Wouter Meuleman, Ph.D.

Wouter was part of the founding team at Illumina Ventures and brings more than 15 years of experience in life sciences tools development and genomics to the fund. Previously, he was director of Corporate Development at Illumina, where he led investments including Desktop Genetics (acquired by Celixir in 2018). During this time, Wouter also held roles in Research and Development (R&D) and Product Development, where he was instrumental in the development of sequencing platforms, the sourcing and evaluation of new technology opportunities, and competitive benchmarking.

An electrochemist by training, Wouter made his debut in life sciences in 2003 as first hire for Oxford University spin-out Oxamer, a company founded by Lasker-award winner professor Sir Edwin Southern, where he contributed to the development of a benchtop DNA microarray fabrication platform. Following the company’s merger with Oxford Gene Technology (later acquired by Sysmex), he continued working alongside Prof. Southern, leading R&D on single cell gene expression analysis and novel applications for DNA microarrays.

Wouter obtained a joint Bachelor and Master of Science (magna cum laude) in Chemistry from the University of Ghent, Belgium, a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Newcastle, UK, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Cambridge, UK.