Prof. Leon WMM Terstappen pioneered the detection of tumor cells in blood of cancer patients. As Chief Scientific Officer of Immunicon Corporation he was responsible for the development and studies leading to FDA clearance of the CellSearch system. In 2007 he started the transition to academia as the chair of the department of Medical Cell BioPhysics (MCBP) of Twente University, The Netherlands. MCBP is embedded in the faculty of science and technology offering education and research in areas of chemistry, process technology, materials science, optics and fluidics (http://www.utwente.nl/tnw/mcbp/). Prof. Leon WMM Terstappen is the coordinator of the FP7-Health project CTCTrap (http://www.utwente.nl/tnw/ctctrap/), the STW-Perspective project Cancer-ID (http://www.utwente.nl/tnw/cancer-id/) and co-coordinator of the IMI project CANCER-ID (http://www.cancer-id.eu Dr. Christoph Brune is a member of the Department of Applied Mathematics and MIRA’s Applied Analysis research group (http://aacs.ewi.utwente.nl/AACS/Welcome.html) and is overseeing the efforts of the development of the Open Source CTC Image analysis program within CANCER-ID.

The University of Twente (UT) is a government owned university established in 1964 (http://www.utwente.nl/en/). At his High Tech, Human Touch university ~3,300 scientists and other professionals work together on cutting-edge research, innovations with real- world relevance and inspiring education for more than 9,000 students. MCBP is part of the MIRA research institute of biomedical technology and technical medicine. MIRA combines fundamental and applied research with clinical practice. This unique scientific path stimulates a successful application of fundamental concepts and enables healthcare to rapidly introduce new treatments. MIRA works closely with hospitals, business community and governmental organizations, aiming to secure its leading position in Europe (http://www.utwente.nl/mira/).