Els Beirnaert, PhD and CEO of Aelin Therapeutics, brings along 20 years of experience in drug development, venture and business development. Previously she was one of the start-up pioneers of Ablynx a company established in 2001 focused on biological therapeutics. She was leading multidisciplinary project teams and translating several drug development projects from discovery over pre-clinical development to clinical development (Phase 1 and 2). She joined VIB in 2010 and as Head of New Ventures responsible for the establishment of start-up/spin-out companies in life sciences (diagnostics, therapeutics, agro, CMO businesses). She served in the board of directors of Confo Therapeutics, Q-Biologicals and Multiplicom.  Dr. Beirnaert obtained a Master in Biotechnology at the University of Ghent and a PhD in Biochemistry at the Institute of Tropical medicine (University of Antwerp).