Industry Advisory Committee

The BioSB Industry Advisory Committee was established to strengthen two critical connections in the Dutch bioinformatics and systems biology ecosystem:

  • the academia–industry interface, and
  • the industry–industry interface.

By creating a dedicated forum for industry voices, the committee aims to align academic and industrial efforts around shared research challenges, infrastructure needs, and talent development priorities.

Objectives

The committee supports sustained industry engagement in BioSB by:

  • Catalyzing collaboration on pre-competitive research and innovation
  • Co-developing training and mentorship initiatives to support career development and upskilling
  • Shaping the BioSB Industrial User Platform (BIUP v2.0) and activating new activities across the BioSB community
  • Organizing high-impact industry contributions to BioSB conferences, sessions, and events

Advisory Committee Members

  • Ali May (Chair) – Team Lead Connected Data Insights, dsm-firmenich

Ali May bridges data, research, and teams to drive innovation in health and nutrition. His team at dsm-firmenich specialises in integrating internal and external datasets and advanced modelling to drive scientific discovery and product innovation. Ali also strengthens academia-industry collaboration through his role in BioSB community building.

  • Geo Velikkakam James – Research Leader Computational Biology, Rijk Zwaan

Geo Velikkakam James is the Research Leader for Computational Biology at Rijk Zwaan, one of the world’s leading vegetable breeding companies. He holds a PhD  in Bioinformatics from the Max Planck Institute. His research focuses on leveraging bioinformatics and AI to drive innovation in plant breeding. Geo is passionate about exploring emerging technologies and fostering collaborations to gain scientific insights and develop practical applications.

  • Harry van Haaften – Chief Executive Officer, The Hyve

Harry van Haaften is the CEO of The Hyve, a company dedicated to enabling open science and highly specialised in computational solutions for life sciences research. With a background in Human Nutrition and Business Administration from Wageningen University, he brings more than 30 years of management experience. Harry’s mission is to advance the adoption of FAIR data principles and foster collaboration across the life sciences ecosystem.

  • Vitor Martins dos Santos – Professor Biomanufacturing & Digital Twins, Wageningen University & Research

Vitor Martins dos Santos is a Professor and the Chair of Systems and Synthetic Biology at Wageningen University & Research. He heads the Wageningen Centre for Systems & Synthetic Biology and leads research on designing “cell factories” and reprogramming microbes, such as Pseudomonas putida, for industrial and medical applications.