Bindert Vriesema PhD

Dr. Bindert Vriesema is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of Avalanche Medical, bringing more than 30 years of biopharmaceutical- and chemical industry experience to this position.

For the past two years, Dr. Vriesema has worked as a Business-to-Business consultant and entrepreneur. Prior to this period, he served in Pfizer and was responsible in Pfizer CentreOne for the Global Sales of all Business-to-Business activities, like Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Intermediates, Contract Manufacturing of Small- and Large molecules and Finished Dosage Forms. Prior to his time at Pfizer, he worked for DSM and he held positions of increasing responsibility in Research and Development, Global Marketing and Sales, Human Resources and Profit and Loss responsible Business Management. Dr. Vriesema graduated and received his PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Groningen.

Alex Roth PhD

Dr. Alex Roth is Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and co-founder of Avalanche Medical. Dr. Roth is also an assistant professor at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC+).

Dr. Roth is a biomedical engineer with 10 years of experience in orthopedic medical device development. His expertise is the in vitro biomechanical and mechanical testing of medical devices, the in silico design and evaluation of surgical instruments, and the preclinical in vivo evaluation of medical devices. He has worked in public-private collaboration projects for the past ten years, which has led to the initiation of one clinical trial with a medical device developed in a public-private collaboration. Dr. Roth is listed as an inventor on four patent applications. Dr. Roth has been involved in the SyCap project from its beginning in 2015 and has driven the development of the SyCap implant.

Pieter Emans MD PhD

Dr. Pieter Emans is Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and co-founder of Avalanche Medical. Dr. Emans is also an Orthopedic Surgeon at Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC+).

Clinically, Dr. Emans focusses on joint preserving surgeries of the knee and the shoulder. He is also the chair of The Clinical Trial Bureau of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, MUMC+. Pieter is a 2010 International Cartilage Regeneration and Joint Preservation Society (ICRS) Lars Peterson travelling fellow and co-chair of the ICRS registry committee.

Dr. Emans finished his PhD research in 2007, which focused on cartilage regeneration using ectopically transplanted autografts. This work received the Goran Bauer grant of the Nordic Orthopaedic Federation (NOF) and resulted in a long lasting research grant (LLP 14) from the Dutch Arthritis Society (Reumafonds). Dr. Emans was one of the instigators and work-package leader of the Chemelot InSciTe SyCap project.