Cortalix
Cortalix is a biotechnological company developing PET-imaging diagnostics, targeted radiotherapeutics, CAR-T immunotherapeutics and diagnostics for novel targets based on its proprietary platform of synthetic single domain antibodies in close partnerships with companies.
Our Mission
To work with modern, affordable and animal-free synthetic single domain antibody library technology for the development of next-generation molecular diagnostics, (immuno)therapeutics and bio-analytical tools.
Our Vision
To be among the leading drivers in the development of innovative single domain antibodies for immuno-molecular imaging, targeted radiotherapy and immuno-therapies for patients worldwide
platform
A single domain antibody is an antibody fragment consisting of a single monomeric variable antibody domain. They have been shown to be as specific as regular antibodies, but they offer many more attractive benefits.
At Cortalix we have many years of experience with immune libraries, which has laid the foundation for our synthetic single domain antibody libraries. These offer great opportunities to make completely animal-free new single domain antibody selections and to develop them into innovative and ground breaking clinical products.
Internal Programs
Cortalix has currently developed a pipeline of radiopharmaceuticals targeting fibrogenesis-related membrane receptors and proteins present in early-stage fibrotic diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis, cardiac fibrosis, liver fibrosis, renal fibrosis and various solid cancers with fibrotic stroma, with a special focus on colon cancer.
We have single domain antibodies in development for myofibroblast-specific membrane proteins and receptors, including PDGFRA (CD140a), PDGFRB (CD140b), EGFR, IGF-2R (CD222) and FAP. These single domian antibodies also contain a NOTA chelator that can bind 68-Ga that is suitable for immunoPET imaging. Ultimately, the platform enables a theranostic approach to cancer using the same single domain antibody for patient identification, targeted therapy (e.g. 177-Lu) and disease monitoring.
Partner Programs
Cortalix collaborates with other (radiopharmaceutical) companies and academic institutions in Partner Programs to select and develop new single domain antibodies for attractive (radiopharmaceutical) targets. We are good at that, we understand the characteristics of this field and we will continue to build on that in the future. We select candidate single domain antibodies, we can further improve them with additional cloning steps, modify linkers and spacers, conjugate functional groups and adjust the kinetics with other functional groups.
Services
In addition to collaborations in Partner Programs, we also want to leverage our platform technology and development expertise into a suite of services that we can deliver as an orderly series of steps, ensuring precision and effectiveness in developing single domain antibodies tailored to your specific needs.
executive team
CEO, founder
Herman Steen holds a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Groningen in 1992. He worked at Byk Gulden (Altana Pharma/Nycomed/Takeda) and in 1998 he founded PharmaScope, a clinical contract research and pharma recruitment organization. Following the sale of PharmaScope to Quintiles Transnational Corp. in 2005, the internationally operating orphan drug CRO PSR Group was established and eventually sold to Ergomed plc in 2017. Dr. Steen has extensive experience in the organization of clinical research and as a serial entrepreneur in the field of pharma biotech, he is closely involved in commercialization and bridging preclinical research to the clinic. He co-founded BiOrion and led that company for many years as CEO. Early 2023, BiOrion’s assets were purchased by Cortalix, where he is acting as CEO again.
CBO
Ronald Vos holds a BSc in Analytical chemistry from the Hogeschool Utrecht. He fulfilled positions as Product Manager, Business Development Manager and Distribution/Partner Manager at organizations like Millipore, Thermo Fisher, Luminex, MyCartis, SensID, Delta Diagnostics, and most recently he serves as CEO of CC Diagnostics. He travelled extensively around the globe and worked on both private and governmental projects in different countries. During the 34 years in sales, he spend time on both Research as well as Diagnostics and similar for both Protein and Molecular applications.
VP Discovery & Innovation
Amanda van Tilburg obtained a PhD degree in molecular biology at the University of Groningen in 2021. During her PhD research, she became an expert in genetic engineering of bacteria and heterologous protein expression, which led to various publications in peer-reviewed journals. The focus of Amanda her research at Cortalix is to discover, engineer and produce novel single domain antibodies against several attractive targets.
VP Product Development
Joost Caumanns obtained his PhD in molecular and medical biology from the University of Groningen in 2019. As a translational scientist, he investigated kinase and synthetic lethality targeting strategies for the treatment of ovarian cancer. His postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto focused on the use of CRISPR-Cas9-mediated whole-genome knockout screening to unravel genetic dependencies on immunotherapy resistance in cancer. He then gained experience as a project manager for bioanalytical services at Ardena, in Assen, the Netherlands. At Cortalix, Joost is responsible for the development of products and services based on synthetic single-domain antibody libraries.
Head of Protein Production & Downstream Processing
Michael Runda obtained a PhD in 2025 in the field of synthetic biotechnology from the University of Groningen, where he explored the catalytic potential of enzymes, with a focus on Rieske oxygenases.
During his research, he also established enzyme systems for cell-free catalysis, gaining extensive expertise in recombinant protein purification and enzyme characterization.
At Cortalix, Michael is responsible for optimizing single-domain antibody expression and downstream processing.