PI – Gilles Berger

 

Prof. Gilles BERGER, PharmD-PhD
Associate Professor in Medicinal Chemistry, ULB
https://www.linkedin.com/in/giberger/

 

 

Dr. Berger developed a highly translational research profile spanning from the early steps of drug discovery to in vitro and in vivo models for preclinical evaluation, orbiting around medicinal chemistry and biomedical sciences.  His scientific journey started as a PhD student in medicinal, organic and computational chemistry, then in vitro biology. After organic and medicinal chemistry postdocs in Northern America, he shifted to a full biology and immunotherapy training at Harvard, expending his skills in biology to molecular biology, tumor immunology, and in vivo animal models. Gilles could therefore develop over the years as a translational scientist, allowing the use of complementary multi-disciplinary skills toward the advancement of various projects, such as drug discovery and cancer (immuno)therapy, organocatalysis, theoretical chemistry and halogen bonding. He has received numerous Awards and Fellowships, such as the 2021 Andrew Parsa Young Investigator Award, was nominated in 2020 as Potential Future Leader by the EuChemS Division of Chemistry in Life Sciences, the UCB Young Investigator Award; had been awarded Fellowships from the prestigious Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF), the Fulbright Commission, and worked as a FNRS Postdoctoral Fellow. His work has been published in top-tier journals (PNAS, JACS, Angew Chem, Trends Mol Med), including numerous covers.

 

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

• Associate Professor, Principal Investigator – ULB 2020-current Brussels, Belgium

Translational science covering theoretical topics, chemistry, and novel anticancer therapeutics with a focus on innate immunity.

• Visiting Scholar – Wyss Institute at Harvard 2021                         Cambridge, USA

David Mooney lab. Intracranial immunotherapies for brain cancers.

• Research Fellow – Harvard Medical School, 2019-2020                                Boston, USA

Sean Lawler lab. Research Fellow of the Harvard Medical School at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, working on glioblastoma treatment and novel targets for cancer immunotherapy, especially the STING pathway

• Postdoctoral Associate – ULB, 2017-2019             Brussels, Belgium

RD3 – Microbiology, Bioorganic and Macromolecular Chemistry. Drug design and synthesis. Anticancer metallodrugs. Halogen bonding and supramolecular recognition.

• Postdoctoral Fellow – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015-2017 Cambridge, USA

Stephen J. Lippard Lab. Development and evaluation of novel anticancer metallodrugs. Nanodelivery of anticancer agents.

• Postdoctoral Associate – Université de Montréal, 2014-2015             Montreal, Canada

Stephen Hanessian Lab. Organic synthesis and bioorganic chemistry. Folding properties of modified prolines. Organocatalysis. Total synthesis.

 

 

EDUCATION

• Université Libre de Bruxelles                                     Brussels, Belgium

Doctor of Philosophy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, December 2013. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. PhD Thesis: “Synthesis of chiral vicinal diamines and in vitro anticancer properties of their platinum(II) coordinates”. Advisor: Prof. François Dufrasne (Head: Prof. Jean Nève).

• Université Libre de Bruxelles                                     Brussels, Belgium

Doctor of Pharmacy, with Grande Distinction (manga cum laude), June 2005. Thesis: (Foreign exchange program, University of Hertfordshire, UK): « In vitro study of the activity of endothelins on isolated stomachs and colons of diabetic and healthy rats ». Advisors: Prof. Mike Parsons (University of Hertfordshire). 

 

AWARDS

• 2023 Maricq Award 
• 2021 Andrew Parsa Young Investigator Award (American Society for Neuro-Oncology)
• 2020 Nominated as Potential Future Leader by the EuChemS Division of Chemistry in Life Sciences
• 2016 Young Investigator Award – Pharmaceutical Chemistry
• 2015 Fulbright Scholar (MIT)
• 2015 BAEF and Hoover Foundation Fellow (MIT)
• 2011 UCB-Pharma Award – Medicinal Chemistry Days, Belgium
• 2010 Best scientific communication – PhD Day, Belgium

GRANTS

• FNRS-PDR 2023
• FRIA 2023
• Télévie 2023
• FRNS-CDR 2022
• BRI Microgrant 2019 (Harvard Medical School)
• FRS-FNRS Fellow 2018
• Fulbright Scholar 2015 (MIT)
• Belgian American Educational Foundation 2015 (MIT)
• ULB Postdoctoral Fellowship 2015

LABORATORY SKILLS

• Organic synthesis including asymmetric, anhydrous and air-free techniques. Multistep and complex planning, design and execution.
• NMR spectroscopy: 1D and 2D (COSY, HSQC, HMBC, NOESY) techniques for various nuclides (¹H, ¹³C, ¹⁵N, ¹⁹F, ³¹P, ¹⁹⁵Pt). FTIR, UV-Vis, HRMS, ICP-MS, LC-MS , HPLC.
• Quantum calculations on Unix-based clusters (Gaussian, ORCA, Q-Chem and others): Hartree-Fock, Möller-Plesset, density functional theory, coupled-clusters. Molecular docking (Glide, AutoDock), molecular dynamics (Desmond, NAMD).
• First line in vitro biology: cell culture, western blotting, cytotoxicity assays, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence. In vivo mouse models: tumor implantation (subQ, intracranial), TME analysis, survival.

TEACHING

• Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology (Theory, 55 h; Lab classes, 60 h) – ULB/UMONS
• Drug design (10 h) – ULB/UMONS
• Pharmacie Humanitaire (10 h) – ULB/UMONS
• Supervision of MSc and PhD theses 2010-current
• Teaching Assistant for General and Pharmaceutical chemistry 2008-2015, ULB

NON-ACADEMIC POSITIONS

Pfizer                                                                          Nossegem, Belgium

Contract Operations and Quality Assurance Europe, 2007-2008

REFEREE/REVIEWER

Angewandte Chemie, ACS Chemical Biology, Cell Death & Differentiation, Chemical Physics Letters, European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Current Medicinal Chemistry, Future Medicinal Chemistry, ACS Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of Molecular Structure, Letters in Organic Chemistry, Molecules, Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures, New Journal of Chemistry, Oncotarget, Talanta.

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
For a full list, please see the Publications page.

1. Berger, G.; Knelson, E.; Nowicki, M.O.; Jimenez, J.L.; Stafford, A.; Mooney, D.J.; Chiocca, A.; Barbie, D.A.; Lawler, S.E. STING activation promotes robust immune response and NK-cell mediated tumor regression in glioblastoma models, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2022, 119 (28), e2111003119.
2. Berger, G.; Vilchis-Reyes, M.; Hanessian, S. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 13268–13272.
3. Chattopadhyay, A. K.; Ly, V. L.; Jakkepally, S.; Berger, G.; Hanessian, S. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 2577–2581.
4. Vernekar A.; Berger G.; Czapar A.; Wang D.I.; Steinmetz N.; Lippard S. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, accepted manuscript.
5. Chattopadhyay, A. K.; Berger, G.; Hanessian, S. J. Org. Chem. 2016, 81, 5074−5086.
6. Berger, G. Comput. Theor. Chem. 2013, 1010, 11–18.
7. Berger, G.; Marloye M.; Lawler S.E.  Pharmacological modulation of the STING pathway for cancer immunotherapy, Trends Mol. Med. 2019, 25(5), 412-427, Front Cover.

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