Praziquantel

Thomas Spangenberg, PhD - With Merck since 2015, Thomas is heading global health research and leads drug discovery programs from drug screening to preclinical candidate nomination. He drives translation research by generating Real-World Data to support clinical candidates and catalyses research in infectious diseases through open innovation initiatives. Prior to joining Merck, Thomas was part of the drug discovery team at non-for-profit R&D organization Medicines for Malaria Venture (Switzerland), where he led the open-source Malaria Box and Pathogen Box initiatives aimed at accelerating drug discovery for infectious diseases. Thomas holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the Universities of Strasbourg (France) and Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). In 2009, he became a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University (USA), contributing to the total synthesis of mycolactones and advancing point-of-care diagnostics for Buruli ulcer, a neglected necrotizing skin disease. He has authored and co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles and is a co-inventor on several patents.