Team

ImmunXperts, a Q² Solutions Company

Meet the Team

  • Sofie Pattijn

    — CTO

    Sofie has over 20 years of experience in the field of immunogenicity assessment (vaccines and biotherapeutics). She has extensive hands-on lab experience and has managed and coached several In Vitro teams over the last decade. From 2008 till 2013 she was Head of the In Vitro Immunogenicity group at AlgoNomics (Ghent, Belgium) and Lonza Applied Protein Services (Cambridge, UK). Prior to that, she worked at Innogenetics, Belgium for over 15 years.

  • Dorothée Daro

    ─ Director of Operations

    Dorothee has over 10 years of experience in the development of cell therapy products, with a strong background in bioassay development. Before joining ImmunXperts, she worked as a Scientist at Celyad (formerly Cardio3 Biosciences), leading various types of R&D projects both in the field of cardiac regeneration and immuno-oncology (CAR T cells). She then took the role of R&D Lab Manager where she gained experience in team management and significantly contributed to the improvement of the productivity of the department. Her main role as ImmunXperts’ Director of Operations will be to ensure overall lab quality and efficiency.

  • Fabienne Lefevre

    — Office Manager

    Fabienne started her career at Winterthur, an international insurance company, where she gained experience as employee until she became assistant to the CEO. In 1999, she took on a new role at Puilaetco Dewaay, a private bank, as assistant to the executive committee. Originary from Charleroi, she wanted to come back to her home area and help develop a small but fast-growing company through the valuable experience she gained over the years.

  • Ellen Boelen

    ─ Director, Business Development

    Ellen holds a Master in Biology (KU Leuven) and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (EURON, UM). After several post-docs in immunology and neurosciences, she joined LRM as an investment and business development manager in Health & Care. Subsequently, she held business development positions at several life science companies and research organisations. She is now able to combine her two passions in her role at ImmunXperts.

  • Ursula Fels

    ─ Business Developer

    Ursula Fels holds a master’s degree in biotechnology (FBIOyF, UNR) and a PhD in Biochemistry and Biotechnology (Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University). During her 5-year doctoral research project in the field of infection biology she focused on bacterial host-pathogen interactions. She joined the ImmunXperts team to support the Business Development.

  • Sofie Denies

    – Biostatistician

    Sofie Denies holds a Master of Veterinary Medicine and a Master in Statistical Data-analysis. She started her career in immuno-oncology with a PhD that focussed on the optimization of gene therapy for tumor vaccination and cytokine therapy. In 2015, she joined iTeos Therapeutics as a research scientist. There, she developed in-depth experience in in vivo models for immuno-oncology, as well as ex vivo mode of action studies while being responsible for  the overall statistical analysis too. She provides statistical support and insights at ImmunXperts.

  • Séverine Giltaire

    — Senior Scientist

    Séverine has 4 years of experience in research and development. After her PhD in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Namur (2006-2010), she worked 2 years at Quality Assistance as an analyst R&D and gained experience in cellular assays. From 2013 to the beginning of 2015, she successfully managed a scientific research project between the University of Namur and StratiCELL, where she acquired in-depth knowledge in T cell culture and activation.

  • Thibaut Janss

    ─ Senior Scientist

    Thibaut holds a Master degree in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular biology from the University of Liège. He acquired his PhD (2012-2016) at the GIGA research center in Liège, where he acquired a strong experience in the immunology field, working on dendritic cells and T cells interactions. During this period, he also developed an in-depth knowledge of flow cytometry. He joined ImmunXperts as a Senior Scientist.

  • Juliette Lamy

    — Senior Scientist

    Juliette holds a Master degree in Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), which included an internship at UCB. After complementing a 4 year doctoral research project on the inhibition of immune responses in cancer at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brussels, she joined the team as Senior Scientist specialized in immuno-oncology.

  • Jana Schockaert

    ─ Senior Scientist

    Jana holds a Master degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Ghent since 2016, with a specialization in the field of immunology by completing a thesis project about Natural Killer cell differentiation. She started her career as Research Associate in the Cell Based Solutions team at Ablynx, where she gained experience in performing various flow cytometry based assays. She joined ImmunXperts as Scientist.

  • Chloé Ackaert

    ─ Senior Scientist

    Chloé Ackaert holds a Master in Pharmacy and a PhD in Immunology. During her PhD, she focused on the immunogenicity of nitrated Bet v 1.0101, which allowed her to develop in-depth experience on the impact of protein modifications and oligomerisation on the immune response. After participating in the start-up of ImmunXperts, she did a post-doc on the immunogenicity of Nanobodies. She joined the ImmunXperts team again as Senior Scientist.

  • Johan Arnold

    ─ Scientist

    Johan obtained his PhD from the University of Strasbourg in 2015 (France). He performed his PhD work at the IBMC under the supervision of Pr. Muller and Dr. Gros. He studied the implication of autophagy in lymphocytes in auto-immune diseases. Dr. Arnold performed a post doctoral stage in the laboratory of Pr. Imler. He studied cellular vesicle reorganization occurring after virus entry to understand viral subcellular localization. Then, he performed a post-doctoral research fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard (Cambridge, USA) in the laboratory of Pr. Batista. His postdoctoral work was focused on studying regulatory molecular pathway in B cell activation, in the context of vaccination and infection. Johan joined ImmunXperts team in 2020.

  • Aurélie Mazy

    ─ Scientist

    Aurélie holds a Master degree in Biomedical Sciences from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) since 2019, with a specialization in the field of pathophysiology and immunology by completing a master thesis project about specific antigen presentation by tumor cell lines. After completing an internship, she started her career at ImmunXperts as a scientist where she gained experience in performing in vitro assays with a specialization in immunogenicity.

  • Simon Lefèvre

    ─ Scientist

    Simon holds a master’s degree in biomedical sciences from the Université de Namur since 2018. After completing an internship within ImmunXperts, he started his career in OncoDNA as Biologist, where in gained experience in the field of oncology and personalized treatment. He joined Immunxperts as Scientist in January 2021.

  • Marina Vendrame

    ─ Laboratory Technician

    Marina holds a Bachelor in agro-industries and biotechnologies from HELHa. After several years’ experience in the vegetal field and phytopathology, she switched to human field by joining ImmuneHealth (now Caprion). Marina is specialized in various immunologic tests, purification of blood cells and cell culture. She joined ImmunXperts as senior lab technician where she uses the valuable experience she gained over the years.

  • Romain Luinaud

    ─ Laboratory Technician

    Romain holds a Bachelor in drug development from the Paris-Est Créteil University. After several years working in immunohematology at the Hôpital Saint-Louis, he decided to specialize in oncology and joined the biopharmaceutical company Oncodesign.

    Romain also specializes in flow cytometry, cell culture and in vitro experiments.

    He joined the ImmunXperts team in 2019 as lab technician in order to hone his skills and share his experience.

  • Jezabel Lefèvre

    ─ Laboratory Technician

    Jezabel holds a Bachelor in Biotechnology from HEPH Condorcet (Ath). During 4months after her studies, she made a training in Culture & Cell therapy (4Cells) at the Biopark. She worked then at Promethera Biosciences in the R&D department for 2 years. There she gained experience in cell culture, flow cytometry and ELISA tests.  She joined Immunxperts as a Lab technician.

  • Seda Halaceli

    ─ Technician – Lab support

    Currently in the third year of a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. She completed internships at ImmunXperts, after which she joined the team in August 2020 as a technician lab- support.

  • Mareva Cervelin

    ─ Laboratory Technician

     

  • Luc Franssen

    ─ Flow Citometry specialist