PROF. LEON W.M.M. TERSTAPPEN, MD, Ph.D.

Received his medical degree from the University of Groningen in 1983 and his PhD in 1988 from the University of Twente. In 1987 he started as post-doctoral fellow at the research department of Becton Dickinson Immunocytometry systems in Mountain View CA, USA and held various research positions thereafter.

 

In 1994 he started as Chief Scientific Officer at Immunicon Corporation, Huntingdon Valley, PA, USA and was appointed in 2007 at the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands and in 2023 at the University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany. He retired in 2022 as chair of the department of Medical Cell BioPhysics at the University of Twente.

 

He is an international recognized expert in cytometry and pioneered the detection of rare cells. He was in charge of the development of the CellSearch system, the only FDA cleared platform to enumerate circulating cancer cells in blood, which was awarded the “Prix Galien”, the major prize for in-vitro diagnostics devices. He is recipient of the Max Fulwyler Award for Innovative Excellence and is listed as an inventor of 53 issued USA patents. Web of Sciences (4-15-2023); 401 publications; h-index 72; 27,271citations.

 

At Immunicon Corporation fund raising totalled 135,814.000 $ targeting mainly the investment community. At the University of Twente funding raising for research from industrial sponsors and Dutch and European funding agencies, which up to now totalled 37,397.000 €. He was the coordinator of the EU FP7-Health, CTCTrap from 2012-2015, the program leader of the STW Perspectief program Cancer-ID and co-leader of the EU IMI program CANCER-ID from 2015-2020.

 

Current research efforts are mainly focussed on technology development that can improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients.