About us

Terapet SA was incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland on 19.12.2019. The founders are Dr. Christina Vallgren (PhD in Applied Physics, MSc in Nuclear Physics and MBA), Dr. Marcus Palm (PhD in Applied Physics, MSc in Engineering Physics and Electronics) and Prof. Raymond Miralbell (Radiation Oncologist 40+ years).

Terapet is a CERN MedTech spin-off and has developed an innovative platform technology: a novel gamma ray detection system for imaging in nuclear medicine.

Terapet develops, manufactures and sells medical devices for nuclear imaging. Our products will be used at hospitals, pharmaceutical industry, research centres and proton therapy facilities.

Timeline
2019.10.04​
Terapet awarded CHF 100.000 FIT Tech Seed.
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2019.10.17
Terapet won Swiss BIC of CERN Technologies and awarded a cash grant of CHF 50.000.
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2019.12.19
Terapet SA officially incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland and joined Fongit.
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2019.12.19
Terapet SA among Top 10 at Swiss Innovation Challenge 2019.
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2020.07.01
Successful closing of the seed investment round of CHF 1 Million.
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2020.07.10
Terapet and CERN started 3 years’ R&D collaboration within Innosuisse Innovation Project Fund.
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2020.08.27
Terapet wins Venture Kick Stage III, total CHF 150.000.
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2021.01.01
Terapet became R&D partner with the world class institutes (CERN, Karolinska and Skandion Clinic) and was awarded a total of CHF 1.530.000 non-dilutive funds.
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2021.06.01
Terapet SA and The Politecnico di Milano – Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria entered a Research and Development partnership for the coming three years.
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2023.02.17
Terapet successful closing of New Investment Round of CHF 2.3 Millions.
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2023.04.26
Terapet awarded with the Innosuisse certificate.
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2023.06.10
Terapet showcased the first product, QualyscanTM to the particle therapy community at this year’s PTCOG in Madrid.
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2023.06.22
Terapet is awarded a non-dilutive funding of CHF 2.3 Million through SIP by Innosuisse to advance the next generation nuclear imaging technology.
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2023.10.13
Terapet SA together with their South Korean partners Yonsei Cancer Center (The first Heavy Ion Therapy Center in Korea) and Oncosoft Inc. are awarded CHF 3 Million in non-dilutive funds through a bilateral innovation project funded by Innosuisse and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).
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2024.03.01
Terapet SA together with their clinical partner Inselspital Department of Nuclear Medicine from Switzerland and R&D partners Politecnico di Milano and Nuclear Instruments from Italy are awarded EUR 1’677’000 through the Eurostars Program by the EUREKA countries and the European Commission.
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Our Team

PhD in Applied Physics (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden/CERN). MSc in Applied Physics and Nuclear Engineering (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden). MBA (Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden). PMP (Project Management Professional). Staff Physicist at CERN 12+ years. Before coming to CERN, Christina earned an MSc degree in nuclear physics from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden and did her master thesis in evaluation and study of control rods performance in various nuclear power plants. The work was carried out at Westinghouse, Sweden and KKL, nuclear power plant in Leibstadt, Switzerland. In 2008 she joined CERN for a PhD in applied physics and has worked there for the last 12 years (Summer Student 2007 -> PhD 2008-2011 -> Senior Research Fellow 2011-2014 -> Staff Physicist 2014-2019). Christina was the main responsible for the LHC (Large Hadron Collider, 27 km, the world’s biggest accelerator) Beam Vacuum (the world’s biggest vacuum system) Operation and has also been the supervisor for five master students and two fellows. She is also a scientific journal referee for IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. In 2021, Christina was nominated and awarded by the CERN Directors for the remarkable career trajectory from physics at CERN to medical/entrepreneurial fields. This was the first time CERN awarded their alumni for the impact they made after the career at CERN.

Christina Vallgren
Dr. Christina Vallgren, MBA
CEO | CO-founder | Board of directors - Member

PhD in Applied Physics (Vienna University of Technology, Austria/CERN). MSc in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering (Linköping University, Sweden). Detector Physicist at CERN 13 years: expertise in hadron therapy design, commissioning, CE-certification of medical devices, development of high performance detector systems, various detection technologies and data analysis. Marcus earned an MSc degree in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering from Linköping University, Sweden. He joined CERN in 2006 and carried out his master thesis in design, implementation and operation of diamond detectors and electron multipliers for a novel kind of neutrino factory. During 2008-2011, he did a PhD at MedAustron/CERN on performance requirement of the entire beam delivery system from the accelerator to the patient, and translated clinical requirements on dose quality into hardware specifications on different elements. Directly after his PhD, Marcus continued at MedAustron as Systems Engineer in the Medical Frontend-group. He was then responsible for the system architecture of different patient safety systems and subsystem integration. Later, he was also working on system validation of the entire facility as a single medical device, for CE-certification. Before the creation of Terapet, he was the main responsible for two light-based detectors in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

