Koen Augustyns

Koen Augustyns (°1965) obtained his Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences at KU Leuven in 1988. He defended his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Medicinal Chemistry) in 1992. The subject of his PhD thesis was “Synthesis of sugar-modified antisense oligonucleotides” with as supervisor Prof. Piet Herdewijn, Rega Institute, KU Leuven. After military service and postdoctoral stays at the University of Antwerp (supervisor Prof. Achiel Haemers) and as Humboldt fellow at the University of Tübingen, Germany (supervisor Prof. Günther Jung) he was appointed as Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Antwerp in 1997. He was promoted to associate professor in 2000, professor in 2006 and full professor in 2012.

Koen Augustyns' research in medicinal chemistry focuses on the development of new molecules that can be used as tool compounds in the characterisation and validation of new drug targets, and that will lead to new hit and lead compounds in drug discovery in the fields of inflammation, cell death and infectious diseases. The aim is to develop highly potent and selective small molecules with drug-like properties and excellent pharmacokinetic properties to obtain in vivo proof of concept in various disease models.

In the field of cell death, he pioneered the synthesis of stable ferrostatin analogues as ferroptosis inhibitors that showed life-saving properties in an in vivo model of multi-organ dysfunction (highly cited paper in Nature Communications, 2022). He is responsible for medicinal chemistry in several large multidisciplinary consortia including two FWO Excellence of Science (EOS) projects (MODEL-IDI and CD-INFLADIS) and the FWO-SBO project IRONIX.

In the field of infectious diseases, he is currently the lead medicinal chemist in a large EU-IHI-sponsored programme to find new antibiotics to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (RESPIRI-TB and RESPIRI-NTM). Earlier, he was involved in large EU programmes aimed at neglected parasitic diseases (PDE4NPD), the discovery of novel microbicides to prevent HIV infection (CHAARM) and a EU-H2020-MSCA-ITN to validate novel gram-negative antibacterial targets (INTEGRATE).

In the field of inflammation, he is a partner in the UAntwerp Centre of Excellence INFLA-MED and in the FWO-SBO project TRP-SENSATION, and he coordinated the EU-H2020-MSCA-ITN IT-DED3.

His research resulted in over 200 papers and 18 patents in the field of medicinal chemistry.  So far, he supervised 35 PhD students and he is currently heading an international research group of around 40 PhD students and postdoctoral scientists. He delivered 40 invited lectures at international symposia and acted as principal investigator on over 100 research projects. He was a member of several international organizing committees of medicinal chemistry symposia, and was co-chair of the EFMC-International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in 2010 in Brussels and the Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry in 2015 in Antwerp.

• Alexander Von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship 1995
• Honorary Fellow of the Asian Federation for Medicinal Chemistry 2017
• Honorary Fellow of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry 2020
• Laureate of Labour (Pharmacist) – Gold Medal 2021
• Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium 2023

• ​European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC)
  • Council member 2004 – 2019
  • Executive Committee Member – Secretary 2009 – 2013
  • President-elect 2014
  • President 2015 – 2017
  • Past-president 2018 – 2019
  • Chair of the Advisory Board 2018 – 2020
• ​Division of Medicinal & Bioorganic Chemistry of the Royal Flemish Chemical Society (KVCV)
  • Chair 2002 – 
• Advisory Board of the Kekule cycle, Antwerp
  • Member 2001 – 
• Americal Chemical Society
  • Member 2008 – 
• Jury of the Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Medicinal Chemistry
  • Chair 2004 – 2014
• Jury of the Galenusprijs (Prix Galien)
  • Member 2012 – 
• Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium
  • Member 2023 - 

• Committee for Innovation Policy of the Flemish Council for Science and Innovation (VRWI)
  • Member 2010 – 2016
• Expert Panel Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medical Biochemistry of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO Med1)
  • Member 2012 – 2016
  • Chair 2017
• Antwerp University Hospital (UZA)
  • Member of the general meeting 2018 – 
• VacCovid, vaccination centre Antwerp
  • Steering committee member 2020 – 2021

• Future Medicinal Chemistry 2008 – 2012
• Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2015 – 2017
• MedChemComm 2015 – 2017
• ACS Chemical Neuroscience 2018 – 2019
• Archiv der Pharmazie 2021 – 

• Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Secretary 1999 – 2001
  • Vice-chair 2004 – 2007
  • Chair 2007 – 2012
• Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences
  •  Vice-dean 2012 – 2018
  • Dean 2018 – 2024
• Research Council of the University of Antwerp
  • Member 2016 – 2018
• Council of the Industrial Research Fund
  • Member 2007 – 2019
  • Board member 2007 - 2019
• Academic Council for Service to Society
  • Member 2009 – 2017
  • Chair of the Committee for Interaction with the Region 2009 - 2013
  • Chair of the Committee for Strategic Networking 2013 - 2017
• Education Council of the University of Antwerp
  • Deputy member 2004 – 2008
• Examination Committee Master in Drug Development
  • Chair 2007 - 2018
• Antwerp Doctoral School
  • Member 2012 - 2015