Unravel the Fundamental Molecular Processes that Underlie Neurodegenerative Diseases Such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

Maarten Dewilde obtained his B.S. from KU Leuven in 2003 and his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences at the same university in 2008. After that, he left academia to join Ablynx, a pharmaceutical company specializing in developing therapeutic nanobodies (camelid-derived antibody fragments) against a broad range of diseases. As a lead scientist, he successfully guided multiple projects through their discovery pipeline.

In 2014, Dewilde went back to academia to join the Laboratory for the Research of Neurodegenerative Diseases (KU Leuven) headed by Prof. Dr. Bart De Strooper. The primary interest of this laboratory is to unravel the fundamental molecular processes that underlie neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and to use this knowledge to develop innovative strategies to slow down or cure these devastating diseases. Dewilde teamed up with De Strooper to develop nanobodies against central nervous system (CNS) related targets and to explore their potential to act as a generic shuttle to transport vital drugs over the blood-brain barrier.