Marcus Palm
Dr. Marcus Palm
CТO | CO-founder | Board of directors - member

Medical director at Centro de Protonterapia of Quirónsalud, Madrid, Spain, since 2019. Chairman of Servei de Radiooncologia at Institut Oncològic Teknon of Quironsalud, Barcelona, Spain. Chairman and Associated Professor of the Radiation Oncology Division, at the University Hospitals of Geneva (Switzerland) 2006-2019. Chairman of the Swiss Proton Users Group 2000 - 2008. Radiation oncologist trained from 1979 through 1989 in the University of Barcelona and the University of Harvard. Main research domain: Prostate cancer, breast cancer, proton therapy. - Imaging for radiotherapy treatment planning - Treatment precision optimization through image guided radiotherapy - Tracing of the biochemical relapse after curative surgery or radiotherapy - Prognostic value of hypoxic markers (pathological and imaging) - Quality of life studies in fragile patients on androgen deprivation - Biological modeling of prostate cancer response to irradiation and fractionation sensitivity. - Biological modeling for salvage radiotherapy after post-irradiation local failure - Stereo-tactic beam radiotherapy for prostate, gynecologic, ocular/orbital, and oligometastatic tumors.

Raymond Miralbell
Prof. Raymond Miralbell, M.D. Ph.D.
CSO | CO-founder

Joined Terapet in June, 2022. From 1997 in the Medical Imaging industry, first as an Account Manager & Modality Sales Specialist for Marconi (formally Picker) & Philips; then as a Marketing, Sales & Service director for Swiss Medical Care (contrast media injectors) and finally various managing roles at Bracco Injeneering (Radiology Medical Devices) part of the Bracco Imaging pharmaceutical group. During these 7 years at Bracco Injeneering, Hervé started with operational roles such as Sales & Marketing support and the management of the Customer Service global organization. Then he moved up to a strategic role as the Upstream Marketing Director. He was in charge of the definition of the product roadmap, assessing new business opportunities, conducting market researches and managing business intelligence. And finally, he managed the product training worldwide within the organization. Hervé holds an EPFL Master’s degree in Microelectronics and a HEC post-graduate degree in Business Management. This dual technical & business backgrounds allows him to easily interact and understand customer needs and unmet needs and translate them into technical specifications.

Hervé Duffour
Hervé Duffour
Marketing & Sales Director

Joined Terapet in January, 2020. Project Manager with in depth knowledge of quality assurance systems for medical devices (ISO 13485), risk analysis (ISO 14971) and software life cycle (IEC 62304). Founder of FilFla (BE). Expertise: Successful design, development, FAT/SAT and CE-certification of an operating ion beam therapy facility. Electronic design and development.

Maarten Shokker
Maarten Schokker
Regulatory & quality consultant

Joined Terapet in March, 2024. PhD in Applied Physics (RWTH Aachen, Germany / CERN), MSc in experimental physics (Utrecht University, Netherlands). Before joining Terapet, Rosalinde held a position as Senior Scientific Affairs Associate at Veranex Switzerland SA (before Medidee Services SA), where she worked for more than 2.5 years as a consultant in medical devices. In that position, she has (co-)written 20+ Clinical Evaluations for medical devices of risk class I-III, including implantable, and has written a variety of other Technical Documents, such as, SSCPs, PMS/PMCF plans, V&V Summary Plans & -Reports. She has furthermore co-developed statistics activities within the company, and performed statistical analysis of clinical data and sample size calculations. Prior to her work as a consultant, Rosalinde held a doctoral position at CERN, where she has been involved in various European, multidisciplinary pojects, in both pure academic collaborations as well as collaborations with industry, for the development of scintillator technologies for PET scanners. She has especially focused on developments for ultrafast timing for TOF-PET.

Rosalinde Pots
Dr. Rosalinde Pots
Regulatory & Quality Manager

Joined Terapet in January, 2021. PhD in Particle Physics (University of Cambridge, UK), MPhys in Physics (University of Oxford, UK). Before joining Terapet, Ben held a CIO (Chief Information Officer) position at Milkalyser Ltd, a biotech start-up based in Exeter, UK. At Milkalyser, Ben led the lab and field validation of the company's automated hormone analysis system. Milkalyser was acquired by Lely NV in January 2020. Following the acquisition, Ben acted as the technical contact between the Exeter development team and the parent company. In 2018, Ben completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge, focusing on the analysis of data from the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC at CERN) in search of exotic physics processes.

