Workshop 17: Mind the gap between the target and the clinical response: Integrative approaches in early clinical development of novel and repurposed medicines
Tracks
Track 3
| Monday, July 13, 2026 |
| 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM |
Details
Session Chairs:
Dr Phumla Sinxadi, Cape Town University, South Africa
Dr Joao Ximenes, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Speaker
Prof Jennifer Martin
University Newcastle
Challenges and solutions for research teams in drug repurposing
Biography
Professor Jennifer Martin is a physician and clinical pharmacologist with a 30 year research track record in optimising drug choice and dose for specific population groups. Much of her research is focused on using phenotype markers to refine and individualise drug dosage to reduce adverse events and maximise efficacy. She was the inaugural member and then Chair of the IATDMCT Oncology group, previous sub-Editor for the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Internal Medicine Journal (clinical pharmacology), current editor of Pharmacology Research and Perspectives, and President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Dr Umberto Villani
University College London
From in-vitro/in vivo to in silico to humans: data integration and extrapolation in translational pharmacology
Biography
Dr. Umberto Villani earned his MSc in Bioengineering from the University of Padova, Italy, in 2018. He then worked on the biophysical modelling of magnetic resonance imaging techniques, obtaining a PhD in biomedical imaging applied to Neuroscience in 2022. Until 2024, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Translational Pharmacology at the National Research Council in Rome, where he contributed to the development of quantitative methods to evaluate the efficacy of novel drugs and drug combinations against tuberculosis. He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in Clinical Pharmacology at UCL’s School of Pharmacy, within the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Group, where his work centres on applying Modelling & Simulation techniques to accelerate the approval of new medicines for paediatric rare diseases.
Prof Oscar Della Pasqua
Chair Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics
University College London
Prof Geert-Jan Groeneveld
Centre for Human Drug Research
Early clinical development in CNS disorders: unlocking value through Proof-of-Pharmacology
Biography
Geert Jan Groeneveld (1971) is the Chief Executive Officer of CHDR. In addition to serving on CHDR’s board, he is a professor of Clinical Neuropharmacology at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), and also works as a neurologist in the pain outpatient clinic of the Department of Anaesthesiology at the LUMC, where he sees patients with neurological causes of chronic pain.
Groeneveld trained as a neurologist at the University Medical Center Utrecht, where he also obtained his PhD on the subject of new pharmacotherapeutic treatment strategies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. From 2007 to 2009 he worked at the biotechnology company Genzyme. From 2009 to 2017, he served as Research Director at CHDR and was responsible for research in the areas of neurology and pain. While working as a Research Director at CHDR, Groeneveld also held a position as staff member in the Department of Neurology at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.
Groeneveld’s primary scientific interest lies in early-phase drug development for the treatment of neurological diseases and pain. He has published over 150 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and is actively involved in the training of PhD students at CHDR. In addition, he is a board-certified clinical pharmacologist and serves on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical and Translational Science and Frontiers in Pain Research.
Session chair
Phumla Sinxadi
Cape Town University
Joao Ximenes
University of Sao Paulo