Susan Roelofs

I studied Engineering Physics at the University of Twente with a specialization in Biophysical Engineering. Before starting my PhD, I was a visiting researcher at the University of Queensland in the field of optical tweezers. I also worked in the renewable energy sector as a consultant, researcher and developer. In 2015, I received my PhD from Professor Albert van den Berg’s BIOS Lab-on-a-chip group (MESA+). My research focused on desalination of water at the microscale.
During my PhD research, I won the Marina van Damme scholarship, which allowed me to finance a stay at MIT in Cambridge with Prof. Han’s group, where I gained further expertise in desalination methods. I also used the Marina van Damme scholarship to take a business development course and conduct market research, which led to the launch of Locsense in 2015.
I am the founder and CEO of Locsense, a company focused on the development and supply of in vitro bioelectronics. Locsense contributes to reducing and replacing animal testing by developing measurement instruments for in vitro cell cultures. These instruments can be used to determine toxicity and efficacy of drug components and cosmetic ingredients, among other things. Locsense launched the Artemis impedance spectrometer / TEER detector in 2019, which has been successfully marketed. In addition to hardware and software sales, Locsense participates in several innovative R&D projects in the field of in vitro testing.