Ben Brunt
Dr. Ben Brunt
senior data scientist

Joined Terapet in April, 2021. PhD in Electrical Engineering (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany / CERN), MSc in Electrical Engineering (Hochschule Karlsruhe, Germany). Before joining Terapet, Michael held a RF Electronics Engineer position at Lawrence Berkeley Labs (LBL) in US for the last five years. At LBL, Michael worked on design, development and troubleshooting of instrumentation and control systems in the ALS (Advanced Light Source) accelerator complex. Prior to that, Michael did his master thesis, his PhD thesis and the postdoctoral fellowship at CERN during 2009-2016.

Michael Betz
Dr. Michael Betz
senior electronics engineer

Joined Terapet in September, 2023. Graduate engineer from the Ecole des Mines de Paris. Before joining Terapet, Philippe worked for 10 years at the CEA, in particular on the processing of flash X-ray images for hydrodynamic tests. He then joined Snecma (SAFRAN) to work on product support engineering for the CFM56 aircraft engine. After ten years, he returned to his true passion, software development, working for several start-ups.

Philippe_v2
Philippe Guerville
SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Joined Terapet in July, 2022. BSc in Industrial Design Engineering, specialized in ergonomics & industrial design at HES-SO (Haute école ARC Neuchatel). Before joining Terapet, Robin worked in the development of several projects in the engineering field, such as the update of automated assembly lines and the development of bicycle frames.

Robin Chappuis
Robin Chappuis
technical design engineer

Joined Terapet in September, 2023. BSc in Mechanical Engineering at HES-SO with a Eco-Design specialization (University of Applied Sciences Geneva - HEPIA) and CFC in Electronics. While working at Terapet, Sebastien is also pursuing a MSE in Mechanical Engineering at HES-SO. In parallel of his Bachelor's degree, Sebastien was the Microtechnic and Mechanic Project Manager during 4 years at the Junior Enrteprise of his School. He gained professional experience and participated in several mandates, such as the design and mechanical integration of a concept hydrogen fueled e-bike, or the complete design of a eco and fast charge solution for EV.

Sebastien Delgado
Sébastien Delgado
mechanical engineer

Joined Terapet in April, 2024. PhD in Control engineering (Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia / CERN), MSc in Cybernetics (Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia). Before joining Terapet, Dominik held a computer scientist position at CERN working for Detector Control System at the ALICE experiment. Prior to that, Dominik worked at Bohemia Interactive Simulations developing simulation software used by NATO armies and their allies around the globe. In 2019, Dominik completed a PhD focusing of modeling, analysis and control of hybrid dynamical systems in collaboration with the ALICE experiment at CERN.

Dominik Voscek
Dr. Dominik Voscek
software engineer

Joined Terapet in July, 2021. MSE in in Energy and Environment and BSc in Mechanical Engineering at HES-SO (University of Applied Sciences Geneva - HEPIA). Prior to joining Terapet, Luca gained professional experience from several projects, such as the design and mechanical integration of a concept hydrogen fueled e-bike.

Luca Terradura
Luca Terradura
mechanical engineer

Joined Terapet in September 2024. ME in Computer and Electronic Engineering at UCD (University College Dublin). Before joining Terapet, Cathal held a lead system and software engineer position at the Swiss research center .NeuroRestore, developing neuroprosthetic medical devices for use in clinical trials. These neuroprosthetics have helped people with paraplegia and tetraplegia to regain lost mobility, and one such device, the Brain-Spine Interface, enabled a man with tetraplegia to use his thoughts to control his legs and walk again. Prior to that, Cathal worked in the Irish/Swiss start-up Rapt Touch as a firmware engineer, collaborating with HiteVision to bring new interactive whiteboards with improved writing experience to the Chinese education market.

CathalHarteHeadshot
Cathal Harte
Software Engineer

Joined Terapet in September 2024. Prior to joining Terapet, Malo Chevalley graduated in Polydesign from CFP-Arts in Geneva in 2023. This allowed him to successfully complete several design projects for individuals, as well as for companies such as Hôpiclowns and Cramer + Cramer.

