Chondropeptix is a biotechnology company developing peptide-based drugs to stimulate cartilage regeneration in joints of patients with cartilage defects, such as osteoarthritis or focal cartilage defects.

Yvo Graus, PhD MBA                        |    CEO

Yvo Graus is a biotech professional with extensive experience in pre-clinical development of antibody based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. He previously served as Vice President Pre-clinical Operations at Genmab and was responsible for the pre-clinical development of several antibody discovery programs including darzalex. Before joining Genmab he was Head of Immunology Research at Numico Research, Wageningen.
He holds a MSc in Medical Biology from University of Amsterdam, a PhD in Molecular Immunology from Maastricht University and a MBA from Businesschool Nederland.

Lodewijk van Rhijn, PhD MD           |    CDO

Lodewijk van Rhijn is professor of orthopedic surgery at MUMC+. He is chair of the department of orthopedic surgery and heading clinical operations and research strategy. He is chairman of the multidisciplinary translational research Maastricht Movement Centre. He received his MD title in 1990, holds a PhD in medicine from Maastricht University and was appointed as professor in orthopedic biotechnology in 2008.

Pieter Emans, PhD MD                    |    CMO

Pieter Emans is orthopaedic surgeon at MUMC+ and specialized in arthroscopic surgery and prosthetics of the knee and shoulder since 2010. He finished his PhD in 2007 focused on Cartilage biology, exploring the possibility to generate cartilage at an ectopical site and repair cartilage defects with this approach.  This work received the Goran Bauer grant of the Nordic Orthopaedic Federation (NOF) and a long lasting grant (LLP 14) of the Dutch Arthritis Society (Reumafonds). After completing his medical specialization, he did a Lars Peterson fellowship in knee surgery and cartilage recovery in the US (Boston, Chicago, San Diego and LA). 

Tim Welting, PhD                             |    CSO

Tim Welting is professor at the department of orthopedic surgery of MUMC+ and an expert in molecular cartilage biology. He is head of the Laboratory for Experimental Orthopedics and is principal investigator and group leader of the Molecular Cartilage Biology research group. He received his PhD in biochemistry from the Radboud University Nijmegen in 2007.

Rob Verheggen, MSc                        |    CFO

Rob Verheggen is an accounting and finance professional with over a decade of experience in private equity, public accounting and consulting gained during his years at global consulting firm EY. In addition, he previously served as CFO of a Dutch private equity company. With experience in audit, tax and financial reporting in various industries, he has a broad knowledge base to draw from to support companies. As both an accountant and entrepreneur he is passionate about advising (startup) companies to strategically organize and grow their business and reach their goals. Rob holds a MSc in Accounting and Auditing from Nyenrode Business University.   

Febriyani Damanik, Dipl.Ing, MSc   | Senior Scientist/Manager

Febriyani Damanik is a biomedical engineer with over 10 years of experience in tissue regeneration and 3 years in medical start-up companies. She has a Biomedical Engineering degree, with a specialization in Bioinformatics from Swiss Germany University, and a Diplom-Ingenieur in Mechanical Engineering from Fachhochschule Südwestfalen. She was awarded an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship and obtained a double Master degree in Nanotechnology and Molecular Bioengineering from KU. Leuven and TU Dresden. She started her research in tissue regeneration and biomaterials during her PhD in University Twente, and Postdoctoral work at MERLN, Maastricht University.