Teun Guichelaar (1979) is a biologist who obtained his PhD at the Veterinary Immunology department at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. Here, he studied regulation of inflammation by T cells in the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis. After obtaining his PhD, he continued his research on immune regulation at the University Medical Center Utrecht. As post doc, he studied immune suppression by FOXP3+ regulatory T cells during immunotherapy of cancer. Since 2011, he has been leading a line of research on the effects of aging on immune regulation and immunity to respiratory viruses, at the National Institute for Public Health and The Environment (RIVM) in The Netherlands.

Lidia is Senior Director and Head of Immuno-Oncology department at Crown Bioscience Netherlands. She is passionate about turning transformative ideas and innovation into a great commercial success and she combines advancement of science and business in daily responsibilities.

Lidia has background in Molecular Biology; she obtained her PhD in the department of Oncology and Immunology at the Autonoma University in Madrid, Spain. During her Postdoc at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, Belgium she specialized in cancer immunology and subsequently she switched from academia to industry and became interested in turning the discoveries into products that can make a real difference for cancer patients. As a R&D Scientist at eTheRNA, biotech company developing novel mRNA-based immunotherapies to target cancer, she oversaw completion of technology transition from lab to spin-off and she facilitated business-critical developments, enhancing market position in competitive global field.

In her role as immuno-oncology team leader at OcellO she has successfully built the entire department by designing the strategy and delivering on its objectives by growing and developing highly performing team of scientists with diverse technical profiles.

Tale Sliedrecht is a molecular biologist by training with a background in both public and private organizations. After completion of his PhD at the UMC Utrecht, Tale became team lead at Janssen Biologics in Leiden. In 2015 Tale combined his experience in both public and private organizations and became Programme Manager at Lygature, a not for profit organization specialized in the management of Public Private Partnerships (PPP), here he has managed multiple large European PPP in the area of drug discovery and development. Through Lygature he joined the Oncode institute, an independent non-for-profit cancer research institute. Within the unique structure of Oncode, fundamental research is linked to translational and clinical capabilities, enabling game-changing insights to quickly and efficiently, lead to improved cancer care. Within Oncode Tale currently is head of Strategy, in this role he liaises with important stakeholders such as ministries, charities, private partners and researchers. Together with colleagues Tale sets up of new initiatives, raises funding and ensures the continuation of the institutes for the years to come. 

Reuben Smith has seen both Academia and Industry and after much deliberation has settled on a career in the Industry. Healthcare is rapidly changing and the Industry is evolving with it into a major innovation partner. This certainly comes with challenges as well as great opportunities. Reuben believes that many academics don’t really know what the Industry has to offer and is confident that if they gave it a try they would find it most rewarding and possibly even discover new untapped potential.

Remco Jongkind's aim is to help people move their careers forward by coordinating the Talent Accelerator Programme for BioBusiness at Hyphen Projects. Furthermore he is responsible for the Dutch labour market research of the Health and Life Science Academy, an EU funded consortium. This allows him to obtain a good overview of the current needs of employers. Besides his job at Hyphen Projects he also works as a lecturer at the faculty of medicine at the University of Amsterdam. 

His background is in Biochemistry (Amsterdam University College) and Pharmacology (University of Oxford). His Life Science background allows him to relate to the problems faced by young professionals in finding their career paths. During his career he especially enjoyed helping others and teaching, e.g at the University of Amsterdam and Oxford.