Team
PacingCure is all about innovation
PacingCure was founded in Amsterdam in 2016 as a spin-off company from the Amsterdam University Medical Center Heart Center and the Department of Medical Biology.
Frans van den Berg, MSc MBA
CEO
Frans has over 30 years of experience in leadership roles in the pharmaceutical, biotech, medtech, digital health, venture capital and CRO industry.
A biomedical scientist by training, started as a clinical research scientist at the Erasmus University Academic Hospital Rotterdam, followed by various international clinical development roles in a CRO and within the pharmaceutical company Organon.
Completed a corporate MBA program and moved to business and commercial roles in business development, strategy, M&A and M&S within Organon BioSciences and its successor Schering-Plough (now Merck).
Since 2008 in various C-level, advisory and supervisory board positions including: Venture General Manager at the Philips Healthcare Incubator, Chief Business Officer at Bionovion (later Aduro), CEO at Ceronoco Biosciences, at Cardialysis, and at Lead Pharma, supervisory board member and chair positions, and serving as an advisor to several start-up and venture capital companies. Raised over € 1.6 bln in dilutive and non-dilutive funding. Currently holding several C-level and advisory positions including CEO at Pacing Cure.
Gerard Boink, MD, PhD
CSO, co-founder
Cardiologist and one of the leading experts on gene therapy for cardiac arrhythmias
During his medicine study at the Amsterdam University Medical Center (AUMC), Dr. Gerard Boink, in collaboration with Dr. Hanno Tan, Prof. Jacques de Bakker and Prof. Vincent Christoffels, started research into genetic aspects of cardiac pacing, and continued this line of research at Columbia University (New, York, USA) with Prof. Michael Rosen. Dr. Boink holds an MSc in pharmaceutical sciences from Utrecht University (2006), an MSc in medicine from the University of Amsterdam (2006), and MD and PhD degrees from the University of Amsterdam (2013; both cum laude). His translational research has been supported by various prestigious personal and consortium grants, including grants from the Dutch Heart Foundation (Dr. Dekker Program), ZonMW (Veni), and European Research Council (Starting Grant and PoC Grants), and European Innovation Council (Pathfinder and Transition Grants).
Hanno Tan, MD, PhD
CMO, co-founder
Associate Professor of Cardiology and Principal Investigator of the Heart Center at the AUMC
He started the biological pacemaker project at the AUMC in 2005 supported by a project grant of the Dutch Heart Foundation, and as a cardiologist has always had a keen eye for clinical applicability. Dr. Hanno Tan obtained several gene therapy-oriented grants from NWO (Take-Off), Health Holland (TKI), Dutch Heart Foundation, Rembrandt Institute for Cardiovascular Science, and Mkb-Innovatiestimulering regio en Topsectoren (MIT). He has also received various EU-funded grants (Horizon2020, EU-COST, FP7) and personal grants from ZonMW (Vici) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
Osne Kirzner, MD, MSc
CBO, co-founder
Anesthesiologist with degree in finance and law
Osne Kirzner handles PacingCure’s corporate and business development. Before joining PacingCure, he served the EQT Life Sciences (formerly LSP) team and, thereafter, served the AUMC’s board of directors researching the effects of strategic outsourcing contracts. He engaged in various specialized professional drug development programs and played an instrumental role in the application and execution of multiple Dutch and European financial SME instruments, such as Health Holland grants (2016 and 2019), NWO grants (2017, 2020), an Innovatiefonds Noord Holland loan (2019), Eureka grants (2020, 2021), and EIC grants (2022, 2023).
Klaus Neef, PhD
Head of Pre-Clinical Development
He is a molecular biologist by training with a PhD degree in Biotechnology from the Institute of Genetics at the University of Cologne. After being involved in research projects on stem cells and regenerative therapies in Cologne and Singapore, Dr. Klaus Neef joined research groups in Utrecht and Amsterdam to focus on translating findings from basic research into clinically applicable therapies. At PacingCure, Dr. Klaus Neef is leading the development and coordination of pre-clinical studies and interactions with scientific and industry partners.
