Harald H.H.W. Schmidt

Professor of Pharmacology and Personalised Medicine
Faculty of Health, Medicine & Life Science, Maastricht University, the Netherlands

With a double degree in Medicine and Pharmacy, Harald Schmidt has a passion for network and systems medicine to re-define what we call »disease« from a descriptive symptom- and organ-based to a mechanism-based approach by using big data, innovative target validation, new mechanism-based diagnostics and rapid repurposing of registered drugs for new clinical applications by network pharmacology. He performs high risk/high potential gain research in areas of major medical need, such as the development and commercialization of a first-in-class neuro-protective therapy in stroke, a therapy against a common and yet untreatable form of heart failure, and a therapy for resistant hypertension. He chaired the COST action OpenMultiMed on network and systems medicine and coordinates the H2020 project REPO-TRIAL on in-silico network pharmacology. From 2012-2017 he was awarded an ERC AdG, thereafter an ERC PoC grant. His multi-national (Germany, USA, Australia, Netherlands) research experience in Academia, Industry (Abbott) and Biotech (Vasopharm) has led to high impact publications (Hirsch 95) with high socio-economic impact such as drug and diagnostics patents, spin-offs and patient benefit. His iconoclastic view on Medicine has been published in German (»Geheilt statt behandelt«) and will soon be release in English (»The end of medicine as we know it.«).