Who are we?

Dirk van Asseldonk

Dirk van Asseldonk is a committed entrepreneur with a strong will to solve the social problem of the excessive prices of advanced therapies for the treatment of rare diseases. Since September 2023, he has been the director of LentiCure .

"We are in a hurry. People with a rare muscle disease or brain disease are deteriorating every day. And the treatment costs continue to rise. Together we have to change the healthcare market for these types of diseases."

Director of LentiCure B.V., a 100% subsidiary of Erasmus MC.
Director and founder of Ventinova Medical. Between 2013 and 2022 he led Ventinova Medical, a company that develops medical ventilation products. Under his leadership, the company grew and became active in more than 20 countries.
Director and founder of Dolphys Medical. A company that develops medical implants and ventilation systems. He later passed on the ventilation activities of this company to Ventinova Medical. More information on Linked-In

Personality

Dirk is known for his ability to bring science and business together and his ability to find new paths for corporate financing. He has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve and works practically, but also empathetically. He always looks for solutions to business challenges, in which he attaches great importance to quality, safety and sustainability.

"For rare diseases, the current healthcare market needs a different approach, otherwise medicines will become too expensive and unattainable. LentiCure is committed to transparent, socially responsible prices. If we make more profit in the future than is necessary to guarantee continuity, then I have not done my job properly. Then we have sold the products at too high a price. At LentiCure, no one has shares, options or a profit distribution. "

Pim Pijnappel

Prof. dr. Pim Pijnappel is a leading scientist specializing in stem cells and genetic techniques. After obtaining his Master's degree in Medical Biology and his PhD at Utrecht University, he did postdoctoral research at the EMBL in Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute in Dresden.

In 2003, he became head of the Netherlands Proteomics Biological Research Center at the UMC Utrecht.

Since 2012, he has been head of Basal Research at the Center for Lysosomal and Metabolic Diseases at the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam.

In 2023, he became the unpaid scientific director of LentiCure. Thanks to Spierziekten Nederland and the Prinses Beatrix Spierfonds, he was appointed special professor of 'Cell and gene therapy'.

You can find more information on Linked-In

Pim Pijnappel is also medical advisor of the diagnostic working group Congenital and metabolic muscle diseases of Spierziekten Nederland and an expert in Pompe disease. His team is preparing a clinical study with gene therapy for this hereditary muscle disease. They use the bone marrow as an ‘enzyme factory’ to treat the disease. The start-up LentiCure plays a crucial role in bringing this therapy to the market, which can probably also be used for other rare diseases.

Personality

Pim Pijnappel is known for his great commitment and expertise. He is determined to find new treatments for serious (rare) diseases through advanced research:

“From a young age, I have been interested, no fascinated, by the processes in the human body. I want to know how they work and how you can respond to them. I want to help patients and correct errors in the human body”.

With the founding of LentiCure and his focus on the development of gene therapy, he – and his team of scientists – are contributing to the development of practical, effective and affordable treatments for complex diseases.

"My goal is to use the potential of stem cells and genome engineering to develop new treatments for previously unsolvable diseases."

Bodil Willumsen

Bodil Willumsen, Ph.D., is an expert in gene therapy manufacturing and works as a CMC consultant in the field of cell and gene therapy. She has led the CMC team at LentiCure since October 2023.

CMC leader at LentiCure since October 2023

Director of Supplier Relationship Teams, between 2016 and 2023, and Technical Project Leader, between 2012 and 2016, at Novartis. During this period, Bodil was responsible for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of the lentiviral vector for Kymriah; the first CAR-T cell therapy to reach the market. She worked with various cell and gene therapy products and was ultimately responsible for the suppliers of Luxturna, an AAV gene therapy for inherited retinal diseases.

Associate director, between 2011 and 2012, and Project Manager, between 2008 and 2010, in CMC at Genmab. More information on LinkedIn.

Bodil has more than 25 years of experience in CMC and biopharmaceutical product development, from preclinical to commercial product. Her experience covers a wide range of biological platforms, from viral vectors, CAR-T and gene therapies to recombinant proteins and ADCs. Four of the products she worked on in the development phases are now commercial products.

