Marthe Vandevelde

My research bridges medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, moving from psychiatric disease to childhood cancer in a future post-doctoral fellowship.

In my previous project I focused on depression, which affects about 5% of adults and is a leading cause of long-term disability and sick leave. Current first-line antidepressants often fail: up to 30% of patients relapse and severe side effects are common. Psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD show promising, rapid antidepressant effects by boosting brain plasticity, but their hallucinogenic and potentially toxic properties limit clinical use. I designed and synthesised chemical variants of psilocybin's active form that selectively target the relevant brain receptor without causing hallucinations, combining computer modelling to preselect candidates, an efficient catalytic synthesis method, and high-throughput lab testing, aiming for safer, non-hallucinogenic antidepressants.

In my postdoctoral project, I will apply this drug-design expertise to rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive childhood muscle cancer whose treatment has barely improved in three decades. Many aggressive cases are driven by an abnormal fusion protein that classical drugs cannot block. Rather than inhibiting it, I will build PROTACs to destroy this cancer-driving protein selectively in tumour cells. This exploits a muscle-restricted molecular "tag" identified with international collaborators, aiming for therapies that spare healthy tissue. Combining high-throughput experimentation and cell-based validation, this work aims to open a new therapeutic route for children with few options, while advancing targeted protein degradation as a strategy in precision oncology.
 

Marthe Vandevelde obtained her Master's degree in Bioscience Engineering: Chemistry and Bioprocess Technology from Ghent University in 2023. During her Master's thesis, she worked on the synthesis of novel psilocybin analogues to investigate their antidepressant potential. She is currently a Ph.D. researcher in the SynBioC research group, where she targets the development of non-hallucinogenic psilocin analogues using an integrated workflow that combines virtual library design, computational screening, and high-throughput experimentation.
 

• Lab address:
  -SynBioC: Coupure Links 653, Building B, 5th floor, B-9000 Gent
  -HighTru Centre Ghent: Frieda Saeysstraat 1, B-9052 Zwijnaarde (Gent)
  -PPOL (Pediatric Precision Oncology Lab): Corneel Heymanslaan 10, Medical Research Building 1, 2nd floor, B-9000 Ghent
• Marthe Vandevelde is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks