Summer Course Essentials of Drug Discovery 2026

This summer course will cover all major aspects of modern drug discovery and discuss challenges and opportunities in pharmaceutical R&D.

General

About the training

Drug discovery is a highly multidisciplinary discipline which integrates chemistry, biology and pharmacology in a unique way. This course will cover all major aspects of modern drug discovery and discuss challenges and opportunities in pharmaceutical R&D. Through a dynamic mix of lectures and assignments from experts from academia and industry, you will gain insights into the discovery process for different modalities. Topics that will be covered during the course:

General aspects of drug discovery
Small molecule-based modalities drug discovery
Peptide- and protein-based modalities in drug discovery
Genetic and cell-based modalities in drug discovery

The content of the lectures is designed by academic and industry experts in the field of early drug discovery and the course is a combination of lectures and group assignments.

For whom is the training intended?

For professionals (employees of pharma-related companies, MSc-students, PhD-students, post-docs interested in pharma) with at least a bachelor degree in any of the molecular sciences (chemistry, biology, molecular life sciences, pharmacology ) or a related program.

What does the training provide?

After the course, you will

Understand how drugs are discovered and developed;
Understand in general terms the process and principles of drug discovery;
Understand the important factors for different modalities of how to become a drug.

Upon completion of this course, you can apply for an edubadge. This is a recognised digital certificate that allows you to demonstrate the knowledge and skills you have acquired.

This course was developed with funding from ZonMW

This course was developed with funding from ZonMW (PharmaNL). The aim is to develop an Early Drug Discovery Education Track consisting of eight post-graduate courses that meet the wishes and needs of the business community. We are collaborating with HAN University of Applied Sciences on this project. This project strengthens the current range of pharmaceutical training courses with innovative Early Drug Discovery (EDD) lifelong learning courses. These are intended for employees of companies in the pharmaceutical sector at post-graduate and post-university level. More information can be found on the ZonMW website.

Starting date

15 June 2026

City

Oss (Pivot Park)

Costs

€750

Includes coffee and tea breaks, lunch and Thursday evening dinner

Main Language

English

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Factsheet

Type of education

Training

Result

Edubadge

Organisation

Education for Professionals

Contact information

Do you have a question about this summer course programme? Or are you curious about how we can develop a fully tailor-made programme for your organisation? If so, please contact us.

Teacher(s)

Teachers

Prof. dr. Floris Rutjes

Floris Rutjes received his PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 1993 under the supervision of the late Prof. Speckamp. After a post-doctoral stay with Prof. Nicolaou at The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, USA) and an assistant-professorship at the University of Amsterdam, he became full professor in organic synthesis at Radboud University (Nijmegen, NL) in 1999. His research interests comprise the synthesis of biologically active molecules, the development of new bioorthogonal click-probes for chemical ligation, and continuous flow synthesis in microreactors. He has received several awards including the Gold Medal of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (2002) and the AstraZeneca Award for Research in Organic Chemistry (2003). He is co-founder of several companies and in 2008 received the award of ‘Most entrepreneurial scientist of the Netherlands 2008’. He is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and of the Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Dr. Pedro Hermkens

Pedro Hermkens (PhD) has a scientific background in organic chemistry, pharmacology and biochemistry. He worked at Organon, Schering-Plough and MSD (Merck) in the Medicinal Chemistry Department for 21 years were he was responsible for projects in several therapeutic areas as team leader. Furthermore, he has experience in the early stage of the process as Discovery Leader. In this role he was responsible for managing target identification & validation, assay development, screening & hit identification & optimization. The last few years he was section head Lead Optimization (Director Medicinal Chemistry) managing 3-4 project teams in parallel from lead to development candidate in different therapeutic areas; immunology, oncology and women’s health. During his career he was heavily involved in combinatorial chemistry, automation of chemistry and library design.

In 2008 he was appointed as extraordinary professor Medicinal Chemistry at Radboud University Nijmegen and in 2013 became director of the Institute Applied BioSciences & Chemistry of the HAN University of Applied Sciences. In 2020 he accepted the position of lector(Applied professor) Drug Discovery at the same university . He is currently retired, but still advisor of Pivot Park.

Dr. Dennis Löwik

Dennis Löwik earned his MSc in Organic Chemistry from the University of Nijmegen in 1994 and his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry in 1998 under the guidance of Prof. Rob Liskamp at Utrecht University. He then undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in Cambridge, UK, in the biotechnology group of Prof. Chris Lowe until 2000. This was followed by a year in the Supramolecular Chemistry group of Prof. Bert Meijer at TU/e. Eindhoven. In 2001, he joined the Bio-organic Chemistry group at Radboud University Nijmegen, where he has held an associate position since 2006. His research focuses on smart materials and targeted drug delivery systems. Since 2024, next to his work at the Radboud University, he is lector Drug Discovery at HAN University of Applied Sciences. In addition, he is a co-founder and advisor at Aurelius Therapeutics.

Dr. Ir. Joost Uitdehaag

Joost Uitdehaag studied Molecular Life Sciences at Wageningen University and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Groningen. He was short term EMBO fellow at the University of Oxford, UK, before joining the pharmaceutical industry where he worked for Organon, Schering-Plough and MSD in target validation and lead finding in oncology and immunology. In 2011 he joined the biotech industry as founding member of NTRC (which later evolved into Oncolines B.V. and Crossfire Oncology B.V.) and later worked for LAVA Therapeutics and AstraZeneca. Currently as Head of Biology of Crossfire Oncology B.V. he leads a team that develops the next generation of ADC payloads. Several of the early discovery programmes he worked on are now tested in clinical trials, such as the small molecule BAL-0891, and the bispecific T-cell engagers PF-08046052 and JNJ-89853413. He had an insider's perspective on the discovery of the blockbuster drugs acalabrutinib and pembrolizumab.