What are the people like at Hudson River Biotechnology?
We bring together the best people. Our HRB team members are experts in their fields and dedicated to take responsibility for a sustainable future. Within our work, we value innovation, integrity and personal development. Above all, every member of our team works towards a common goal.
HRB strives to be diverse and inclusive. Our people come from a range of different backgrounds and expertises. For example, currently more than 13 nationalities work at HRB! Such diversity helps us excel.
Our management
Ferdinand Los, PhD
Lotte Westerhof, PhD
R&D Director
Lotte joined HRB early on. In and around the lab, she is best known for her fast-paced talking. The most exciting thing about HRB? ‘We are not only planning great things, we’re actually doing them!’
Favorite plant: Fern
Nationality: Dutch
Gabino Sanchez, PhD
Sales & Business Development Director
Gabino’s passion affects everything he does. Whether it’s brainstorming about new innovations, or cooking a nice paella, he gives it his all. In his position, Gabino aims to build a bridge between technological innovation and market pull. To him, HRB is an organization that blends science, boldness and positive energy with an ambitious goal: apply technologies to change the world into a better place.
Favorite plant: Ginkgo biloba
Nationality: Spanish
Our scientific advisory board
Patricia Dankers
Professor Dankers advises us on the design, development and implementation efforts with regard to automation and scaling of the TiGER workflow.
Enrico Mastrobattista
Professor Mastrobattista advises us on our nanoparticle delivery systems.
John van der Oost
Professor van der Oost advises us on the further refinement of our TiGER workflow, for example through the development and application of improved proteins.
Our team
Unfortunately we cannot include all the members of our team, but here is a selection of some of the people that work at Hudson River Biotechnology.
Alberto Natali
Alberto is HRB’s solution-oriented scientist in the plant biochemistry department. He comes from a strong background in plant physiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, spectroscopy and imaging. Working at HRB stimulates his creativity and motivates him in his pursuit of innovation. He loves that the team at HRB is not scared to explore challenging ideas that can lead to groundbreaking discoveries.
Favorite plant: Wilson, his bonsai tree
Nationality: Italian
Inge van Bussel
Inge is HRB's in-house vegan (who would love for HRB to play a role in the meat revolution...) She supports the R&D team by managing all communication and timing around existing and upcoming projects. She particularly enjoys the fast growth of the company combined with the exciting and highly innovative activities that are taking place.
Favorite plant: Weeping willow
Nationality: Dutch
Michael Torgbor
Michael is known as the maize guy here at HRB. Why? You’ll have to ask him when you see him. Michael’s ambition to improve crops and contribute to sustainability perfectly aligns with his work at HRB. The diversity and world class skillset of the team makes his job even better.
Favorite plant: Maize
Nationality: Ghanaian
Judit Hunyadkürti
Judit joined HRB to be part of a challenging and exciting new journey to shape the future of therapeutic applications. A biotech revolutionist, she implements crosstalk between company platforms and expedites new tools and scientific visions.
Favorite plants: Tomato & Strawberry
Nationality: Hungarian
Lena Maas
Lena works in HRB’s Genetics team. She is a molecular biologist with a strong background in plant regeneration. She enjoys that no day is like the other at HRB! The colorful and creative personalities surrounding her ánd HRB’s strong affinity for innovative solutions to many world’s problems, get her out of bed every morning. No challenge – the bigger the better even – will scare her!
Favorite plants: Monsteras
Nationality: German
Kitty Huijben
Kitty can be best described as knowing a lot about a lot! She makes sure that our R&D team can do their work, but she also takes care of our innovation projects.
The ambitious, dynamic, and social environment is what makes her happy to be a part of the HRB team.
Favorite plants: Freesia
Nationality: Dutch
Valentino Giarola
Valentino takes the lead in our Single Cell Regeneration work. He enjoys researching and developing ways to remove barriers that hamper the full application of gene editing in plants. By identifying crucial factors in cell proliferation, he helps to solve the primary bottlenecks of the regeneration of a single cell back into a plant. The journey aimed to create high-quality, safe, and sustainable crops, is what motivates him.
Favorite plants: Extromophile plant species
Nationality: Italian
Valérie Hoogers
Valérie is a Senior research technician in our Plant Tissue Culture team. Besides taking care of many lab tasks, she is also involved in realizing automation. The speed at which the teams are overcoming bottlenecks in the TiGER workflow and the importance of our approach in food security and a healthier planet is what makes her excited to work at HRB. She believes that we are a group of very skilled and enthusiastic people, generating amazing results. Besides working hard, she is known for being a passionate activist and for her bicycle commuting from Utrecht to Wageningen (and taking on ridiculous cycling challenges!).
Favorite plant: Ginkgo Biloba
Nationality: Dutch
Venkatesh Prasad
Venkatesh is HRB’s scientific lead of the Plant Regeneration Technologies-team. His two decades of research experience, makes him a valuable expert in plant biotechnology. He is passionate about the implementation of in vitro tools to regenerate different crops. He strongly believes in collaboration, innovation, and speed. This is his mantra for technology-based impact. He never shies away from any recalcitrance crop and views this as an opportunity to innovate and implement new technologies. He strives to have a scientific impact in the global sustainable goals.
Favorite plant: any recalcitrant crop
Nationality: Indian
Lukas Blumberg
Lukas is a PhD candidate from the Wageningen University working on gene editing. He is our expert on Homology-directed repair (HDR) which is a challenging aspect of CRISPR. The most exciting about HRB for Lukas is HRB’s potential to revolutionize agriculture and address the pressing challenges in food production. He enjoys HRB’s young and highly diverse team. The scale-up mentality in which nothing is set in stone provides a dynamic work experience with a lot of space for personal development and growth.
Favorite plant: Desmodium gyrans (aka the dancing plant) – It appreciates his Techno playlist.
Nationality: German
Menno Pijnenburg
Menno coordinates everything around our plant research. Competence and a can-do attitude are his favourite traits of professionalism. The effort to provide a tailor-made approach for each project is his favourite trademark of the company. Personal aims: Smoothing out communication between all layers of the company, increasing the focus of conducted research, and safeguarding the forward momentum of projects. Speaking of communication, he loves conversations, especially once the small talk is done!
Favorite plant: Tāne Mahuta, the so-called ‘God of the Forest’ Kauri tree
Nationality: Dutch
Jelle van Creij
Jelle is HRB’s Specialist Genetics and Bioinformatics. He designs guides, analyses sequences, and conducts data management. He also develops new bioinformatics tools and loves to work on HRB’s many different types of projects that ask for creative and innovative ideas. Jelle is known for his love for peanut butter (even though it is only because of the practical room-temperature storage option), ‘excellent’ taste in movies, and being HRB’s Pun-master!
Favorite plant: Capsicum chinense v. red habanero
Nationality: Dutch