Team
Advisory Board
Sander van Deventer, Chairman of the Advisory Board
Sander van Deventer has had a critical role in the development of the first commercial monoclonal antibody (Remicade) and the first gene therapy in the Western world (Glybera).
He currently is Managing Partner at Forbion Capital Partners and Professor of Translational Gastroenterology at Leiden University Medical Center. He is a member of the Boards of several biotech companies. He was trained as an internist and board certified gastroenterologist, received a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Amsterdam, worked as a scientist at Rockefeller University and became director of the laboratory for Experimental Internal Medicine at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam in 1995. In 1998 he co-founded Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics (AMT; currently Uniqure), a gene therapy company that develops AAV-based gene therapy products. From 2001 until 2004, he chaired the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam.
Alan Tall, Co-founder and Advisor
Alan Tall is the Tilden-Weger-Bieler Professor of Medicine and head of the Division of Molecular Medicine at Columbia University. He is internationally recognized for his work on plasma lipoproteins and atherosclerosis. Dr. Tall discovered mutations in the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) gene that are associated with increased HDL levels and reduced LDL levels, first identifying CETP as a therapeutic target. Dr. Tall has done research on the ATP binding cassette transporters ABCA1 and ABCG1 that promote cholesterol efflux from macrophage foam cells to apoA-1 and HDL particles, respectively, and has shown their role in regulating the proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells and the production of pro-atherogenic myeloid cells and platelets. Recently the Tall laboratory has focused efforts on understanding the mechanisms underlying the association of human GWAS variants with plasma lipoproteins and coronary heart disease. In recognition of his work, Dr Tall has been the recipient of the Irvine Page Award, the Robert I. Levy Lectureship and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Heart Association and the Anitschkow Prize of the European Atherosclerosis Society.
Daniel Rader, Co-founder and Advisor
Daniel J. Rader, MD is the Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular Medicine and Chair of the Department of Genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Rader's research focuses on human genetics and functional genomics of lipoprotein metabolism and atherosclerosis, as well as the translational implications for new therapeutic targets. He has had a long-term interest in novel therapeutic approaches to unmet medical needs in the treatment of dyslipidemia and in reducing risk of coronary disease. He led the scientific and clinical development of lomitapide, the first-in-class inhibitor of microsomal transfer protein (MTP) for the treatment of homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia.
John Kastelein, CMO
John Kastelein is professor of medicine, chairman of the department of vascular medicine, and holds the Strategic Chair of Genetics at Cardiovascular Disease at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Kastelein is a member of the Steering Committees of Lipid lowering and cardiovascular intervention trials. His main interest is in the development of novel therapies for Cardiovascular Diseases and the genetic basis or dyslipidemia. Dr. Kastelein was awarded a doctorate in Medicine (with Honors) from the University of Amsterdam, trained in internal medicine at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, and trained in lipidology and molecular biology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is president of the Dutch Atherosclerosis Society and the National Scientific Committee on Familial Hypercholesterolemia and also a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC). In 2010, awarded the prestigious Dutch Heart Association prize of EUR 1 million and in 2011 the ZonMw Pearl for his research in the field of gene therapy.