Peter Verwilst
Peter Verwilst graduated as a Master in Chemistry at KU Leuven in 2007, followed by a PhD in Chemistry in 2011 on the topic ‘The application of the click reaction in the synthesis of targeted drugs and MRI contrast agents’, also at KU Leuven. He then moved to the Université Bordeaux 1, France (now part of the larger Université de Bordeaux), where he studied design and fundamentals of fluorescent small molecules. In 2013 he joined Korea University in Seoul, South Korea, as a Research Professor, where he worked on small molecule theranostic drug delivery systems and fluorescent markers for targets associated with cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
In 2020, he joined the faculty at the Medicinal Chemistry research unit of KU Leuven, embedded within the Rega Institute for Medical Research.
The current research in the lab focusses on Medicinal Chemistry approaches to the design and development of small-molecule drugs for antimicrobial and neurodegenerative drug targets. The development of fluorescent sensors for these targets is pursued as well through a collaboration with the J.S. Kim Lab at Korea University (Seoul, South Korea) and the D. Kim Lab at Kyung Hee University (Seoul, South Korea).