Tell us about yourself and Idris Oncology
Hans Peter’s journey into entrepreneurship began during his studies in Leiden, where he graduated in molecular biology. Though his work has since evolved, his love for biology stays the same: “I don’t get to do much biology anymore, but I’m still very fond of it,” he reflects. It was during his master’s, alongside his co-founder Peter, that their shared curiosity led them to build a micro 3D printer capable of producing objects as small as a cell nucleus.
Initially a fun side project, the costs quickly added up. “It was maybe €6k, which is a lot for a student,” Hans Peter laughs. To recover their investment, they started a company — but soon realised there wasn’t a sustainable business case for micro 3D printing. “We did a few fun projects, but it wasn’t enough to even cover the cost of the printer,” he admits.
After graduation, Hans Peter turned to teaching biology while he and Peter sought new business opportunities. With some entrepreneurial experience under their belt, they were looking for a new challenge. “We had some experience — mostly at failing — but we knew a bit about entrepreneurship,” he laughs.
It was during this period that their focus shifted, and they founded Idris Oncology, a medical device company specialising in cancer diagnostics. The company’s focus is on developing a device similar to a “fishing wire” that captures cancer DNA in the bloodstream.
“We’re a medical device company. What we develop is basically a fishing wire to capture cancer DNA in your bloodstream,” Hans Peter explains. He elaborates: “You can imagine trying to find a fish in a river by scooping water out with a bucket. You’re not going to find any fish in your bucket, but you know they’re in the river, just in very low concentration.” This, he notes, is similar to how cancer diagnostics currently work: with tumours too small to be detected in standard blood samples.
The innovation Idris Oncology brings to the table is a way to gather more cancer DNA over time by using a thin, flexible wire placed in the patient’s bloodstream. “Rather than taking a bucket of water out of the river, we use a fishing wire,” he explains. This method allows them to collect a larger sample of cancer DNA, providing more accurate diagnostics — especially in cases where tumours are in their early stages or have nearly disappeared after treatment.
Hans Peter is particularly excited about the potential for this technology to revolutionise how patients are monitored post-treatment. “We can find the cancer when it’s almost gone,” he explains, noting that their device could help answer critical questions about when to stop chemotherapy.
While Hans Peter envisions even broader applications for their device in the future — maybe even screening for cancer before it’s detectable through conventional methods — he acknowledges that these advancements are probably decades away.
For now, Idris Oncology is laser-focused on solving one of the most pressing challenges in cancer diagnostics: safely determining when chemotherapy may be stopped.
So it started with the fact that you could print at such a small material level, and then you set out to find an application for that?
When asked how Indris Oncology developed its business model, Hans Peter explains that many people assume they first developed their solution—the 3D printer—and then identified a problem to solve.
“But that’s actually not really what happened”, he explains. “Our initial company was a service company. We went around to all kinds of places with complex problems to see if we could provide micro-components as a solution. So that was our initial business model. We had the printer; it was working, and we tried to cater to, well, micro needs.”
However, they quickly realised that demand for such services didn’t exist. “That’s when we learned the lesson: you need to cater to an actual problem.”
After that, Hans Peter and Peter “started exploring problems to tackle, asking which ones [they] could actually solve. It took a long time to crystallise and involved a lot of conversations with doctors.” One key moment in that journey was the discovery of a significant issue in cancer diagnostics — the low concentration of cancer biomarkers in the bloodstream.
“Initially, our idea was very much out there. We thought of using the micro 3D printer to build a small implant that would recruit cancer cells, essentially saying to the tumour, ‘metastasise here’. The idea was that instead of searching for cancer cells, we would lure them in and then excise the implant,” he explains. “That wouldn’t work for a thousand reasons, but it was an early concept that helped us understand the problem better.”
After further consultation with experts and doctors, the company reached a breakthrough moment: “We found a competitor, which was actually good news. It validated the problem, and we knew we could offer a better solution. Theirs was a vertical solution: you had to buy their product, use it in a specific way, and then send it back to their lab for analysis.” This approach did not sit well with doctors. “They didn’t want to send samples to another lab; they had their own labs and preferred tests,” Hans Peter says.
This insight helped refine Idris Oncology’s business model. “We realised we could do better by offering a sample collection tool that allows doctors to perform their own tests. That’s how we evolved to a real, market-driven problem with a solution.”
Where is Idris Oncology now, and where is it going?
“Developing any medical device that’s invasive is a lengthy process, especially for us, as we fall under the highest regulatory class. This means we face the longest path to approval before we can sell our product. On average, this can take around ten years, and we’re just now reaching the stage where we’re collecting the necessary paperwork to commence human testing.”
“We’ve accomplished a lot in the lab and have conducted numerous animal studies, so the next step for us is to begin human trials, likely at the start of 2026. It’s an extensive process that demands substantial funding and a mountain of paperwork. It’s somewhat akin to developing a pharmaceutical product, but we’re dealing with hardware.”
“After human testing, which will last another three years, it will still be some time before our device can be used by more than a handful of patients. It will also take time to ramp up production and distribution. I’d estimate that by 2029, certain doctors — perhaps even here in the Netherlands — might be able to order our product in limited quantities. However, it could longer for it to become widely available.”
“Our ultimate goal is to enable earlier cancer detection through more accessible blood samples. We’re cautious about discussing screening and detection at this stage, as those applications are still quite far down the line. Initially, we want to address the critical question of treatment decisions — specifically, whether to continue chemotherapy. We all know how harsh it can be, and knowing when to stop is vital.”
