In this interview, we spoke to Dr. Jeroen de Groot, Ncardia’s new Divisional Chief Executive, about the past and the future of Ncardia. Continue reading to uncover Ncardia's exciting innovations and don't miss Dr. Jeroen de Groot's exclusive hint on what's ahead for the company this year!
Dr. Jeroen de Groot has a robust background in leading international contract research organizations and expertise in innovation, drug discovery, and development. He holds a biology degree from Leiden University and a PhD from Utrecht University Medical Centre. Since joining Ncardia, Jeroen has been tightly involved in leveraging Ncardia’s cutting-edge stem cell technologies to help drug innovators develop much-needed safe and efficacious therapies for patients.
One of the biggest milestones in 2023 was Ncardia’s relocation to our new headquarters in Leiden, Netherlands, to support our growing team and increased laboratory capacity. I joined at the beginning of 2024 and since then, I have focused on elaborating a new business strategy as well as strengthening our presence in the US market. In fact, in Q1, four new members were incorporated to our Business Development team to better support our American clients.
We have developed a five-year strategy focusing on Ncardia’s strengths with the aim of becoming a world leader in stem cell applications. Our main purpose is to develop a focused portfolio of high-quality cells and ready-to-use assays for drug discovery, as well as manufacturing processes for cell supply and regenerative medicine applications. In the coming years, our company will establish and expand on these areas, utilizing proprietary technology and expertise developed over the past decade.
Our uniqueness lies in our comprehensive expertise: from the precise generation of iPSCs and their differentiation into specific cell types, to cultivating them in bioreactors at scale without compromising quality. This enables us to support process development for applications in regenerative medicine.
Beyond cell production, we possess a deep understanding of their practical applications, such as disease modeling and have the capacity to conduct in-house screening.
This understanding extends to effectively utilizing iPSC-derived cells in high-throughput drug discovery assays for any drug modality .
In essence, our strength lies in manufacturing high-quality cells and our profound knowledge of their applications coupled to our excellent customer services.
Ncardia bolster drug discovery by developing disease-relevant assays based on human iPSC technology, applicable to various therapeutic modalities such as small molecules, biologics, cell, gene and RNA therapy. These assays are designed for robustness and can be scale-up and automated to support clients throughout all the stages of drug discovery. With these assays, our clients obtain clinically-relevant data on the efficacy and safety of their candidates, which helps them progress with higher confidence.
In addition, we support regenerative medicine through our capability to effectively develop large-scale differentiation processes together with a broad cell quality and functionality assessment. In addition, we have the expertise to build GMP compliant processes and even initiate GMP manufacturing through our sister company Cellistic. This way we help patients get access to novel cell therapies.
Further, since Ncardia’s models are derived from humans, they support the development of efficacious and safe therapies with a higher probability of reaching patients than animal models. What’s more, since 2023 the FDA does not (always) require animal testing for approval. Thus, by decreasing the reliance on animal models, we help bringing newly developed drugs as soon as possible to the market.
Ncardia is characterized by a transparent and fluent communication with their clients. First, we understand their needs and how our products and services can support their research programs. Knowing that, we elaborate a specific and detailed project to achieve clients’ goals in the best way possible. Then, a dedicated project manager and the full scientific team, stay in close contact throughout their project to update on progress, discuss next steps and adjust the plan if needed.
In the short term, Ncardia is expanding its product portfolio. First, this year we have introduced new cell types such as endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells. For the second half of the year we plan keep expanding our portfolio with atrial cardiomyocytes, and some immune and neuronal cell types.
Second, we are developing novel efficacy models for various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and pain, which will be available later this year.
Additionally, together with Cellistic, we acquired the STAR CRISPR technology, which will facilitate developing custom iPSC services for our clients.
If you're looking to leverage iPCS technology to speed up your therapy development program, reach out to us today!