Laurent Meijer

Founder, President and Chief Science Officer

A French cell and molecular biologist, founder, president and chief science officer of ManRos Therapeutics and Perha Pharmaceuticals. He earned his PhD through the universities of Lille and Paris and did postdoctoral work at Stanford University and Hopkins Marine Station, then spent thirty-two years as a CNRS researcher and team leader at the Station Biologique de Roscoff. He is best known for identifying and characterising the kinase inhibitor roscovitine, isolated using CDK1/cyclin B purified from starfish and sea urchin eggs and named after Roscoff; the compound has been evaluated in clinical trials in cancer, Cushing's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. He founded ManRos Therapeutics in 2007 as a CNRS spin-out with the chemist Hervé Galons. His current work centres on DYRK1A inhibitors to correct cognitive impairment in Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease; his lead candidate Leucettinib-21, derived from a marine sponge natural product, entered phase 1 clinical trials in January 2024. He has published more than 370 scientific articles and co-invented 49 patents.