Raf Roelands

Broken String Biosciences is a genomics company that is building a technology platform to drive the development of cell & gene therapies that are safer by design.

Hypervision Surgical Ltd is a spin-out company formed from Kings College London and was founded by a team of clinicians, medical imaging and artificial intelligence (AI) experts. Based on safe light alone, our goal is to equip clinicians with advanced computer-assisted tissue analysis for improved surgical precision and patient safety.

Protealis is an innovative company fostering the cultivation of sustainable plant-based proteins in Europe. We develop superior seeds and seed technologies for legume crops that are adapted to our local environment. By combining innovation in breeding and nitrogen fixation we create new opportunities for European farmers to help overcome Europe’s protein deficit and provide local sourcing options for the growing number of producers of meat and milk alternatives.

MRM Health NV is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative therapeutics based on the human microbiome.The company is based in a Center of Expertise for microbiome research and development in the biotech cluster in Ghent, Belgium, and has a strategic partnership with the VIB, with top research groups in both microbiome analysis and ecology and in host biology and disease research. The Company is strategically supported by strong local and international investors, including Ackermans & van Haaren, DuPont, MRM Technologies, Qbic II and VIB and has a corporate collaboration with DuPont Nutrition Biosciences in the development of microbiome-based therapeutics for metabolic diseases. MRM Healths proprietary technology platform brings live microbial therapeutics development to the next level by combining rationally selected strains into synergistic consortia through a proprietary optimization process.

Our mission is to help life sciences companies accelerate drug development for improved patient outcomes, and we do this by championing the power of data. Our main product DISQOVER is an optimized search or knowledge platform which draws on semantic technology and an ontology-based knowledge graph to find links between data across databases (internal data, public data and third party data) faster and more efficiently. The platform has been developed for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. There are thousands of health research databases, clinical trials, literature reviews, patient studies, etc. available. Before setting up a new study, scientists first need to check what kind of research has already been done – both internally and externally – on, for instance, growth hormone applications for a particular disease. In many companies, even internal information resides in hundreds of different databases, each with their own interface and search logic. As a consequence, just finding this kind of background information is a very time-consuming process. This is where DISQOVER comes in. One of the assets is that we use semantic technology to find logical but often hidden connections between internal and external data, allowing you to easily combine information from a multitude of different sources. As such, pharma and biotech companies can save valuable time and money that they can now invest in developing new medicines or treatments. Customers include: AstraZeneca, AmGen, Medidata, Prinses Máxima Institute, Aelin Therapeutics and more. DISQOVER is used amongst others by scientific researchers, bioinformaticians, and data scientists. Try DISQOVER: our community edition is always up-to-date and accessible via www.ontoforce.com (choose “try now” top right corner)

Quantum-Mechanics and Machine Learning Drug Discovery. Pharmacelera develops proprietary Computer-Aided Drug Design software and provides access to its technology through flexible licensing options and computational chemistry services. The methodology mines an unexploited chemical space, finding starting points with larger chemical diversity and improving the creativity of chemists. The technology is based on accurate Quantum-Mechanics algorithms, Machine Learning and High-Performance Computing (HPC) and it derives from more than 25 years of research. Pharmacelera helps companies in Target Identification, Hit-Identification, Hit-to-Lead and Lead Optimization drug discovery stages by finding novel hits, improving ligand binding properties (ADME, Tox, ...), obtaining insights of ligand / receptor interactions and identifying original backup compounds. Learn more on how to de-risk your drug discovery project by emailing us at contact@pharmacelera.com or by visiting our webpage at www.pharmacelera.com

Transforming patient care through imaging AI. Founded in 2011, icometrix (Leuven, Belgium; Boston, USA) strives for data-driven insights and personalized patient care, supported by artificial intelligence. icometrix offers a portfolio of AI solutions to assist healthcare with various challenges; icobrain extracts data from brain MRI and CT scans for the radiological reporting and clinical management of neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, brain trauma, epilepsy, stroke, dementia, and Alzheimers disease. icompanion, a digital platform, and the mobile app helps people with MS and their care team to monitor clinical symptoms and treatments efficiently and objectively. icolung addresses the COVID-19 pandemic by measuring lung involvement on chest CT. Today, icometrix is internationally active and integrated into more than 300 clinical practices. In addition, icometrix collaborates with healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies on the evaluation of drug research for neurological disorders.

Broken String Biosciences is a genomics company that is building a technology platform to drive the development of cell & gene therapies that are safer by design.

Hypervision Surgical Ltd is a spin-out company formed from Kings College London and was founded by a team of clinicians, medical imaging and artificial intelligence (AI) experts. Based on safe light alone, our goal is to equip clinicians with advanced computer-assisted tissue analysis for improved surgical precision and patient safety.

HERAN PARTNERS is a Belgian-based investment fund founded by Annie Vereecken together with Katleen Vandersmissen, Joris Mortelmans and Herman Verrelst within the sector of MedTech and Digital Health. With a clear focus on European HealthTech, the fund provides venture & growth capital accompanied by a strong network, expertise and mentorship to startups and scale-ups with a strong technology platform and market potential. We strive to have impact!