Isabel Gordaliza-Alaguero

Dr. Isabel Gordaliza-Alaguero is a biomedical scientist and Regulatory Affairs professional with a strong motivation to translate laboratory innovations into practical solutions that improve patients’ lives. Since March 2025, she has been Head of Regulatory Affairs at LentiCure.

Regulatory Affairs Manager at LentiCure since March 2025.

Regulatory Affairs Officer for lentiviral gene therapies at Erasmus MC between 2022 and 2025. During her time at Erasmus MC, the lentiviral gene therapy for Pompe disease received the Orphan Designation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

PhD researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (Barcelona, Spain) between 2016 and 2021. During her PhD, she studied intracellular processes related to cellular recycling mechanisms known as autophagy, resulting in multiple scientific publications.

Personality

Isabel is a highly analytical and versatile professional with a passion for continuous learning and exploring new disciplines. Driven by the desire to create meaningful change, she focuses on transformative projects that have a lasting positive impact on society. She believes that teamwork and collaboration between all stakeholders are essential to solving complex societal challenges.

Center for Lysosomal and Metabolic Diseases

The Center for Lysosomal and Metabolic Diseases is an internationally recognized center of expertise for metabolic diseases and stands for innovation. Clinicians and basic scientists work together to develop and apply new treatments and high-quality diagnostics.

Given the rarity of many metabolic diseases and the complexity of diagnostics, follow-up and treatment, the presence of centers of expertise is desirable. Within the Netherlands, the Center for Lysosomal and Metabolic Diseases is one of the 6 metabolic centers that fulfill this role.

The center provides customized multidisciplinary care and treatment to patients with complex metabolic disorders from the Erasmus MC, the LUMC and the South West Netherlands region.

Within the center, the departments of Pediatrics, Clinical Genetics, Hospital Pharmacy, Internal Medicine and Neurology work together structurally on scientific research, training and especially patient care. Both children and adult patients are seen in our center. The age-transcending care is guaranteed by the close collaboration between doctors who care for children and adults. This allows us to follow patients throughout their lives.

The Center for Lysosomal and Metabolic Diseases has been recognized by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport as a national expertise center for hereditary metabolic diseases.

For more information, see also https://clmz.nl/homepage

LentiCure International Scientific Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. med. Benedikt Schoser - Chair

Professor Benedikt Schoser is a trained neurologist, neurophysiologist, neurointensivist, palliative medicine physician and muscle pathologist. He is a professor of neurology, senior consultant neurologist and co-chair of the Friedrich-Baur-Institute, Dep. of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany. He chairs our International Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Maria Ester Bernardo MD

Maria Ester Bernardo is a pediatrician and physician-scientist working in the field of HSCT and HSC gene therapy with a focus on both clinical activity and experimental/translational research. Maria Ester is Head of the Pediatric Transplant Unit at San Raffaele Hospital, Clinical Coordinator of the Pediatric Clinical Research Unit at the San Raffaele-Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-Tiget) and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the San Raffaele Vita Salute University Medical School.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Hahn MD

Andreas Hahn is Professor of Pediatrics at the University Hospital Gießen, Germany, and has been Chief Physician of the Department of Pediatric Neurology since 2002. His special areas of interest are pediatric epilepsies, neuromuscular disorders, and neurometabolic diseases. He is particularly interested in research into Pompe disease and has been treating and following such patients for many years.

Prof. Dr. Toni Cathomen

Toni Cathomen is Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and Director of the Institute for Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy at the University Medical Center. His research focuses on improving the efficacy and safety of designer nucleases (CRISPRCas and TALEN) for therapeutic genome editing with the aim of developing novel immune cell therapies (CAR-T cells) and hematopoietic stem cell formulations to treat patients suffering from HIV infection, primary immunodeficiencies and certain types of cancer.

Dr. Eugenio Montini

Eugenio Montini is a permanent Group Leader of a Research Unit and Head of the Vector Integration Core at SR-Tiget. Eugenio Montini's research focuses on the risks associated with the use of gene therapy vectors and develops novel therapeutic vectors with a superior biosafety profile; they also monitor the efficacy, safety and molecular dynamics of blood production in patients transplanted with genetically modified stem cells using viral vectors.