Xintela announces that Lucienne Vonk, previously Director Musculoskeletal Diseases at Xintela, has been appointed Chief Scientific Officer. She takes over the role from the CEO Evy Lundgren-Åkerlund. Lucienne Vonk has a strong background in cell-based therapies for cartilage regeneration, both in academic and industry settings.

She obtained her PhD at the Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (The Netherlands) investigating cartilage tissue engineering, after which she joined the department of Orthopaedics at the University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands). There, her research focused on biological and cell-based therapies for cartilage regeneration, and she was part of a team that developed a one-stage cell-based treatment for focal articular cartilage defects. She also headed the Scientific Liaison department at CO.DON AG (Germany).

She has held several positions on standing committees of the International Cartilage Regeneration and Joint Preservation Society (ICRS) and is senior associate editor for the Journal of Cartilage & Joint Preservation.