We are studying and targeting a number of important developmental signaling pathways such as Wnt, Hedgehog and Notch. These signaling pathways play critical roles during embryogenesis in pretty much every organ of the body where they modulate proliferation or differentiation of numerous cell types. It is however becoming increasingly clear that these pathways are involved in tumorigenesis when reactivated in adult tissues through mutations or overexpression of pathway components.

This work has led to the development of vismodegib, a hedgehog pathway inhibitor, which targets Smoothened. Vismodegib was approved in 2012 by the FDA for the treatment of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), which has metastasized to other parts of the body, relapsed after surgery, or cannot be treated with surgery or radiation We are also involved in a number of earlier stage initiatives using genetic mouse models of cancer to better predict drug efficacy, sequencing the genome of various tumor types to better understand how tumor develop and how to target them as well as as well as cancer and functional genome projects to identify novel drug targets in various therapeutic areas.

• Catholic University of Louvain, Ph.D. – 1990
• Catholic University of Louvain, B.S. – 1985

• Elected as Fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) – 2016
• Achievement in Advancing Targeted Therapies for Cancer & Melanoma from the American Skin Association – 2011