Ilse Smolders

Ilse Smolders is full professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium. Holding a degree in Pharmacy (VUB, 1992) and a PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences (VUB, 1997), she has a huge interest in pharmacology and drug discovery, and her main teaching duties are situated within these fields of expertise. She is responsible for teaching Basic Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology, and Drug Discovery and Development to Medical, Biomedical and Pharmacy students. Ilse Smolders did a postdoc in 1998 at the MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Currently she is chair of the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Drug Analysis and Drug Information, the Experimental Pharmacology Research Group, and the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. The research expertise of Ilse Smolders lies in the domain of preclinical neuroscience and pharmacology. Her main field of interest is epilepsy and epilepsy co-morbidities, such as cognitive decline. Ongoing projects aim to investigate the effects of specific photopharmacological ligands, chemogenetic strategies towards modulation of astro- or microglia, and gene therapy approaches in rodent models with the aim to find antiseizure and disease modifying therapies for drug resistant epilepsy. 

Key interests

• Psychopharmacology
• Neurobiology and pharmacology of epilepsy
• Comorbidities of epilepsy, including cognitive decline, anxiety and depression
• Mouse models for seizures and epilepsy, including refractory temporal lobe epilepsy
• Innovative future therapeutic strategies for refractory epilepsy
• Target-driven drug discovery approaches
• Cell-type specific chemogenetic modulation of astrocytes or microglia
• Glial-neuron interactions

Education & Research career

2016-present: Full professor Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)(gewoon hoogleraar)
2012-2016: Professor Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)(hoogleraar)
2008-2012: Associate professor Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)(hoofddocent)
2004-2008: Post-doctoral fellow (Fund for Scientific Research Belgium/FWO, 3rd mandate) 
2003-2008: Assistant professor 10% at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (docent)
2000-2004: Post-doctoral fellow (Fund for Scientific Research Belgium/FWO, 2nd mandate) 
1997-2000: Post-doctoral fellow (Fund for Scientific Research Belgium/FWO, 1st mandate) 
1997: PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)
1992-1996: PhD research fellow, Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek 
1989-1992: Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), summa cum laude
1987-1989: Candidate in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), cum laude

Research stays abroad    

1998: MRC Center for Synaptic Plasticity, University of Bristol, United Kingdom (under supervision of Dr. Graham Collingridge and Dr. Zuner Bortolotto)

Awards

Upjohn award for the most promising student graduating with a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences (1992)
Vanderschueren Prize for PhD thesis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (1997)
Galenus Prize for Pharmacology, Artsenkrant (2001)
Bursary Award European Congress on Epileptology (2004)
Laureate of the Prize of the Second Session, Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium (2005)  
Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Medical Foundation, Belgium (2012)
Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Medical Foundation, Belgium (2016)