About Us
EXIT071 is an innovative startup company located at the Bioscience Park in Leiden, The Netherlands. The company focuses on analyzing novel exosome biomarkers with their proprietary technology – a platform that purifies, concentrates, and separates complex biological samples.
Meet the team
Yuliya Shakalisava, PhD - CEO & founder
EXIT071 is the direct result of Yuliya’s academic research, life-long passion for science, vision for impact, and a supportive ecosystem of Leiden BioScience Park. She has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry and 15 years of international experience in research, management and fundraising in Ireland, France and Netherlands. Yuliya was awarded Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowship and WomenTechEU grant for top 50 women-led EU start-ups in 2022.
Andrea Capuano, PhD - Marie Sklodowska Curie fellow and product engineer
Andrea has a joint PhD degree in Microfluidics for Life Sciences from “Fondazione Bruno Kessler” (Trento, Italy) and the University of Trento. With a career spanning in academic and industrial settings he specializes in managing product development from concept to prototype, as well as testing medical devices according to verification and validation principles.
Prof. Thomas Hankemeier - Co-Founder
Professor of analytical biosciences and director of metabolomics Analytical Center at Leiden University. He has published over 220 scientific papers and graduated more than 30 PhD students. Thomas is a co-founder of MIMETAS, the worldwide first organ-on-a-chip company. Research interests: metabolomics, lipidomics, analytical chemistry, microfluidics, and translational drug research.
Sonia Montiel - Business Developer
Sonia has 15 years of expereince in International Sales and Business Development in the field of Biopharmaceuticals and holds a degree in Chemical & Biological Engineering from New York University. At EXIT071, she is connecting and building a strong network with exosome companies for the use of our innovative technology. Sonia was a co-founder of an exosome therapeutics start-up company in Belgium.
Scientific Advisors
Natasha Zarovni, PhD – LinkedIn
Dr. Natasa Zarovni has a PhD in molecular and cellular biology and 15 years of experience in Extracellular Vesicle’s biomedical application enabling technologies and innovation driven R&D pipelines and projects, product/process transfer, scaleup and validation, regulatory affairs.
Prof. Antonio Ricco – LinkedIn
Chief technology officer at NASA Ames Research Centre while on assignment from Stanford University. Tony Ricco has a PhD degrees in Chemistry from UC Berkeley and MIT. Experience in chemical microsensors and integrated microsystems, plastic microfluidic systems for genetic analysis, high-throughput pharmaceutical discovery, proteomics, and pathogen detection.
Board Members
Rob Mayfield, Directeur Entrepreneurship Libertatis Ergo Holding B.V – LinkedIn
Director of Libertatis Ergo Holding, a holding company of Leiden University. Rob is an experienced international entrepreneur, CEO and VC investor in various industries, focussed onbringing disruptive technology to market to deliver a positive impact.