Jos Olijve

Jos has a background in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and spent over 25 years as a Senior Engineer working on gelatin technologies before joining Rousselot’s Scientific Development team in 2012. Jos has published 15 patent applications and authored/co-authored 12 scientific papers.

What’s your mission at Rousselot Biomedical?

I am responsible for the development of new gelatin products and new gelatin-based applications. My mission is to create new or enhanced implementations of X-Pure gelatins for regenerative medicine, parenterals and hemostats, enabling our customers to accelerate their research and deliver their innovation as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Which aspect of your work inspires you the most?

Biomedical applications for gelatins and collagens are under constant development and I particularly enjoy the level of entrepreneurship and collaboration between our skilled in-house teams and the customers, institutes and universities we work with.

How do you see the future of gelatin/collagen in biomedical applications?

Gelatins and collagens have many natural advantages which create added value in biomedical applications, such as their high level of biocompatibility and outstanding versatility as biomaterials. The potential for these advantages to positively impact biomedical advancements, regenerative medicine and improve patient lives through clinical applications, makes for a bright future!

What brought you into the gelatin/collagen world?

During my time as a Researcher in the Department of Molecular Genetics, I was involved in the characterization of isolated proteins, which led on to spending several years at FujiFilm as a Senior Engineer working on photographic gelatin characterization and applications. This gave me the perfectfoundation to extend into the use of recombinant gelatins for biomedical applications and I joined Rousselot in 2012 to drive the development of X-Pure.

What are the main topics to consider when choosing a biomaterial?

There are several important considerations when selecting a biomaterial, specifically for a biomedical application. Firstly, the biological functionality – is this biomaterial biocompatible? In addition, consideration should be given to the physical and chemical functionality. Any selected biomaterials must comply with regulatory requirements and be a pure, consistent quality. Purity is often overlooked in its importance at the end application. We’ve focused on achieving the highest levels of purity / low endotoxin levels in our X-Pure range of gelatins and gelMAs which supports even the most sensitive of biomedical applications.