Nick Vandeghinste

- Evaluation of external BD opportunities within immunology

- Leading late stage small molecule drug discovery projects

- Coaching of junior people leading early drug discovery projects

- Responsible for team of 7 researchers developing disease-relevant cellular assays

- Setting the strategy & selecting approaches to tackle kidney diseases building insights from clinic & KOL interactions

- Building a new portfolio by target identification/validation & repositioning of advanced GLPG compounds. Oversee all kidney research activities from target discovery, drug discovery (in vitro/in vivo), biomarker identification up to translational pharmacology in development teams.

- Leading in vitro/in vivo pharmacology team of 26 researchers across 3 different sites (Leiden/Mechelen/Paris).

o Use public & internal generated datasets (clinical/animal) to gain insight into disease & translate into new or better models & approaches

o Build disease MoA understanding for advanced GLPG molecules to (re)position these to kidney disease

o Set up disease-relevant in vitro cell-based assays for target discovery and supporting drug discovery compound profiling

o Develop in vivo translational disease models with relevant pharmacology, imaging & histological readouts

- Responsible for the identification of new opportunities to expand Osteoarthritis area beyond GLPG1972 (AdamTS5 inhibitor) by repositioning internal assets, setting up academic collaboration and by de novo target discovery activities in chondrocyte assays

- Responsible for the strategy to identify & validate novel fibrosis targets (IPF, SSC & NASH) and steering target discovery teams in Mechelen & Leiden ; Write & follow up of grant with academic partners

- Overseeing the progressing of all early fibrosis projects into drug discovery from HF up start of LO phase

- Active input in the overall strategy of fibrosis therapeutic area

- Leading metabolic therapeutic area as of 2013 ; designing the research strategy and responsible for developing and progressing metabolic portfolio of projects starting from target discovery & validation, into hit finding all the way up to pre-clinical candidate

o Written grant proposal and obtained funding of research by Flemish government

o Delivered preclinical stage molecule & LO stage molecules for novel targets in metabolic disease

- Continued various drug discovery activities in area of inflammation

o Lead MOR106 antibody research program within the MorphoSys alliance ; Delivered PCC antibody and continued to support the project as translational liaison into Phase 1 & contributed to successful out licensing of Ph2 ready program to Novartis

o Translational lead in GLPG1205 project guiding project into Phase 1 and Phase 2 PoC study in ulcerative colitis

- Scientific director of alliance with Merck ; steering activities in Leiden teams performing target discovery within the alliances on Inflammation (asthma) & Metabolic diseases (Diabetes/cardiovascular)

- Small molecule drug discovery drug discovery in various alliances (JNJ -inflammation / SRV – oncology) either as project lead or biology lead

- Overseeing team of cellular pharmacology in Mechelen doing target based & phenotypic assay setup in support of DD

First steps into clinical development as lead biologist/translational liaison in the GLPG0259 clinical development project up to Ph2 PoC study in Rheumatoid arthritis

- Overseeing work of 3 teams doing target validation and cellular pharmacology in various Pharma alliances (JNJ, GSK, Lilly)

- Project lead or lead biologist in several projects in drug discovery within Pharma alliances on Rheumatoid arthritis and Osteoarthritis

- Steering work of smaller team working on target discovery & validation in field of bone & joint diseases (Osteoporosis – Rheumatoid arthritis – Osteoarthritis)

o Various assays developed with osteoblast, chondrocytes, osteoclast & synovial fibroblasts

o Grant writing & to achievement of milestones achieved in various of the early Pharma collaborations (Wyeth, Boehringer, GSK)

Cell biologist focused on target discovery & validation using GLPG adenoviral shRNA knock-down discovery platform within field of bone & joint diseases (Osteoporosis – Rheumatoid arthritis – Osteoarthritis)

- Design of HT biochemical/cellular assays for drug discovery screening within field of colorectal cancer