The Centre for Drug Design & Discovery (CD3) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Matthias Versele as Director of Drug Discovery Biology. Within CD3, Matthias will play a key role in the identification and selection of new investment opportunities and in defining the strategic directions of CD3. Together with his team, he will have the responsibility to build a sustainable flow of new drug discovery projects and will drive the identification and development of new drugs based on innovative science from our partners.
Matthias Versele joins CD3 from Janssen, where he was an associate scientific director in the Oncology discovery group. He was a core member of the hematologic disease area stronghold, responsible for identifying and validating novel drug targets, and leading multiple discovery projects from hit identification to delivering a clinical candidate. In addition, he was the preclinical lead for Janssen during the clinical development of the covalent BTK inhibitor, ibrutinib (Imbruvica®), and contributed to the identification of clinically meaningful mechanisms of primary and acquired resistance, and the subsequent initiation of follow-on discovery projects. He joined Janssen in 2006, after a post-doctoral training at UC Berkeley and a PhD in biochemistry at KU Leuven.
“We are very happy to welcome Matthias within our team. With his combination of skills, expertise, network and mindset, he is perfectly suited to have an important impact on our operations and strategy”, said Patrick Chaltin, Managing Director of CD3. “I am impressed with the high-quality academic and biotech network CD3 taps into, and by its productive small-molecule discovery engine. I am very much looking forward to contributing to CD3’s continued success”, said Matthias Versele.
CD3 translates innovative science into promising drug discovery programs that are well qualified for further development by pharmaceutical or biotech companies.
CD3 brings expert drug discovery capabilities and financial means to academic research groups and small companies in order to discover innovative small molecule drugs. Over the past ten years, CD3 has initiated multiple projects to discover new drugs for disorders such as HIV infections, Dengue virus infections, Alzheimer’s disease, auto-immune disorders and cancer, of which several have resulted in partnerships with pharma companies. Other projects have given rise to the creation of startup companies. Supported by KU Leuven Research & Development and the European Investment Fund, CD3 launched a 60 million euro fund in 2016, allowing CD3 to broaden its scope and extend its capabilities.
