U.S. immunologist and a leading researcher in the area of how we remove billions of dying cells in the body on a daily basis, and how such dead cell removal impacts many human inflammatory diseases. Dr. Kodi Ravichandran obtained his degree in Veterinary Medicine from Madras Veterinary College in 1987. During the last two years of Veterinary School, he became interested in the molecular biology of cellular processes, and how specific drugs function at a molecular level. This led to his pursuing a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the United States. For his doctoral work, he addressed how temporal gene expression and antibody specificities contribute toward the repertoire of B lymphocytes in various lymphoid organs in mice. Dr. Ravichandran then moved to at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute to pursue his post-doctoral research under the guidance of Dr. Steven Burakoff. Here, he focused on intracellular signaling in T cells, and addressed the role of adapter proteins, and published multiple high impact publications (1992-1996). He was also an instructor at Harvard Medical School.