{"id":35616,"date":"2025-09-29T15:43:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T13:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plnt.nl\/ervaringen\/from-discovery-to-impact-how-glyco-diagnostics-aims-to-change-the-fight-against-liver-fibrosis\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:52:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:52:31","slug":"from-discovery-to-impact-how-glyco-diagnostics-aims-to-change-the-fight-against-liver-fibrosis","status":"publish","type":"ervaringen","link":"https:\/\/plnt.nl\/en\/ervaringen\/from-discovery-to-impact-how-glyco-diagnostics-aims-to-change-the-fight-against-liver-fibrosis\/","title":{"rendered":"From discovery to impact: How Glyco Diagnostics aims to change the fight against liver fibrosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Glyco Diagnostics<\/a> is developing an innovative liver fibrosis test to help diabetes patients detect liver problems early. Katarina Madunic <\/a>and her team are committed to enabling doctors and patients to take action in time, before any damage becomes irreversible.<\/p>

The story of Glyco Diagnostics began at Leiden University Medical Center. There, co-founder Manfred Wuhrer<\/a> and his team discovered a promising biomarker in the blood of patients with liver fibrosis. They found it in glycan molecules, which are small sugar molecules attached to proteins in our blood, produced by the liver <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Moving back to Leiden for her startup<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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“Every researcher dreams that one day their work will really mean something to society,” Katarina says. For her, that dream took shape when she decided to return from her postdoc in Copenhagen. She took on the challenge of bringing their biomarker to the clinic by starting her own company in Leiden. <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Before she took that step, Katarina first followed PLNT<\/a>‘s Ready to Start program<\/a>. All the way from Copenhagen, completely online. “That was my first introduction to entrepreneurship and the world of startups. It showed me how exciting and challenging it is to really get an idea off the ground.” <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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With unlock_ from idea to startup<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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unlock_<\/a> proved to be the perfect springboard to grow from an idea to a real business. “I had zero experience with entrepreneurship or finance,” Katarina laughs. <\/p>

Every Tuesday, together with Manfred and the other participants of unlock_, she learned everything involved in building a startup: strategy, pitching, investors, regulations. She found the latter in particular boring at first. “I always found rules and documents annoying, but now I understand why they are there. In the end, everything is about patient safety and that motivates.” <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“Everything was new to me, but because of that I learned an awful lot in a short period of time.”<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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According to Katarina, the real power of unlock_ is in the people. Mentors like Christian<\/a> and Sven<\/a> were always available, even outside of classes. “We didn’t just get theory. We built our business in practice. Even during lunch, people helped us with our pitch or business plan.” The fortnightly sessions with Stefan Ellenbroek<\/a> also provided valuable insights on how to bring academic breakthroughs to the clinic. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Growing together with unlock_ community<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The biggest challenge? “We really had to start from scratch. No pitch, no presentation, not even a clear business model. That was tough, but also an opportunity to learn quickly.” Katarina discovered that she gets the most energy from writing inspiring research proposals and discussing clinical data with others. Fortunately, Manfred complements her with his financial background. <\/p>

For Katarina, unlock_<\/a> felt like a community where everyone helped each other get ahead. “We help each other with things like LinkedIn, marketing and financing. Everyone has their own expertise. You realize you’re not alone.”<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

De komende maanden richten ze zich op grote stappen: het verkrijgen van een IP-licentie van het LUMC<\/a>, het officieel oprichten van hun bedrijf en het indienen van nieuwe subsidieaanvragen. De grote droom is dat over vijf jaar iedere huisarts hun test gebruikt om diabetespati\u00ebnten te screenen. Zo kan leverfibrose eindelijk vroeg worden ontdekt en behandeld. Katarina is duidelijk: <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“We really want to make a difference and prevent people from getting sick unnecessarily.”<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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When asked to describe unlock_ in one word, she does not hesitate for a moment: “community.” Her advice to other founders: “Keep asking questions and use the knowledge and experience in the network. Together you will get much further than alone.” <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glyco Diagnostics is developing an innovative liver fibrosis test to help diabetes patients detect liver problems early. Katarina Madunic and her team are committed to enabling doctors and patients to take action in time, before any damage becomes irreversible. The story of Glyco Diagnostics began at Leiden University Medical Center. There, co-founder Manfred Wuhrer and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30657,"template":"","type-verhaal":[260],"class_list":["post-35616","ervaringen","type-ervaringen","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-verhaal-startups"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom discovery to impact: How Glyco Diagnostics aims to change the fight against liver fibrosis - PLNT<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how Glyco Diagnostics uses their liver fibrosis test to help diabetes patients detect and treat liver problems early\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/plnt.nl\/en\/ervaringen\/from-discovery-to-impact-how-glyco-diagnostics-aims-to-change-the-fight-against-liver-fibrosis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From discovery to impact: How Glyco Diagnostics aims to change the fight against liver fibrosis - 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