Athanasios Didangelos

Following the successful FDA approval of our IND filing, I now lead the continued R&D effort to expand the therapeutic potential of our lead asset into additional ocular and extra-ocular immunofibrotic indications. I’m also building a translational discovery & pharmacology platform to broaden our pipeline of new therapeutic targets across immunofibrotic and neurodegenerative diseases. I also spearhead initiatives to utilise our asset in neuroinflammatory, degenerative and immunofibrotic diseases [kidney, cardiovascular], overseeing a broad spectrum of preclinical activities. Leveraging in-silico expertise, I run target discovery using -omics studies, with the aim to expand our pipeline with novel anti-inflammatory approaches for immunofibrotic and neurodegenerative diseases.

Driving the advancement of our lead Gene Therapy candidate toward the IB / IND filing and clinical trials for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This includes developing cellular & in-vivo bioactivity & biomarker assays and strategy, target engagement, biomarker discovery, PK/PD analyses & novel target discovery using unique in-silico approaches.

Director of Translational Research at the Droia-Labs Biotech accelerator. Responsible for designing & advancing Translational Research Projects & Strategy at Droia-Labs towards the discovery of novel drug targets in Oncology & other high-value disease areas. Leading a team that performed deep in-silico dissection of high-throughput -omics datasets [RNAseq, scRNAseq, proteomics]. Our key Aim was to uncover the translational & druggability potential of targets & to discover novel drug targets for downstream biotech development, using classic or innovative drug modalities. Mechanisms of Action & Biomarker discovery are part of our portfolio. Acting as a Project Leader on portfolio company projects requiring translational insight and in-silico analysis relevant to target deconvolution, mechanism of action, regulatory network analysis, in-vitro/in-vivo testing & biomarker discovery.

Led the expanded Target & Pathway discovery Group in Galapagos NV. My group focused on the discovery & validation of novel druggable targets, pathways & signaling mechanisms by utilising systems-wide network analysis of human disease multi-omics datasets. Therapeutic areas focused on classic immunofibrotic diseases of the kidney [CKD, IgAN], lung [IPF], liver [NASH] as well as auto-immune indications. Targets were discovered, filtered, validated using multiple drug-based mechanistic approaches and finally top candidates proposed for drug discovery. Mechanisms of Action for novel portfolio targets were tested using multiple modalities such as newly synthesised kinase inhibitors, PROTACs, siRNA, CrispR and ASOs. We developed state-of-the-art protein bioassays for deep interrogation & quantitation of the proteome using LC-MS/MS. Our focus was the detailed dissection of the cellular and tissue subproteome to improve novel target discovery. - Systems-wide gene regulatory network analysis using a variety of tools - Target & Pathway hunting using interaction networks & signaling inference - Advanced proteomics approaches [interactomics, secretomics, membranomics, etc] - Target validation & mechanistic analysis in different cell models using siRNA, CrispR, ASOs & compounds [inhibitors, PROTACs, etc] - Project & Group management

Built & led the new Pathway & Target Discovery Team at Galapagos. Developing advanced proteomics & interaction network approaches to discover new druggable targets & pathways with a focus in inflammation, fibrosis & associated human diseases. After target hunting & prioritization, my team utilised siRNA, CrispR & compound assays to evaluate mechanistically, validate & propose novel drug targets. - Target hunting & prioritization from clinical datasets using protein-protein interaction networks - Project management; managing early target discovery & validation projects as well as projects with clinical-stage interest - Team management [6 scientists] - Assay development - High-end proteomics analysis [in-house & CRO] - Managing CRO projects - In-house expert in proteomics & signalling pathways

Led a team focusing in the discovery of novel druggable targets & pathways in kidney disease using tissue proteomics & advanced systems wide interaction networks. Our work was focused on kidney disease mechanisms with an emphasis in IgA Nephropathy in the Dept led by one of the best nephrologists Professor Jon Barratt.

King’s College Prize Personal Fellowship. Utilised proteomics, cell & tissue biology, transcriptomics and bioinformatics to study mechanisms of inflammation, signalling activation & tissue remodelling after tissue injury; Identify novel bioactive and therapeutic targets in injury & disease.

Utilised cell biology, proteomics, transcriptomics & bioinformatics to identify new proteins and inflammatory signalling mechanisms after spinal cord injury. Identified novel role of soluble alarmins (danger signals) & pattern recognition receptors after spinal cord injury. Key roles for HMGB1, IL-1 & NFκΒ activation. Studied the link between tissue remodelling, inflammatory pathway activation & macrophage polarisation. Studied Alarmins, NFkB and IL1 inflammatory signalling in spinal cord injury. Showed key role of IL-10 & p38 after spinal cord injury.

Developed novel proteomics approaches to enable the discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cardiac and vascular disease and tools to study extracellular proteolysis using proteomics. Developed from scratch protein biochemistry tools that enabled the differential characterization of cardiovascular tissue proteins using mass spectrometry-based proteomics with unrivaled analytical resolution. This work led to the identification and validation of multiple uncharacterized proteins with bioactive and biomarker potential (even prognostic) in different clinical samples.

Characterised inflammatory signalling activation after tissue injury. Focused on MAPK and NFKB system activation by endogenous signals such as alarmins and DAMPs. Trained in top-end cell biology, ex-vivo tissue biology and in-vivo mechanistic experiments. Experimental and academic training in: Cellular signalling (MAP kinases, NFkappaB, Toll-Like receptors) Extracellular matrix biology and proteolysis. Protein biochemistry & purification.

The most amazing, elite, well-delivered course at Cardiff Biosciences, combining Human Topographic Anatomy (cadaveric dissections) with Cell Biology and Connective tissue biology. The course took my heart away, introduced me to disease biology and I have never looked back since.

Studied at this good old fashioned College in Athens with the aspiration to become a Dentist, turned human Anatomist and then hardcore disease biologist!