Malo-chevalley
Malo Chevalley
Intern - Bsc in microengineering
Alumni

BSc in Bioengineering at International University of Catalonia (UIC). Carla completed her BSc thesis at Terapet. Before coming to the team, Carla gained clinical and academical experience at SIMM Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine in Barcelona, where she focused on metabolic therapy and PET/SPECT imaging devices. Also, she has worked as laboratory assistant at the Bioengineering Institute of Technology (BIT) developing biomaterials-based hydrogel microspheres.

Carla Pou i Miralbell
Carla Pou Miralbell
Previous Bioengineer

Post-obligatory diploma obtained in Geneva, Switzerland, with a specialisation in bio-chemistry, and including advanced Physics and German. Before joining Terapet, Olivia worked as an Audio-Visual Intern for several years, gaining knowledge and work experience in this particular field. Since then, she has decided to pursue a practical-orientated Microengineering degree at HES-SO. By joining us at Terapet, she will complete part of the work experience necessary to obtaining her BSc at HES-SO.

Olivia Benn
Olivia Benn
Previous intern - student in microengineering

BSc in Technical Medicine at the Leiden University Medical Center, Delft University of Technology & Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam. Anna is joining Terapet for a three-month internship as part of her final MSc year in Technical Medicine. In prior internships Anna gained clinical and professional experience at the Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy departments, where she tested novel PET-guided biopsy instruments and applied Deep-Learning to assess the radiosensitivity of tumors.

Anna Walstra
Anna Walstra
Previous intern - MSc in technical medicine
Board of Directors

Professor Rolf Lewensohn MD. Ph.D., born in 1949, is a globally-known expert in oncology with clinical experience in most tumour entities. His scientific background relates to preclinical studies of DNA repair and cell signalling, and he has recently worked in the development of innovative methods for tumour and plasma diagnostics for treatment and for treatment decision-making. Prof. Lewensohn is a pioneer of precision radiotherapy in the Nordics, where he is the chairman of the Nordic group for stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) studies. He has also developed cancer drugs, one of which is in the European market at present (pepaxti) and he was the founder of the pharmaceutical company Oncopeptides. Prof. Lewensohn is currently professor of oncology at Karolinska Institutet, senior consultant at the oncology clinic at Karolinska (Theme Cancer), and is co-editor of the journal Cancers.

Rolph
Prof. Rolf Lewensohn, M.D. Ph.D
board of directors - Chairman

Dr. Mark Plesko, MBA, born 1961, is a world-renowned expert in nuclear accelerators and particle cancer therapy. He is the founder and managing director of Cosylab, which he has grown to 300 employees over three continents. He is President of the Management Board of the J. Stefan Institute and member of the EU-Japan Business Round Table. Dr. Plesko previously served for six years as President of the Engineering Academy of Slovenia and three years as President of the board of Fotona Inc. He was vice-president of the Slovenian Science and Technology Council and member of Programme Councils for two faculties at the University of Ljubljana. He is an angel investor in 15+ startups and sits on the board of several start-ups and investment funds. He received the Award of the European Physics Society 2001, was nominated for Slovenian Entrepreneur of 2014, received the Award of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce for exceptional business and entrepreneurial achievements 2018, and received the IEDC Alumni of the Year Award in 2018.

Mark ID portrait
Dr. Mark Plesko, MBA
board of directors - member

Partner at Lake Geneva Ventures Giovanni Leo joined EFI in 2020 from Innogest Capital where he was also a partner since 2017. Prior, he was VP of R&D at St Jude Medical, following the acquisition of Endosense in 2013, which he co-founded to develop a novel technology for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Before that he was a director for Acrostak Corp. (a Boston-Scientific funded medical device company), a software quality manager at LeCroy Corp. And had a CERN fellowship. He earned an Executive MBA from the HEC of Lausanne, following a degree in management engineering from Politecnico of Milano, Italy.

Giovanni Leo
Giovanni Leo
board of directors - member
Advisory board

Serial entrepreneur with 15+ years of experience. Currently CEO and founder of Eliq AB (a software company that helps utilities to engage their customers by providing rich energy insights tools to consumers. The company is based between Gothenburg, Sweden and London, UK.). Founder of Acosense (acoustic spectroscopy sensor technology). Expertise: Business development, market strategy

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Hakan Ludvigson
business development advisor

Serial entrepreneur with 15+ years of experience. Currently CTO and founder of Minalyze AB. Minalyze AB was founded in 2009 in Gothenburg, Sweden and is the world leader in XRF core scanning instruments and software for visualization of geological data. The company is based both in Sweden and Australia today. Expertise: Business development in HighTech, market strategy

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Mikael Arthursson
business development advisor
Opportunities

Our team is growing and we are always looking for new talents who want to become part of our journey