Vanessa Vankerckhoven

Biography

Vanessa Vankerckhoven is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of Novosanis. Novosanis is a spin-off company from the University of Antwerp and is specialized in medical devices.  Novosanis has two device (platforms) in portfolio: VAX-ID, a medical device suited for injections of e.g. vaccines and biologicals in the dermal layer of the skin; and Colli-Pee, an in vitro diagnostic accessory suited for standardized collection of first void urine for detection of sexually transmitted infections, including Human Papilloma Virus and Chlamydia, but detection of cancer biomarkers (e.g. prostate cancer). Vanessa Vankerckhoven holds a PhD in Medical Sciences. She previously worked as Research & Innovation Manager of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute (VAXINFECTIO) at the University of Antwerp. She was also appointed project manager for the EU-IMI project RAPP-ID (Development of RApid Point-of-Care test Platforms for Infectious Diseases; www.rapp-id.eu). 

Research Interest

Vanessa Vankerckhoven started her career in September 2000 at the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology, Antwerp, Belgium headed by Prof Dr Herman Goossens.  Next to conducting a PhD, she was appointed project manager for the EU-PROSAFE project (safety of probiotics) and subsequently the EU-ESAC project (antimicrobial consumption). From 2004 until 2009 she was also a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Medicine.  Vanessa Vankerckhoven is co-inventor on two patent applications, had published many scientific articles as author and co-author in international peer-reviewed journals and has written several book chapters. She presented scientific work at numerous international and national conferences.