He elaborates, “This is what we call detecting minimal residual disease (MRD). Currently, it’s deemed nearly impossible; no one has truly cracked it yet. We want to change that. We aim to start with MRD detection and eventually expand to other cancer diagnostic applications.”
“Ultimately, we aspire to develop our product to provide a confirmatory test. After a blood test indicates a possible issue, our product could confirm whether the patient indeed has cancer. This would streamline the process, starting with a simple blood test and only resorting to more invasive procedures like tissue biopsies when absolutely necessary.”
How is being a part of Leiden Bio Science Park helping you?
When discussing the benefits of being at the Leiden Bio Science Park, Hans Peter highlights its significance as a credible and legitimate cluster for life sciences in the Netherlands. “We are the biggest life science cluster here in the Netherlands, probably in mainland Europe. If we’re not, we should be. We’re the most passionate players at the Leiden Bio Science Park. We truly love it and aspire for it to be the most successful bioscience park in Europe.”
He elaborates on the advantages of being part of this community. “It’s about legitimacy. I know that sounds boring, but if I were to say we’re from a random town, people would respond differently. When you tell venture capitalists or doctors in the States that you’re from Leiden, it’s met with a different reaction compared to mentioning the big names associated with this park, like Johnson & Johnson.”
Beyond legitimacy, he speaks about the support found within the community. “We talk to fellow entrepreneurs and ask them how they solve financial challenges, navigate employee issues, or deal with patent lawyers. They share their experiences, providing sound advice based on what has or hasn’t worked for them. There’s a camaraderie that exists, where entrepreneurs are willing to help each other.”
He touches on a less obvious aspect of this community: the emotional support that comes from shared experiences. “It’s a lonely job. When I complain to friends or family about the challenges I face, they often don’t understand. But when I talk to someone in the same boat here at LBSP, they get it. They know the frustrations and the struggles. That shared understanding gives me a form of emotional support that’s often underrated.”
In a perfect world where you have plenty of investors, what would be your wildest dreams for the future of your company?
“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that,” Hans Peter begins — but he has an idea. He admits, “There’s not yet a word for it, though I’m trying to invent one. The closest I’ve come to describing what I dream about is something like ‘biological awareness.’”
This concept is still crystallising in his mind: “There’s so much going on inside our bodies that we’re completely unaware of. We don’t know what our brains, our hearts, or any of our organs are really doing. We only have control over our motor movements, and that’s about it. The frustrating part is that we often get punished for decisions we made decades ago, like eating too much sugar for years and then developing diabetes, without our bodies ever warning us clearly along the way.”
He continues, “We don’t get feedback from our bodies in real-time, which means we’re not always able to make the right choices. That’s what I want to change. Then, our company wouldn’t just be about cancer — it would be about understanding what’s happening inside our bodies and getting the signals well before it’s too late.”
“I want to see a future where we can detect more subtle things, like an increase in a protein that indicates neurodegeneration, which would prompt someone to start playing chess or a music instrument to counter that decay. The same idea could be applied to any chronic disease. We’re always too late in treating these things because we’re missing the early signals.”
He envisions a world where, for example, an implant could monitor key biomarkers. “Let’s say when you turn 50, you get an implant that monitors for early signs of cancer. At 52, it might alert you to a small signal that’s often a precursor to cancer, prompting you to go for a screening. Maybe it even specifies something like prostate cancer and tells you to get checked out. By detecting it early, when the tumour is still small, it’s much easier to treat. That’s true for all diseases — we just need to get the early warning signals.”
Hans Peter’s ambition is to give people control over their health by giving them real-time feedback on what’s happening in their bodies. “We shouldn’t be subject to this delayed feedback loop where we only find out something’s wrong when it’s too late. We haven’t evolved to know the consequences of our choices 20 years down the line. I think that’s unfair, and I want to fix it.”
How is working with Idris Oncology different?
Given the challenges of competing with larger companies in the field of life sciences, Idris Oncology focuses on offering advantages the big players can’t. Hans Peter explains: “We’re a small team, so when you have a problem, you just come to me directly. Decisions are made quickly, and the work you do has a tangible impact. In a team this small, every contribution matters, even if you’re just getting coffee.”
He contrasts this with working for a large corporation. “At a company like J&J, you might be producing batch X for process Y, and you’re just a small cog in a huge machine. Here, you’re a big cog in a small machine. You know exactly where we’re going, why we’re doing each step, and every step you take matters. That sense of relevance is huge for people.”
The appeal of working for a company like his is the sense of progress and tangible contribution. “You can actually see the marks of your work. Things move a lot faster here, even though they sometimes feel slow. But when something changes, you know it’s because of what you did, whether it’s a product, its chemical composition, the way it’s used, or the applications doctors will use it for.”
“I’ve never liked the word ‘impact’ because it’s often vague. But yes, here, you have an impact. Your work directly influences the decisions we make. If you run an experiment, that data could be the reason we pass FDA approval. If you show us a graph, Peter and I might decide to go left because of what you discovered. It’s very tangible.”
For Hans Peter, working at Idris Oncology company means seeing the direct results of your efforts. “Here, impact isn’t just a word — it’s the colour of the product, its chemical composition, the way it looks. It’s all very real,” and that’s what makes working at Idris Oncology so different.